Be Our Guest

I'm just going to sit back and let Daniel do all the heavy lifting on this one :)

Well, this is cool. A guest blogger. It’s Daniel by the way. I’m the editor/ co- creator of Art Adventurers, and that will probably be the only time you ever see ‘Daniel’ and ‘cool’ written within a sentence of each other. I’m not used to writing these, so hopefully it’s interesting and long enough. If I think it’s running short, I’ll just pad it out with song lyrics. It’s my party and I’ll pad if I want to. It has begun.

-Record Scratch- You’re probably wondering how I got here. I saw a job post on Stage 32. Applied because it was something different for me. Answered the interview questions and somehow scored the role of editor. Started from the bottom now we’re… still at the bottom. But the book hasn’t been released yet so there’s time to get to the middle once it hits your Amazon cart.

Originally, I thought I was going to read some drafts. Make suggestions for edits, offer feedback and notes on story structure/ character development, find a few grammar mistakes, maybe write some jokes, and that would be it. Scoring a credit, deferred pay and (hopefully) a couple of free copies of, what was then, MRG. But I was invited to the meetings and became part of the team. Which worked out well as it’s allowed me to follow the process of self-publishing a book. Besides, Lisa is very good. She didn’t need me to find where the full stop goes.

One of the first things I noticed when reading was that the original character designs were aimed at a younger age group than Lisa and Mia had written the story for. It was decided that we could do two books. This meant dividing characters- both the type of animals and their traits- and finding a new setting, while keeping the lesson, theme and storyline. There was a lot of room to get creative. We had a blank space, baby. Without even a name!

We’d been talking about changing some of the animals, Mia and Lisa had a list of character traits, and I’d been keeping a brainstorming document with ideas and options, so we had something to kick start this new chapter.

That’s a good tip. Write stuff down! Doesn’t matter if it’s a half thought out idea, random line, or something that’s been cut from other drafts or even other projects. Keep it!

Also, if you’re working with a partner, share those small, half formed ideas. Even if they don’t like it or it doesn't work, it could always spark something new, or your partner could add something that you didn’t think of. I co-write a lot and it’s a good way to see if the other person can bounce an idea around and run with it or just shut you down. Trust the other writer and be open to changes. Stop. Collaborate and listen.

Lisa and I did just that. Collaborating to expand and adjust her story. A good example was when we needed a new treehouse for Caleb. I sent the idea of a fishing hut at the back of an igloo. Lisa sent back, how about a lighthouse. Prefect! I excitedly wrote a couple of Caleb lines, and Boom! New treehouse in three emails.

While that was happening, the illustrator who was working on MRG began working on this new project. Sending us animals in different design styles while we offered feedback. None of them were bad. The guy’s an excellent artist. Some just wouldn’t suit the early reader’s age group or match the diary of an excited eight-year-old. We researched styles, found examples, and Lisa put together a mood board.

Get a mood board together. Right away. Before working with an artist. Take it from some random dude writing a blog on someone else’s website. They need one. You need one.

The creative, brainstorming side of things I knew I could handle. I make stuff up all the time. Editing and feedback, no problem. Promo stacks for your self-published book. That’s a whole new world. There were a lot of things- especially in describing art styles, marketing, and where to sell e-books- that I had no idea about coming into this.

Research! Use the internet to your advantage. They are actual pro tips. Or at least people who have gone through it before. I could google ‘traditional story book art techniques’ ‘Colour palette children’s book’ ‘NBL game scores’ ‘NBL ladder’ ‘Book promotion services’ Then watch a YouTube video about marketing a kid’s book, followed by an Okapi image search. Because what even is that?

The online blogs from professionals (there are links to many of them in the other journal entries) articles on Reedsy, and author forums, have been incredibly helpful. Googling colours and art styles Finding out why a certain design feature works for the age group. Fonts! Book sizes! Eye catching blurbs! I’ve spent a lot of time reading and watching YouTube videos with talking heads speaking on self-publishing. It’s all been very interesting to me. I told you ‘cool’ and ‘Daniel’ do not meet in the same sentence.

For Mia to consider me part of the Kistemo team right from the start was great (You should check out her MRG the Lion book on Amazon if you’ve got little ones) Lisa choosing me over, I’m sure, more qualified book editors was totally unexpected. She’s a really talented writer. And so easy to collaborate with. I better say that, so I get asked to blog again.

Absolutely fluking my way into being a co-creator on a children’s book and being involved in all aspects of the project- From titles to logos to profit percentages- has been a lot of work, but so worth it. Writing for children is really fun. You should try it. You can do it. Don’t stop believing!

I didn’t even need that last one. This was all long enough.

TL;DR: Working on a children's book is fun. I've learnt a lot. My Spotify playlist is all over the shop.

I thought we’d found our perfect polar bear and design style. Lisa wrote a better blog about losing an illustrator, but time constraints and creative differences took our planned launch date off the calendar. I was more than a little annoyed at the blind side, but we had to shake it off and keep rollin’, rollin’, rollin’, rollin’…

Scrollin’, scrollin’, scrollin’ Fiverr and Upwork, we found a new illustrator who was on neither of those sites. And so far, so good. Stephanie has developed Caleb over a few drafts, as we get our new look right, and nearly nailed Bella the quokka on the first attempt. That was impressive! These characters are also getting the tick of approval from our focus group of mums and sisters.

Pro? Tip. Get a little focus group together. Friends, family. Workmates. I have found getting feedback invaluable. Especially when we need a vote or see if a detail feature is noticed. They may also think of something we don’t. It was Lisa’s sister, Grace, mentioning a colouring book that led to us scrapping a logo concept in favour of the one we have now. It’s also useful to get someone to read a draft. Mum’s going to read this blog before any of you and will smile at this sentence.

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