AUTHOR, ILLUSTRATOR, EDITOR, DESIGNER
working together to create books.

The following articles were first published in Bookbeat Newsletter, NSW Branch CBCA, 2007. They follow the process of book publication, from idea to printed book.

The Author

From Small Things Big Things Grow

Just about every book you find on the library or bookshop shelf started out as a tiny seed of an idea in the author’s mind. By blowing a little imagination into that seed, authors are able to nurture their ideas and watch them grow into stories.

You should be happy to know that ideas for stories can be found just about everywhere. They are all around us, all the time. The trick is to recognise the idea as an idea when you see it! I often find my ideas in the most surprising places. The idea for The Hairy Legs Heist came from a headline in a newspaper left behind in a café in Wollongong; the idea for Elephant Dance came while I was teaching a kindergarten class the song La Cucaracha.

I never know when or where my next story idea might appear, but I’m always ready. I may seem to be doing ordinary, everyday type of things: picking up the kids, walking in the park, commuting on the train to work, but that’s just my disguise – in reality I am hunting ideas. I love sniffing out that special something for the next chapter or tracking down that wacky character. And the moment I see or hear something that interests me, I whip out my trusty notepad and jot it down before the idea vanishes and is lost forever.

Once an author has an idea for a story, it is time to feed the idea with a good dose of imagination. This is my daydreamy time; the time when being a daydreamer can have its advantages! This is the time I dream up a plot (what is going to happen), conjure up some characters (who it is going to happen to) and seek out a setting (where it is going to happen). It is the time to think about whether the story will be funny, sad, exciting, thrilling, nail-biting - the choices are endless. And one of the best things about being an author is that you get to make all the decisions. You get to be the Boss of Your Story. I like that part a lot.

Some authors plan their stories thoroughly, deciding upon all elements of the story before they start to write. Others just have a general idea of the direction their story is going and start writing. I spend a lot of time asking the question: “What if?”. What if you woke up to find your hair had turned green? What if you became a world famous rock star? What if you discovered you were a wizard? “What if?” is an author’s favourite game!

Once the first draft is finished, the author then starts to edit and revise the story. Believe it or not, this often takes longer than writing the first draft! Sometimes authors ask friends or other writers to give them feedback. Most stories are revised and rewritten many times. I wrote and rewrote The Hairy Legs Heist more times than I care to remember. In fact once I finished my first draft, I changed my mind about who stole Hairy Legs and started from scratch!

Not all stories submitted for publication are accepted. This is often disappointing, but it is also part of the business of publishing, and happens to most authors at some time. Even JK Rowling was rejected a number of times before a publisher decided to publish Harry Potter! If a story is rejected, the author may decide to work on the story some more, or perhaps try another publisher. Sometimes the author may decide to put the story away and get cracking on another one. You often find lots of dusty old manuscripts in the bottom drawer of an author’s desk.

When a story is accepted for publication it is time to party! It is very exciting to know your story is going to become a book that other people may buy or borrow and read. It is also a tiny bit scary. The process of turning an author’s manuscript into a book is a lengthy one and the author’s work is not yet over.

The Illustrator

A Storyteller too!

I would love to be able to draw. To make my stories come to life and spring off the page in colour and movement would be wonderful. Unfortunately my drawing is almost as good as my singing, and judging by the way my family plug in their iPods whenever I belt out a tune, I think it best I stick to writing. Luckily, there are scores of brilliant illustrators who are able to make books come to life in living colour. And as an author and an editor I have the privilege to work with many of these talented artists. And heck – are they clever!

It is the illustrator’s job to provide art for book covers, black and white illustrations to accompany novels or chapter books or sometimes to create full colour illustrations for picture books.

Do you have a favourite picture book? I have tonnes! A favourite picture book is something to treasure. Picture books are a special art form where the words and pictures work together to tell the story. When creating art for picture books, illustrators have to do more than paint or draw pictures to match the story. They need to be storytellers too.

One of the first things an illustrator needs to do when starting a new picture book project is to breathe life into the characters. The illustrator reads the author’s manuscript and imagines what the characters in the story look like, how they might behave, what they could wear and so on. The illustrator then starts work on doing some sketches of the characters. These sketches are called roughs. Here are some early character roughs, the illustrator, Nina Rycroft did for Elephant Dance.

   

Roughs from Elephant Dance, courtesy Nina Rycroft

Once the illustrator has a good sense of the characters – and this may take several sets of roughs – the illustrator will work on creating a storyboard. This is where the text is divided into sections, called spreads. Each spread represents a double page in a book. The illustrator must think about how the story will be told across each spread, how the story will build to a climax and what will be shown on each page. Rough pencil sketches for each spread are developed and sometimes one or two spreads are done in full colour. At this point, the illustrator may decide to add another layer of story to the book through the pictures, showing things not told in the words.

The storyboard also gives the illustrator the chance to solve any problems created by the text. For example, for Elephant Dance, it wasn’t until Nina was developing her storyboard that she realised that almost half of the story happened at night. She had to work out a way to keep the pictures bright, but also be night-time dark. This wasn’t easy!

 

As an author, it is when the storyboard is completed that I often have my first peek at the illustrator’s work. I am a visual person, so I have clear images in my mind of how the story should look. The illustrator’s first sketches rarely match my vision. This can take some getting used to, but once I have had a chance to get to know the illustrator’s vision, I usually can’t imagine it any other way. When I was writing Elephant Dance, I imagined Hugo to be a funky hip-hopping elephant, wearing sunglasses and a cap. Nina saw a very different Hugo. She saw a beautiful African elephant bopping to the beat of African drums. I like her vision much better!

Once the roughs and storyboard have been approved, it is time for the illustrator to start working on the full colour art. Each page in the book is a work of art. Not all picture book illustrations are paintings, some illustrators create paper sculptures or intricate collages, some use coloured pencil or computer-generated images.

Producing picture book art usually takes a very long time. The illustrator may need to create up to thirty pieces of art! Sometimes, whole pictures need to be redone if they don’t work out quite the way the editor or illustrator hoped. My next picture book, The Firefighters is being illustrated by Donna Rawlins. It has taken Donna about eight months to complete the amazing art for The Firefighters. This may seem like a long time, but Donna tells me this is one of her quickest books. Most of her books have taken twelve to eighteen months to complete!

Here is a sneak peek at an early character sketch and a more finished piece from The Firefighters.

Now, why don’t you hunt out your favourite picture book and take a good look at the art inside. Try to imagine the pictures through all the different stages of creation, from roughs to final art. Look at the story the pictures are telling. Illustrators really are very clever, aren’t they?

Editor ● Designer: A Team Effort

I am sometimes asked if I am a writer who edits or an editor who writes. I don’t know the answer to this question, but I do know that I feel really lucky to be able to do both.

My job as an editor is a creative one, and a varied one. There are many stages to the process of editing a book. The first stage being, the selection of manuscripts to publish. Editors receive dozens of manuscripts every week and it is their job to read them and decide if they should be recommended for publication.

Some of the manuscripts are very long – over 100,000 words! And many of them are from authors who have not yet been published. These manuscripts go on to what is called the slush pile. Sometimes reading the slush pile can be tiring. But when you find a gem – that special story that sparkles from the moment you start reading, it is very exciting. One such story that shone out at me from the slush pile was Annabel, Again by Meg McKinlay. Annabel, Again is a fast and funny story about changing friendships. It is Meg’s first novel, and from the moment I started reading it, I loved it! It was great to be able to ring Meg and tell her the good news: “We love your story and we want to publish it!” Discovering a new talent like this is like finding gold.

Once a story is accepted, it is the editor’s job to try to help the author make the story the best it possibly can be. An editor reads the manuscript with fresh eyes and is able to give the author objective feedback about how to improve the story, about the story’s strength and also its weaknesses. It is not unusual for an author to rework a story several times after it has been accepted.

When both editor and author are happy with the story, the next stage of the editing process begins. This is called copyediting and this is where the manuscript is checked carefully for correct spelling, punctuation and grammar. There can be no errors! It must be perfect. And once it is, the story is then handed over to the designer and the design process begins.

The Designer

Are you a creative person? One who likes to play around with type and colour and design? If the answer is yes, then perhaps you might like the job of book designer.

The designer usually starts with a design brief, written by the editor. This brief tells the designer about the story, about who the book is intended for and what kind of “look” is required.

Designers need to make lots of decisions. They need to decide what size the book will be, what fonts will be used, where the text and pictures will be positioned on the page, and if the book will have any special decorative features. If the book is going to be illustrated, the designer often briefs the illustrator and works with the illustrator and editor on the storyboard. 

We all know the saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover”. But in truth, it is often a book’s cover that determines which book we decide to buy. For this reason, one of the designer’s most important jobs is to design eye-catching book covers. Often the designer will create three or four different cover designs for each book. The designs are then shown to the author, illustrator, editor, publisher and the sales and marketing team for their opinion. This often creates a lot of interesting debate and discussion about which design is the most effective!

Walker Books Australia is launching a new series next year called Samurai Kids, written by Sandy Fussell. The designer has worked for many weeks on developing a cover for the first book of the series: White Crane. She has tried many different ideas. Here are some of her early rough concepts, courtesy of Walker Books:

As you can see they are all very different. And these are only a few examples – she tried many more. The final cover looks amazing, but it took many long hours of hard work to create!

Most design work is done on the computer. Once the manuscript is edited and the illustrations are completed and scanned, the designer lays out the text and pictures in a special computer design program. When the cover design and the page layout are complete, the pages are printed off and sent to a proofreader for the final check before going to press.

It has been a very long time since the author had that first seed of an idea, but at long last the book is ready to be printed. And before long it will be on the shelves in a bookstore or library!

© Sue Whiting, 2009 - 2012