Ode to the Artists

I am a big supporter of other writers and artists. I think it is really important as an indie writer to be part of the community. So in the spirit of that, I added a page to my website for artists to submit a JPEG image to me of something they created based on something I wrote- either from a book or from my blog.

Here is how to submit:

• Send me a Jpeg of your work to author.al.sant@gmail.com
• include your name
• the title if the piece
• the medium it was created in (digital art, clay, oil paints, etc…)
• your web address for your own personal webpage, blog, or facebook. (optional)

I will not share your work anywhere besides my website. The artwork is still 100% yours. I just want to encourage networking. I will post the image on my art gallery page, and include a link to you.

Just so you know, I do reserve the right to refuse to post something, with or without reason or notice.  I posted some of my own digital artwork to make the page interesting until I get the word out about including other artists.

Click on the image below to go to the art page where your work could be displayed.

 

My Children’s Book

 

So I have just completed a children’s story that I intend to self-publish. It began as a rather long, fun poem, but with encouragement from my writers group it evolved into a full story. I’m nearly done with the editing (as much as a writer ever can be anyway) and my next step it the artwork to go along with my story.

But the writing is only half of a children’s book. Kids love pictures that tell the story, so I needed to figure out what kind of illustration I wanted.  Upon some further research I found that you can hire an artist and pay them per illustration- the going rate seems to be about $100 to $200 per drawing online, or you can team up with an artist and split credit (and profit) from the book down the middle. I do know a few artists that would be amazing at it, but since graphic art is something I like to do (and have done professionally before), I decided I am going to do the artwork myself. I plan to make little figurines out of Sculpey and Fimo clay and pose them in scenes to take pictures, then turn them into something that looks illustrated in Photoshop. I will be sure to share more with you as my illustration adventure develops.

My father-in-law has a friend who has published a children’s story, so when I told him I wanted to publish he helped me get in touch with his writer friend. His friend told me that publishers want you to have everything done and mapped out before you even contact them, so I will be finishing my artwork before I take any efforts to publish further. The advice that he gave as far as marketing and publishing boiled down to this: Do as much of it yourself as possible. The publishers will be happy to do it for you, but their help requires lots of money. He also said they are impatient; any edits and adjustments are expected the same day they ask for them, and they get irritated if you delay. They also don’t really proof anything-if your work isn’t perfect when you hand it to them, then that is what will go into print.

With all this in mind, I am very nervous about my first independent self-published work. Even so, I am not deterred.