19 October 2009
I like the author Mem Fox. She wrote the book Koala Lou, a book I like very much. So I decided to (when my mother told me to) look at her website and see if she had any advice for people wanting to become an author. She does have a section of advice and general do's and don'ts.
The advice I first see: "if you’re still at school, or even under 23, think hard about doing something else for a while." Great. I fall under both of those categories. Skimming through more of her advice I next see: "unless you’re an art-school trained illustrator don’t even think about doing the pictures yourself." Double great. What I'm doing has just been kicked in the figurative stomach.
As disheartening as this is for me, I'm still going to try. What's the worst that can happen? My book is rejected and I just have to try again.
12 October 2009
Not only do I have the ambition of writing a children's book, but I also have the audacity to want to illustrate it as well. I'm not a professional artist; it could be a problem for me. The bigger problem is that no other could illustrate it. Before I even thought of writing a story I drew the characters. They are as I have drawn them and can be no other way.
So I have two options: I can work on the illustrations myself and hope that the publisher will accept them, or I can not publish.
There is a third option I've considered. I could create a website for my characters and create my stories as a sort of webcomic or eliterature. But that would require becoming familiar with running a website (or deal with someone doing it for me) and all of the legalities ensuing. Plus I would be paranoid about copyright.
So for now I plan to get it ready to submit for publishing. Fingers crossed!