These are some of the highlights from Ben Long's CYA Conference session on Self- Publishing Picture Books.

Ben Long http://www.benlong.com.au/ shared his experiences in the physical printing and selling of two picture books. Some of us had high hopes given the title of the session that we would learn something about the online self-publishing of picture books. That was not to be. However there were still several worthwhile tips from Ben's session that are worth passing on to you.

Blank Dummy. When getting quotes from printers, you can ask them to give you a blank dummy of your book according to the quote specifications of paper size, finish, weight, binding and quality. That way you can inexpensively test the feel and appearance of the your of book and tweak the specifications if need be.

Payment plan for illustrator. This needs to be mutually agreed and included in the contract. One way is to pay a defined amount upfront according to a schedule of deliverables eg $3000, and then to pay a fixed amount per book eg $3 once a certain sales target has been reached eg 1000 copies. Another way is to pay a defined amount upfront according to a schedule of deliverables eg $3000, and then to share profits 50/50 once all the agreed expenses and upfront fee have been recouped. (Ed. How to account for the various contributions of illustrator and author in terms of time, talent, reputation, finance, marketing and risk underwriting may not be as clear cut as 50/50.)

Drawing up a contract. Things to consider: Are all the upfront expenses detailed, together with who is responsible for paying for them? Is it clear how the royalties/profits would be determined and distributed, and how often? Is it defined who has intellectual property rights over what? Are the expectations of the parties to the contract listed and quantified? Is there a detailed schedule for the payments to be made at each stage of the contact? Does the contract deal with who would be responsible or liable in the event of a lawsuit under various scenarios (eg for breach of copyright)?

School visit tips. Send book order forms to the classes you will be giving presentations to beforehand. On average you will get about 7 sales per 20 students per class. $15 is an important price point. Above that price point sales drop off sharply.

Distribution. Have you notified library vendors and suppliers about your book? They are likely to purchase your book in multiple copies. Details of Australian library vendors and suppliers are on this web-page: http://www.nla.gov.au/librariesaustralia/services/cataloguing/library-vendors/



If you would like a copy of the more detailed Conference Notes that are being sent out to CBHunCC members via email, send through your name and email address through the Contact page.

These are only a few of the tips that Paul Collins of Ford Street Publishing gave at the CYA Conference on 4 Jul 2015:

Some advice for presenting at libraries and schools: Get yourself one of those tall portable banners for your latest book. They are economical at around $165 each, all you have to do is prepare the artwork in PDF format and take it to a printer. Set them up where ever you are giving a talk or launch and make sure that when photographs get taken that you are standing near the banner. Then each time that photo gets shared, you have an in-built free plug for your book.

Also take some merchandise with you. Print some bookmarks, but only print on one side. That is so you can write on the other side. Children like to get your autograph, and should they present you with a scrap piece of paper, you can whip out a bookmark instead and sign that. It will be more durable, and more likely to be kept and treasured that way. Make friends with your local printer. It is possible to get bookmarks printed on paper wastage from big print jobs, thus reducing your costs.

Fridge magnets can be produced cheaply and provide good publicity. It is better to have your book cover on the fridge magnet than a character or scene from your story. Make sure the magnet has your website URL on it.

Having a website is essential. But you must keep it up to date. Don't give someone else complete control of your website. Having the capacity to make Do It Yourself changes to your website is good.



If you would like a copy of the more detailed Conference Notes that are being sent out to CBHunCC members via email, send through your name and email address through the Contact page.

Since I didn't know prior to the CYA Conference, maybe you don't either, but it was one of the things Paul Collins mentioned in his excellent session entitled 'Marketing Your Book'.

Unless you are on the A-list with your publisher, preparing an Advance Information Sheet is something you should do yourself and then send to bookshops and potential reviewers. Whether you are an author or illustrator, you should put one of these AI's together and distribute them. (Sometimes they get referred to as an AIS.)

So what is it? It is a single A4 page document that contains comprehensive information about your book. Nitty gritty stuff about page length, height and width, ISBN, recommended retail price, publisher as well as an image of the book cover, an outline of the storyline, something about the author, something about any planned media coverage, something about the target audience, and information on how to order the book.

You can read here how Joanne Phillips prepared her own AI for a self-published book, and see an image of it too. https://joannegphillips.wordpress.com/2013/09/19/getting-into-bookshops-advance-information-sheets/

This next link looks a bit dry, but it contains some need-to-know basics as well as a download link to a sample AI template. http://www.centralbooks.com/publisher/books/home_ai.html

And this link contains an excellent checklist to make sure you haven't forgotten anything, as well as some reasons why it needs to be included, for example if you send it as a Word document that will make it easier for a bookseller to add their own notations or cut and paste relevant information into their sales catalogue. http://www.globalbookmarketing.co.uk/default.php?p=advance-information-sheets

The earlier you are able to send your Advance Information Sheet to booksellers and reviewers prior to publication date the better.

Usually a rejection of a manuscript query comes without adequate reasons why it was rejected. Many queries get rejects at the query letter level. Another significant number get rejected on the first page of the manuscript. The rest get rejected further into the manuscript. Only a tiny fraction of manuscripts make it to an acquisitions meeting.

This year the 2015 CYA Conference helped writers understand what it takes for a manuscript to make it through that First Page test. To do this they asked volunteers to send in copies of the first page of their manuscript, and then asked a panel of publishing experts to indicate when they would stop reading a first page, and then talk about their reasons.

For this session the publishing experts were: Alex Adsett  a literary agent from Alex Adsett Publishing Services; Jacinta di Mase, a literary agent from Jacinta di Mase Management; Rochelle Manners, an independent publisher from Wombat Books and Rhiza Press; Paul Collins, the publisher at Fort Street Publishing; and Karen Tayleur, editorial manager at The Five Mile Press.

If you can answer 'no' to all these questions, your manuscript is odds on to make it through the First Page test:

Is your dialogue clunky?

Is your word count bigger than the average size of your genre?

Does your prose meander?

Is the amount of telling greater than the amount of showing?

Have you used the phrase 'This is how it all started…'?

Does your First Page describe a minor character?

Does your First Page lack action?

If a picture book, are your illustration notes missing?

Could your First Page be described as 'too wordy'?

Have you failed to make a reader curious enough to turn the first page to find out what happens next ?

Would a publisher get hate mail from history experts-upset at historical inaccuracies-if they published your work?

Do you get tongue-tied when you read your First Page out loud?

Does your first page include terms inappropriate for a child audience, eg 'hot date'?

Have you written your work for parents more than for children?

Have you failed to bring your reader into the story with effective word pictures?

Is your First Page ambiguous about being fiction or non-fiction?

Does your First Page include a list?

Does your First Page include a long epitaph or slice of poetry?

Does your First Page read like a prologue?

Do you have more description than action?

If a picture book, does it rhyme?

Have you used more than 12 adjectives in your First Page?

Have you taken more than 3 sentences to describe a scene?

Have you used the phrase: 'Once upon a time?'

Have you used trendy language that will date your book? For example: eco-farmer

Does the reader have to guess the age range of the main character?

Is the age group the book is written for unclear?

Is your book too funny or too serious?

Have you failed to include a hint on the First Page about the major complication/problem of your story?

Now that you have answered these questions for yourself, go find someone else to read your First Page and answer them. Then deal with any questions that received a 'Yes' answer. When your edits and re-writes are done, go through the process again. If you get all Nos from yourself and your someone else, then you can go back to querying your manuscript.



If you would like a copy of the more detailed Conference Notes that are being sent out to CBHunCC members via email, send through your name and email address through the Contact page.

This year there were 3 success stories.

Jennifer Loakes, the author of a picture book with a very topical story about making friends with someone who comes from a completely different culture and who has been wounded by trauma.

Helene Magisson, an illustrator who really did her industry homework, saw a niche in the market for illustrating classic children's stories, prepared her portfolio accordingly and now has a published picture book and at least 2 more in the pipeline. Her online portfolio at Illustrators Australia sells her abilities (better than her website does), and is a portfolio worth studying.

Georgie Donaghey, the author of a picture book, founder of Creative Kids Tales , the momentum behind the radio show 'The Author's Shelf', and the official CYA Conference Tweeter.

Why did their publishers think their work would sell? It is a commercial decision, and if a publisher can't see a sizable market for the proposed book then there won't be a contract.

For Jennifer's 'Mate and Me' there is an obvious market in primary schools looking for resources to help children think through asylum seeker issues, and the skills needed to welcome any new student who comes to the classroom from a different culture.

For Helene her consistent style, technical quality, compositional ability and lyrical approach were what a publisher was looking for in an illustrator for new editions of 'stood the test of time' children's stories. Classics like 'The Velveteen Rabbit' will always sell, but they will sell magnificently well if the illustrations are just right.

For Georgie her social media reach is so extensive and her personal connections so friendly and helpful that just about any book with her name on it would sell due to our innate human curiosity to find out more about what makes her tick. Having a beautiful cover for 'Lulu' is icing on the cake.

It doesn't take much of a crystal ball to predict that Georgie's book will have the best first year sales figures. Jennifer and Helene's online presences are less than 2 years old. Georgie has 4 years of consistent online presence under her belt, big numbers of media and publishing connections and well over ten times the number of social media connections than the other two.

What can we learn from them? 

Perfect your craft be it writing or illustrating. Do your industry research. Start working consistently on your online presences now. An hour or two set aside for social media once a week will pay big dividends when it is your turn to launch a book.




For my conference notes on their journey to publication speeches and an analysis of the effectiveness of their online sites, together with the rest of my conference notes as they progressively get typed up, send me an email address through the Contact page.

On Saturday 4 July 2015, four of our members were at the CYA Conference in Brisbane. One of them conducted a master class for children's book writers, one received a 3rd place in the Hatchling Illustration category, and all of us listened and learned a lot in a very short space of time.

These photographs were taken by Peter Allert, the official conference photographer, and a well respected illustrator in his own right.

After the competition winners were announced we started the day with three publishing success stories, two from writers and one from an illustrator. Then we discovered what it takes to keep an agent's and publisher's attention beyond the first page of a manuscript. From there we sat at the feet of Paul Collins of Ford Street Publishing and had a mini masterclass in marketing children's books. Ben Long walked us through his self-publishing experiences in printing and selling two picture books. Jacqui Honeywood took us through the strategic side of blogging, and an extended masterclass with Morris Gleitzman on what makes a story worth telling wrapped up the day.

It was a lot of information to take in, so I will be typing up my notes from each session on a more or less weekly basis. Digesting them at that slower rate makes them easier to absorb and put into practice. CBHunCC members will get them through the Yahoo feed. However, if anyone else would like to be on the email list for those conference notes, send your request through the Contact page.

By now you would be aware that Google has begun ranking its search engine results by the mobile friendliness of websites. So we all need to understand what mobile friendliness means in practice. There is far more than one dimension to getting it right. Reading this article and seeing the animated visual explanations will really help you understand the jargon that goes with mobile friendly technology (eg nested objects, breakpoints, flow, relative units): http://blog.froont.com/9-basic-principles-of-responsive-web-design/

Since it's six months till Christmas, illustrators might like to investigate this mouth watering list of recommended books for illustrators and start dropping hints about which one's they would most like to receive from Santa or for an upcoming birthday: http://www.creativeboom.co.uk/resources/10-essential-books-for-aspiring-illustrators/ . You may start salivating now....

Choosing a book title (or even an artwork title) isn't easy, and often the working title you start out with isn't the title you end up with. This blog-post from Anne R. Allen has some interesting historical information, a reminder to Google any title you come up with, a request to research what titles work for you as a reader and why, a list of ideas for titles that tend to work consistently (eg related to the names, occupations, and places in your manuscript/artwork), a nudge to have your title connected to your genre somehow and plenty more: http://annerallen.blogspot.com.au/2015/05/10-tips-for-choosing-right-book-title.html?m=1

This article from Creative Choices is a rather good one on niche marketing, containing clever ways you can test market your creative work without committing a lot of scarce resources to it: http://ccskills.org.uk/careers/blog/find-your-creative-niche?utm_source=newsletter%20241&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Find%20your%20creative%20niche&utm_campaign=newsletter . Some good quotes from the article are: 'The best niche can be described as being an inch wide and a mile deep. This means it's very specific in scope, meets a well-defined need and attracts plenty of people who want to buy.' and 'Before you start selling anything, show samples and demonstrate services to both existing and new customers. See what they think. Ask if they think it’s up to scratch and if the price is right. This is much better than meeting an awkward silence later on if you try to sell something and they don’t like it.'

These notes from a recent local SCBWI workshop on portfolio preparation are well worth a read, especially if you are currently revamping your illustration portfolio. http://www.scbwiaustralianz.com/our-blog/2015/5/19/perfect-your-portfolio-with-donna-rawlins . Donna Rawlins' list of what to include in a portfolio contains some unusual elements. For example she suggests that you include a nursery rhyme with associated text, a story board for an already published book, and a book cover for a novel. Including black and white illustration work could double your chances of being selected as an illustrator by a publisher. "Most successful submissions clearly demonstrate the artist’s connection with and love for books."

This next article would have to be the best ever about the sales difference between marketing a book and building a platform. You have to get near the end before you come across Scenario 1 (with all the common mistakes new authors make in trying to sell their first book) and Scenario 2 (a different approach with regular blogging, and an emphasis on being helpful), but they are 'Must Read': http://timgrahl.com/when-should-you-start-marketing-your-book/?utm_content=buffer36c1d&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer . The top take home tip is 'Your number 1 job as a writer is not to simply write your next book, but to build a platform that will support your entire career.'

Of course, illustrators should also be building a platform too!

Since Podcasts are important for gaining the interest of young people and for opening up public speaking opportunities, this step-by-step guide to creating a podcast is one you might like to bookmark. Belinda Pollard used an iPhone and an iMac to produce her first podcast of an interview with an author. http://www.smallbluedog.com/how-i-created-my-first-podcast.html?utm_source=ReviveOldPost&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ReviveOldPost . Interspersed with the step by step approach are notes about what she learned in the process, eg If you are conducting a podcast interview it is important to brief your interviewee on things like how close to hold the microphone to the mouth and exactly how long the podcast interview process will take. It is best to get all your raw audio clips ready before proceeding to the editing software.

For those illustrators who also dabble in graphic design, or who spend time thinking about your colour palettes before beginning your digital illustrations (or suspect it could be very helpful)– this delightful article is just for you. Once you have clicked to the link, use the arrow on the right hand side of the picture to will scroll through 33 examples of Disney Pixar children's animations together with the 5 colour swatch palettes used to create them. http://blogs.disney.com/oh-my-disney/2015/05/11/these-disneypixar-palettes-are-the-most-aesthetically-pleasing-things-youll-see-all-day/?cmp=SMC|none|natural|blgomd|OMDMay|TWT|pixarpal-DisneyPixar|InHouse|2015-0511|||esocialmedia#Brave . Studying the colour saturations, tones and interplay of accent colours with colour groups will help you create more aesthetically pleasing illustrations.