So what was supposed to happen was, I would find a like-minded illustrator and we would collaborate on the final, illustrated version of this very short book about telling children's stories.
We would story-board it, or flat-plan it, or whatever term we would decide to use for the process of getting together around a big table and mixing together sketches, scribbles and cut-up print-outs, making more coffee, talking, making lunch, drawing some more, deciding whether to have cake with tea, talking about other projects - and then we would get to work on the getting-it-published part.
But it's a difficult book to categorise. Not quite children's; more parents'. But with a full-size children's story included for parents too tired to think let alone make up a story. I wrote it for a friend who couldn't get past the "Once upon a time there was a" and develop the necessary gentle action to take the story towards its inevitable conclusion (everybody in the story and listening to the story settles down and goes to sleep). Ten steps, and a bonus step. Set the scene, let something happen, resolve it, if you want the three-step version.
To find an illustrator, it is necessary to look for an illustrator. Maybe I should have been more methodical about that. To find a collaborator, it is necessary to find some way of explaining that you're looking for a meeting of minds, and a shared venture, rather than a fixed quote for this many pics at this size. But the real stumbling block was the category issue: it's not exactly a children's book; more for parents ...
You'll find the words-only version on Kindle, here's the link. Illustrator needed, although the reason I've let this one go out without pics is that I'm working on another, bigger project for which there's actually a budget for once. I would dearly love to work with somebody (see above re meeting of minds), but maybe that isn't how these things happen any more.
PS: Once upon a time, bullet points were an occasional magazine-cover trick for catching the eye. Now everybody's doing it. Ten steps, seven habits, three top tips, five ways, nine foolproof techniques, the three best approaches to over-using an old magazine-cover trick. Go to Kindle, buy or don't buy, but count the number of objectives that you can only achieve by taking ten steps. I'm surprised.
We would story-board it, or flat-plan it, or whatever term we would decide to use for the process of getting together around a big table and mixing together sketches, scribbles and cut-up print-outs, making more coffee, talking, making lunch, drawing some more, deciding whether to have cake with tea, talking about other projects - and then we would get to work on the getting-it-published part.
But it's a difficult book to categorise. Not quite children's; more parents'. But with a full-size children's story included for parents too tired to think let alone make up a story. I wrote it for a friend who couldn't get past the "Once upon a time there was a" and develop the necessary gentle action to take the story towards its inevitable conclusion (everybody in the story and listening to the story settles down and goes to sleep). Ten steps, and a bonus step. Set the scene, let something happen, resolve it, if you want the three-step version.
To find an illustrator, it is necessary to look for an illustrator. Maybe I should have been more methodical about that. To find a collaborator, it is necessary to find some way of explaining that you're looking for a meeting of minds, and a shared venture, rather than a fixed quote for this many pics at this size. But the real stumbling block was the category issue: it's not exactly a children's book; more for parents ...
You'll find the words-only version on Kindle, here's the link. Illustrator needed, although the reason I've let this one go out without pics is that I'm working on another, bigger project for which there's actually a budget for once. I would dearly love to work with somebody (see above re meeting of minds), but maybe that isn't how these things happen any more.
PS: Once upon a time, bullet points were an occasional magazine-cover trick for catching the eye. Now everybody's doing it. Ten steps, seven habits, three top tips, five ways, nine foolproof techniques, the three best approaches to over-using an old magazine-cover trick. Go to Kindle, buy or don't buy, but count the number of objectives that you can only achieve by taking ten steps. I'm surprised.
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