Ebooks & Apps and Being a Selfish Artist

Ebooks, apps, and selfishness

sketch for app of a monster steeling the pet birdEbooks, Apps and Selfishness? Really? but we were always taught to be charitable, giving, and unselfish. Ok – I needed a provocative title but I’m going to defend it. How many times have you as an illustrator, graphic designer, author, artist, or creator allowed yourself to create under the umbrella of a studio, publisher, client, friend, spouse, parent etc.? In other words how often do you create for someone else? How often do you allow the parameters of the assignment dictate choice? How often are your choices influenced by what you think “they” want and not what you want? We all do it – even if you’re a gallery artist chances are you create “in step” with the body of work the gallery owner has accepted. Right?

Technology has give the POWER back to the artist

My message in this blog post is that the invention of computers, tablets, e-readers and the internet have given power back to the artist. It’s an amazing time my fellow artists. I now give you permission to be selfish – and it’s a good thing when it comes to your art. Never before in the history of the world have artists been given the ability to get their work to their audience so inexpensively. Because it’s so cheap it means we can do it on our own so we don’t necessarily need someone putting restrictions on our content. I’m not saying that it’s not good to get opinions from other professionals but now we can do what we want – the environment for complete creativity is autonomy. I’m embracing ebooks, apps, and whatever else develops in the future.

So be selfish – Have fun, your best art has yet to be created – what’s hiding in there?

Successful Artists have FUN while They Create

Have FUN while you create your artwork for more success

sketch, monster hiding behind the shower curtainI am a successful artist, Why? Because I enjoy what I do.

“Learn to love work and you will love life.” ~L Carl Andreason. “Find a way to make money doing what you love, and you will love work.” ~G. Ken Nuttall

 

Successful artist having a blast

I am having a blast working on this little project – I’m not sleeping much lately because I’m busy doing real stuff too, but I am having fun, or at least, that’s what I keep telling myself. As I get older I realize that we only have a short window to make it happen – whatever “it” is. I love the challenge of developing good instruction for my college classes, pleasing my freelance clients, pleasing myself on personal projects and my continued involvement on the day to day workings of Folio Academy.

I found a programmer and animator to help me see this picture book become an app, and see this vision through – I’m having so much fun – at work!!!

I am calling this project, “Monster App”

Book Signing his Picture Books – LA

Book signings are a lot of fun for authors and illustrators

My good friend Will here is just loving the opportunity to meet his fans and attending a book signing. One of the things you will love most about being a children’s book artist going to the book signings and meeting fans and signing books that they can’t wait to take home and read to their kids. If you look real close at our blog and our website, you will soon see that my good friend, Will Terry is the more talented and more famous artist here. I, Wayne Andreason, the other Folio Academy guy, don’t have hoards of peeps asking me to sign anything yet. But I like road trips and fortunately Will and I get to do a lot of cool stuff together. Bro time, if you will.

Book Signing for artist and author at the CTA

Will Terry and Helen Ketteman at the CTA Book Signing in LA

A few years ago, Will was invited to attend a big convention and book signing op for the CTA (California Teachers Association) in L.A. Two years in a row they chose one of his picture books as their spot light book I guess.  He was chosen to be the CTA illustrator in conjunction with “Read Across America” and the CTA chose Armadilly Chili to be their “RAA” book for the state of California for 2010-2011. It was such a great gig because they print up posters, conference folders, pencils, stickers, and for Armadilly – mugs, T-shirts, a plush Tex, and even an apron. Also, Helen Ketteman the author of Armadilly Chili was there to sign books and she’s a hoot. That woman has more energy than the sun!

Sun shining through the city-scape of LAWe were lucky enough to go hang out in LA and eat good food. An awesome road trip on the tax payers dime.

We signed books that evening, well his book signing deal not mine, but I was there helping get books out for people, keeping the line steady, crowd controlling and that. It wasn’t quite like a Justin Bieber concert but it was busy. Then were up at the crack of dawn to sign books all day Saturday. About 1000 teacher reps fly in from all over the state for their council meeting and most of them buy the books to take back to their districts for the upcoming read across America day on March 2nd.

“I was so lucky to get this opportunity!” ~Will Terry

Wayne In font of a cool old vacant diner in or near Vegas

I was so lucky to go too and to share in the fun. We stopped in Vegas to visit family and eat. It’s hard to believe it was so long ago. ~Wayne Andreason

Self Publish Your Art Your Stories and Your Illustrations

Warning! Self Publishing Artists and writers are going digital, you might regret it if you don’t

A Running Rat

I’m no expert here – but I do self publish and I have to share what I’ve learned both as encouragement and as a warning. If you want to how to write your children’s books and or illustrate children’s books, now’s the time.

I hope to help you find the motivation to start self publishing your own stories and illustrations digitally. The warning is that if you don’t do it soon you might have regrets in a year or two or sooner.

Lowly Self publishers compete with big business

I’ve been doing a lot of reading of various blogs and web pages about self publishing digitally and most agree that we are seeing a change in publishing the likes of which we haven’t seen in our life times. Until now the gate keepers have been large traditional publishers. They held the keys because they could afford to put up the tens of thousands of dollars to print large runs of picture books. Also, they had established complicated distribution channels that an individual author, or illustrator/artist would be hard pressed to compete with. Most of this hasn’t changed. The day of the large publisher is definitely NOT over and I’m glad – I like the publishers I work with, and most of them have been very good to me.

E books cost so little to self publish

What has changed is how inexpensive it is to publish your work which means that one of the two cards that publishers held, has evaporated. Now the only real advantage a large publisher has is a distribution channel. I’m not underestimating how important this channel is either. Large traditional publishers have relationships with stores that you and I do not. They have publicists working for them to promote our books and editors to polish the final products. They have customers that they’ve established long before you or I ever worked with them, and way before we put on our author and illustrator/artist hats. They know the business better than we. They submit our books to all the major book awards and from what I’ve been told that list is well over 200. Imagine trying to research, compile, address, and pay for 200 give away books and shipping, just to put them in the hands of jurors who probably won’t pick your book anyway. And I’m sure there are a lot more things that they do that I’m overlooking.

The E-Book opportunity may not last for self publishers

The time is now, will, maybe a few years ago but I still see a huge opportunity that isn’t going to last forever. Like the Oklahoma pan handle rush of 1889 there was opportunity for a limited time and then it was OVER. For the first time in our lives a new platform is emerging that is giving the early birds a distinct advantage. I’m sure that you’ve all thought about e-books – I have been for the past year or more. However, I never realized how important it is to be first to market until I started reading and researching. It only takes an hour or so poking around on Amazon or Barnes and Noble to see self published books doing extremely well.

The new e-book digital format is growing

Awhile ago I published my first e-book – Monkey & Croc at Barns and Noble and it’s done pretty well on B&N. The only reason it did so well as it is – is because of the lack of competition. When I published it there were a little over 500 e-books for children ages 3-5 on B&N. Crazy right? Think of how many thousands of books there are in hard copy in that group. Look, I don’t even own an ereader but you can’t ignore this new format – it’s coming on strong. Amazon said that for any particular book that they sell in physical format – they sell 48 digital copies of the same book.

Intellectual property, art and words and pixels for sale.

Aside for being early to market you can afford to sell an ebook for only a few dollars because the only cost you have is your time. Right now the big publishers are selling their ebooks in most cases for about the same price as their hardbacks. This is another reason to get your book to market quickly. While they sell their books high – we can sell ours low and create an advantage for the buyer. Think about it…if you bought a new ereader or ipad and you wanted to load it with content wouldn’t you gamble on a few unproven $2 and $3 books since the alternatives are $12.99 books that you might already own?

I believe there’s still time to capitalize on the e-book movement

My belief is that if you can create a following due to timing – your book could gain the kind of momentum that could build a franchise. If this happens there’s also a good chance that a traditional publisher would want to buy your book and print hard copies. Another option is that you incorporate a print on demand publisher and offer hard copies on your own. Either way the future is bright for self published books. I think that there will always be a place for large publishers but now there is a much larger place for self publishers.

Join a critique group, writers or illustrators, find help

Some drawbacks: You won’t have the benefit of an editor and this places a great responsibility back on your shoulders. My suggestion is to acquire the help of a professional writer and/or join a critique group that can help you polish your story. Another obstacle is finding software that will easily let you turn your jpeg images into an e-book. This was a very frustrating process for me and without the help of my brother in law I don’t think I would have been able to release Monkey & Croc. There has been talk about Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and Itunes holding back publishing software and only releasing it to large publishers. Monkey & Croc suffered a bit with a few minor hiccups because we couldn’t get that software. I think that this will soon change as open source programs become available. Where there is a need someone will fill it.

I published Monkey & Croc on Barnes and Noble’s Pubit.com site. They take 35% of every sale but they give you an account for free and you can check your sales in your back office any time you like. It’s neat to go in and check every day or so.

It’s amazing what parents will let their children do if it means education

Finally for those who don’t think that parents won’t turn their kids loose with an expensive e-reader to beat up, you’re right. However think of the advantages – Carrying an unlimited amount of picturebooks on a plane, train, or automobile will keep kids pacified much longer than the few books parents can carry in hard copy form. And how nice will it be for the parents who have long commutes with children in tow to and from day cares. How long do you think it will be before they develop the kid proof ereader? I suspect it’s around the corner.

At the beginning of my illustration career I was asked to complete an illustration about e-mail – I asked the art director, “What is email”. It’s happening now.

How To Illustrate Children’s Books

It is easier to Illustrate Children’s Books when you know how.

This has been one of our best sellers and most watched video courses.

Doing artwork and illustrating in your spare time.

Cover of How to Illustrate Children's Books, the Art Lesson Video SeriesWill Terr worked on this video series while his kids played xbox and his wife caught up on her reading. It was a choice between relaxing doing dishes, cleaning bathrooms, and taking my turn cooking OR…Making a video series. It was a toss up – on one hand he’d get the satisfaction of cleaning and watching his kids mess it up again or creating something that he had been thinking about for quite some time.

We are all glad he let the kitchen go and created this wonderful art lesson.

Video is a much better medium for showing someone exactly what you mean

I’ve put quite a bit of work into my college picture book class but I always thought I could do more with it. In class the images that I show are static and often leave me feeling that I could have done better. Video is a much better medium for showing someone exactly what you mean in many cases. Don’t get me wrong – I demo in my classes but sometimes you just aren’t prepared or equipped to do exactly what you want. I’ve tried to include just about every aspect of the children’s book making process in this series to provide viewers with a basic knowledge of what they need to work on.

It has been nice to help others learn Narrative ILLUSTRATION

0001bIt’s definitely not perfect but I’m proud of the work I put into it and hope that it brightens the lives of those who want to learn more about narrative illustration. Perhaps this isn’t your cup of tea but if you know anyone who might appreciate it send them a link.

picture of some character development Thanks and have a beautiful day.

a BIG ole Parade, You know? for Kids.

an image I did for Harcourt awhile ago –

a challenge, & fun trying to fit all the animals

I like how it turned out. for the most part, even though the perspective isn’t perfect. I was going for a Richard Scarry kind of a look. It was a challenge however, to try and fit all the animals in the picture. You know how art directors are, and worse yet, how a committee can be. Well it’s kinda busy but all the animals that they wanted, ARE in there and it worked. More or less.

Looking back I can see a lot of things that I could do a little better now. Oh well, always moving on. When ever Norman Rockwell was asked which was his BEST piece, he would say his next one.

 

Children’s Text Book Cover Illustrations for Innovatus

Text Book Cover Art for Innovatus Children’s Text Books

 I painted 9 textbook covers in one year for Innovatus in acrylic.

innovatus cover
One year I painted 9 textbook covers for Innovatus in my dry-brush acrylic style or technique. I know what you’re thinking, what’s Innovatus? I know, I think it’s Latin for innovate, or maybe it means Innovate us! 1st person plural command form for Innovate.
It was a really fun project and I got to work with Karen Steinberg who I had worked with over 10 years ago when she was at Harcourt. I know what you’re thinking, where’s Harcourt? I think it’s by the second star to the right then direct till morning…

Some animals come with baggage

Where was I? Oh yeah. Working on these covers was interesting because I had coming up with “acceptable animals” to paint. Apparently not all animals are created equal in the politically correct world of educational publishing. Some animals come with baggage. In some countries for example, certain animals are sacred while others are “dirty” and there for not an appropriate fit for the classroom. You dirty dawg! It was a challenge finding usable animals without repeating. Ho the webs they weave. I just want to paint.

I also found it funny that in this cover the animals absolutely had to wear helmets for safety but were allowed to desecrate natural arches with their combustion engine desert machines – up to a $5,000 fine in a national park. Just sayin’.

SHOW AND TELL; Everybody Knows that Monsters aren’t Allowed in School

I Always Wanted to Bring Something Like a Dinosaur for Show &Tell

Craig brought a severed head for show and tell.

When I was in third grade my best friend’s name was Craig Day. We were in Mrs. Nichols class and I had a crush on her and Craig and I were the teacher’s pets.

A little girl with a big monster for show and tellOne day, Craig came over to my house and my dad and uncles were in the back yard butchering the deer they had killed during “the deer hunt”. (it used to be a pretty big to do in Utah, back in the day) They cut the feet off about a foot up the leg and they also cut off the heads of these beautiful but dead creatures. My uncle Val had bagged a doe, which was legal that year, and when he discarded the head, my friend Craig asked him if he could have it. My uncle said “sure” so Craig took it home. Craig’s mother had died, and he was the youngest of a lot of kids so I don’t think his dad even knew he brought the severed head home.

monster for show and tell sketchThe following day in school, we had show and tell and Craig went up to the front of the class with a shoe box. When it got to his turn for show and tell, he opened the box and tilted it up so we could all see, and sure enough, there in the box, was a severed deer head. The eyes were all dark brown and starting to wrinkle for they were drying out and there was dried blood in the box and on a lot of the fur. Mrs. Nichols handled it so nonchalant and nobody even seemed freaked out by it. It wasn’t until years later that I even realized that it was a crazy thing to do.

About 3 years ago, Will Terry was doing a cute book project and the theme was Show and Tell at School, so he came up with this illustration.  I love how he chose to use something so uncommon like a monster, or a deer head. I brought a snake once. I was in fourth grade and we were having show and tell and I happened to have a snake in my pocket that day. I was actually not going to tell anyone but show and tell happened to be that day and I couldn’t resist showing off my long little friend. Mrs. Covey, my teacher, was a lot more freaked out by that than Mrs. Nichols was with the deer head. Makes you want to illustrate children’s books doesn’t it.

Will Terry’s Children’s Picture Book, Hungry Fox and the Midnight Pies

Hungry Fox and the Midnight Pies,

by Jeff Dinardo & Will Terry

As I write this it is TBT Throw Back Thursday so..

Hungry FoxI did a book project awhile back, (it is TBT in my world or so I saw on Facebook) I worked on it with a wonderfully talented author and designer, Jeff Dinardo and it was a blast! It’s really fun to work with a great designer because the end product is so much more successful. Check out Jeff’s work – I’m sure you’ll be impressed! This is a cute story about a fox by the name of Fox, who smells Owl’s pies cooling on the stereotypical windowsill, as the sweet aroma wafts its way through the cool night air. Ignoring his limited climbing skills Fox begins up the tree to find a midnight snack. I won’t spoil the ending but everyone ends up having a good time.I really enjoyed dreaming up, designing and illustrating Owl’s tree house and painting the various scenes! Fun Stuff! Here’s a smiley face for you from all of us at folio academy  :)

Submitting and sizing your art for children’s book publishing

Know about SCBWI. Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.

If you are new to publishing Female artist at drawing boardand you want to get into it. And you don’t know much about it but you are willing to learn… “So you want to be a children’s author or book illustrator?” You really should look into SCBWI, Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators

http://www.scbwi.org/ It is the largest organization for children’s book writers and illustrators. It is a great connection for authors
and illustrators. If you are looking to do your own self publishing, they aren’t that helpful and they are just starting to get involved with e-publishing, but for the most part, SCBWI is the place to be if you are getting started or if you are already started in traditional publishing for picture book writers and illustrators. They have chapters in every major area in the US and they are abroad as well.

There are over 20,000 members, (I believe) and you should be a part of it for your own good. Just Google it for your area and start being a part of it and getting in touch with the group in your area and start attending their conferences and learning from them. That is the organization that you want to be a part of.

When it comes picture book illustrations, SIZE  MATTERS!

000 Stylus 05

What size or format should you create your art for submitting it to publishers.
If you are a writer illustrator or if you are just an illustrator and you want to submit some of your stuff to publishers to be considered, you may be asking yourself what size and shape should you make your artwork. I would say, follow standard guidelines. Your basic 8.5” x 11” format is fine. When you are hired or commissioned to do a book, the publisher will usually decide what proportion the book should be. Very few are square or odd shaped.

Don’t write and illustrate the whole book!

A lot of writer artists want to finish the whole book and submit that.
The publisher doesn’t care to receive the whole finished book, and that would be a waste of time and effort anyway. It doesn’t make any sense to fret over getting the whole thing right and perfected. They don’t want it all done, they would rather see a good “book dummy”. They have professional art directors and editors and people that know the science of making or helping that book succeed. So when they choose your book, they will want to set the parameters and THEN have you do what you do best, illustrate.
Many would say that there is a right way and a wrong way, but there are rarely any hard fast perfect, right way, rules. For example if you go to a SCBWI conference you may hear one editor say, “I prefer a mock up book in the mail” or “I like to get a PDF so I don’t have to worry about losing it or whatever, it’s quicker”, and others who like other stuff, etc”.

Put your best foot forward, Presentation matters.

Cow poke 7So you should make a book, DUMMY! I don’t mean to call you a dummy, I mean a “book dummy”. I may have said that there aren’t any right or wrong ways to submit your picture book but really there are a LOT of WRONG ways… For example, a sloppy demo would be a wrong way, presentation does matter. Let it show that you care, that you are creative. A nice, clean, clear presentation would be a RIGHT way. I personally like to use a PDF, It is fast, easy, clean, neat, accurate and inexpensive. If it gets lost in the (e)mail, send it again, it’s free and easy.
So send a book dummy with your sketches, and a few “finished” pieces. That way, they know what you are doing. They understand the idea and they can see from the one or two finished pieces convey your ability to paint and bring those sketches to a finished illustration.
Put your best foot foreword. You should spend some time on this mockup or book dummy, this is your sales pitch and it is a competitive world out there. You need to be willing to spend some time on that dummy so that it gets their attention and holds on to it.

Self Publishers should get the facts first.

For self publishers… Talk to the printer that you will be hiring, ask a few questions.
Paper costs money and it comes in certain sizes and when they print, there are better ways to lay it out to maximize your paper per book ratio. That is why there are tipically 32 pages long, it’s because they print it on the BIG paper, fold it, bind it and cut it. Multiples of four. So work with the printer to determine the best size and shape and number of pages so you can maximize your pages per dollar.

There is no Perfect answer to the size and lay out for apps and e-books question.

What about sizing for my apps and e-book? That is a GOOD question, the sad truth is, there is NO magic answer for that question. There are so many different sizes AND proportions for each different devise. So there will be extra space or you can stretch your image. All of these are bad solutions. So on one device the image will fit flush or a full bleed.

One universal solution could be to make your artwork big enough to crop for every other device BUT that will cost you a ton. That would be a programming night mare. You got kindle and nook, devised to be held vertically, not horizontal, not quite right for a picture book.

My advice would be to make it for the i-Pad.

The i-Pad is the nicest looking device and the most popular for digital picture books and apps. (at present) So it may be advantageous to just create for the i-Pad.

One more last plug for SCBWI.

You really should consider becoming a part of the SCBWI.

More SCBWI people are published than non SCBWI goers. If you were to poll 1000 people who attend SCBWI conference attenders who submit to publishers, and 1000 who don’t attend SCBWI, but submit, I believe you would discover that a lot more of the SCBWI goers are being chosen and published than the non SCBWI folk.
I feel like the artist’s rep is a dying bread. Because of the internet, and the immediacy and quick ability to look through your portfolio and see your style, the publisher and the artist, just doesn’t need the artist’s rep any more.
The Righter on the other hand, can still benefit by having an Agent, (the rep for the writer). The publisher can’t just glance through your work and get the jest of it where they can with your artwork.

 

Good luck and enjoy life. Relax, draw, paint, Life is good.