Welcome to Inkygirl: Reading, Writing and Illustrating Children's Books (archive list here) which includes my Creating Picture Books series, Advice For Young Writers and Illustrators, Writer's and Illustrator's Guide To Twitter, Interviews With Authors And Illustrators, #BookADay archives, writing/publishing industry surveys, and 250, 500, 1000 Words/Day Writing Challenge. Also see my Inkygirl archives, and comics for writers. Also check out my Print-Ready Archives for Teachers, Librarians, Booksellers and Young Readers.
I tweet about the craft and business of writing and illustrating at @inkyelbows. If you're interested in my art or other projects, please do visit DebbieOhi.com. Thanks for visiting! -- Debbie Ridpath Ohi
Entries by Debbie Ridpath Ohi (1630)
Monday, July 13, 2020 at 5:53 PMCurious about why 32 pages is standard for picture books? (and why this DOESN'T mean you have 32 pages for story content)
I recently did a livestream showing why 32 pages is the standard for picture books, and what this means for picture book creators. In case it helps anyone, the archived version is above.
Basic reason: 32 pages can all be printed on a single sheet of paper, making it cost-effective. It's possible to make a book any number of pages, but anything non-standard tends to cost the publisher more money to print.
Sometimes the publisher will opt to do a longer book (my books with Simon & Schuster are mostly self-ended 40-page picture books), but I leave that decision to my publisher.
Video note: when I mention my own books begin on pages 6-7, by the way, it's because they are 40 pages long (I forgot to mention this, sorry).
For pre-published picture book writers with no track record, I recommend sticking to the standard 32 page template; you can always discuss the possibility of increasing the page count after your mss has been acquired.
Some resources you might find useful:
Creating Picture Books: my collection of how-to guides, free templates and resource lists.
My free, print-ready archive: includes more templates.
Tara Lazar's post on Picture Book Dummies, Picture Book Construction, and Knowing Your Layout
Reminder: Do regular backups!
I hope you're all doing well out there! I'm sure I'm not the only who had trouble focusing earlier in the pandemic. Getting back on track these days, including making sure my backup system is working.
Do your backups, everyone!
Advice for others who go thru self-doubt during the creative process
To others who go thru self-doubt during the creative process: be kind to yourself & stay in your bubble while creating. Revise/angst about the industry LATER.
Book Giveaway, Advice For Young Writers from Karla Valenti (MARIE CURIE & THE POWER OF PERSISTENCE)
GIVEAWAY (U.S. only): Karla is giving away a copy of Marie Curie And The Power Of Persistence, written by Karla Valenti and illustrated by Annalisa Beghelli! *** ENTER HERE ***
Karla Arenas Valenti was born and raised in Mexico. Since then she has put down roots in a number of countries she now calls home: Japan, France, Germany, and the U.S. where she lives in the Chicagoland area with her husband and three kids. She writes picture books and middle grade novels. You can find out more about Karla at www.karlavalenti.com or connect with her on Facebook or Twitter @KV_writes.
Donalyn Miller's Social Distancing #BookADay Challenge!
Donalyn Miller's #BookADay Challenge is usually in the summer. After talking with people on Twitter and Facebook, Donalyn (happily) decided to hold a Coronavirus social distancing #BookADay challenge, so that readers who miss talking with other readers can gather and share.
You can see the "official" #bookaday guidelines on the Nerdy Book Club blog.
Writing Productivity Tips & Advice For Young Writers From Marcie Colleen (THE BEAR'S GARDEN)
Happy launch day to Marcie Colleen, whose THE BEAR'S GARDEN with Alison Oliver launches from Imprint/Macmillan today!
Marcie Colleen is the award-winning picture book author of Penguinaut! (illustrated by Emma Yarlett) and Love, Triangle (illustrated by Bob Shea), as well as the Super Happy Party Bears chapter book series. She teaches Writing Children’s Picture Books for the University of California at San Diego both online and on campus, and runs her own Study Hall conducting a month-long online critique group dedicated to the crafting picture books. Find out more about how you can study with Marcie at thisismarciecolleen.com and on Twitter at @MarcieColleen1.
Comic: You may be luckier than you think
Writers & illustrators: It's tough sometimes (especially on social media re: publication news, book lists, awards etc), but try very hard to RESIST COMPARING YOURSELF TO OTHERS. Focus on enjoying your own journey. You may be luckier than you think.
Writers and illustrators: Learning to accept criticism is a key to getting published
Advice for those who are trying to get published or who want a longterm career in the publishing industry: you need to develop a thick hide when it comes to criticism.
No matter what stage you are in your career, if you are putting yourself and your work out there for people to see (whether it's agents or editors or art directors or reviewers or other readers), you WILL get criticism. It might be criticism in the form of critiques from a trusted group of writer or illustrator friends. It might be a form rejection letter or detailed rejection letter. Even after you get a contract, you will be getting feedback and change requests from your editor or art director. After your book comes out, some people will not like your book -- and some of those people may be reviewers.
If you are sensitive to harsh judgement, you need to find a way to cope with this early on if you want to stay in the game. Just don't do it in public!
For critiques of your work, never make changes right away. This is especially important for those who are insecure about their own skills! Let the feedback sit for at least a day or two (longer if you can wait), THEN come back to it with more objectivity. Do you agree with the feedback? Don't blindly make a change to your manuscript if you don't agree or understand why.
And never, ever respond to negative reviews in public.
Some useful resources:
Gail Carson Levine has great advice about how to take criticism, particularly from a critique.
11 Writers On How They Deal With Criticism - by Jason Diamond.
6 Top Tips For Dealing With Criticism Of Your Writing - from WritersEdit. This piece advises AGAINST reading all (if any) of your reviews in Goodreads and other places geared toward readers; I've heard this piece of advice from a prominent author in her workshop as well.
Deal With Criticism Like A Pro - by Bryan Collins on WritetoDone. This advice is mainly geared toward negative feedback from an editor; Bryan is a nonfiction freelance writer.
Book Recommendation: DIANA: PRINCESS OF THE AMAZONS by Shannon & Dean Hale, Victoria Ying (DC Zoom)
;)
Happy launch day to DIANA: PRINCESS OF THE AMAZONS, the newest in the DC Zoom line of graphic novels for middle graders. Written by Shannon & Dean Hale and illustrated by Victoria Ying. Thanks to Michele Wells at DC Kids for sending me a copy!
For more of my book collages, feel free to browse my BookADay Padlet as well as my BookADay and Book Recommendation archives. I read a lot more books than I have time to post, especially now that I've joined the Goodreads 2020 Reading Challenge!
My morning writing routine in 2020
Finding it a challenge to carve out time for your writing because of other work or life commitments? I encourage you to join me in my Daily Writing Challenge. Even 100 words a day adds up! I also have an Inkygirl Daily Writing Challenge Facebook Page.
One of my goals in 2020 is to not only be more diligent about writing something FIRST THING in the day, but also not to be so picky about what I write (social media posts don't count, though :-)).
Reason: Last year, I was always trying to work on my middle grade novel first thing in the morning. While my goal of morning writing worked sometimes, there were many mornings when I just had too much going on. I'd be distracted because I'd be on the road, or have morning appointments, be stressed about book illustration deadlines.
How To Find Time To Read More Books In 2020
The best way to get young people to invest their time in reading is being willing to invest time in it ourselves.
At the beginning of every year, I reevaluate my reading habits. I love to read but sometimes I find that reading gets put on the back burner more often while other activities take priority. Sometimes these activities, especially family-related and work-related, NEED to take priority, but I find there are still ways to find more time to read. How do YOU make more time to read? Answer my survey here. I'll post results in this blog.
This year, I've signed up for Goodreads 2020 Reading Challenge. I'm starting out with a goal of 100 books. This includes picture books, so I'm actually aiming for MORE than 100. In addition to being realistic, however, I also don't want to be tempted to speed-read. With picture books, for example, I want to start going through new and not-so-new picture books and read them more thoughtfully, both for enjoyment but also more analytically (how the text and illustrations interact, etc).
Anyway....I've updated my post below in case one or more tips might help others. You might also want to check out what parents suggested in my "Finding Time To Write (Even If You Have Kids)" survey.
1. I have multiple print books on the go, and keep them around the house. I usually have print books that I'm in the midst of reading in our bedroom, my office, living room, dining room, etc. Print books have the advantage over ebooks here in that just SEEING them reminds me to read them.
2. I read books on my iPhone. Yes, the screen is small but I enlarge the text to make reading comfortable. This is super-handy for reading when I may only have a few minutes, like when I'm in a line-up or waiting for someone. Or when I'm in a super-crowded subway train and am holding onto a support pole with one hand....but I can easily reach into my purse, pull out my iPhone and flip through pages with my other hand.
3. I read books on my iPad. I have an iPad Pro and find it a bit too heavy to hold for reading unless it's propped up somehow, but I find that using a pillow or my knees works fine. I prefer print books for the esthetic experience (turning print pages, feel of of a physical book etc.) but I do find that the backlit screen on my iPad enables me to read even in places with dim lighting. Some are ebooks I've bought, some are borrowed from the Toronto Public Library.
4. I read books on my Kindle. Because the Kindle is lightweight and loaded up with a lot of my ebooks, I can avoid angsting over what book to take on out-of-town trips ("I'm 3/4 of way through this book so if I finish it on the plane, what do I read next? Should I bring an extra just in case? But I'm trying to travel with just carry-on augh" etc.), I just take my Kindle and I have access to many books-on-the-go.
5. I listen to audiobooks. I remember avoiding audiobooks in the beginning because I never considered it REAL reading, plus I didn't think I could really enjoy a book by just listening to it. Then my husband played an audiobook (I can't remember the title...something about divers and scavenging in deep waters) on a long car trip and I was surprised to find it an immersive reading experience. The narration is important, though -- a bad narrator will totally turn me off a book, so I make it a habit of always listening to a sample first. I have an Audible subscription but I also borrow audiobooks from the Toronto Public Library. Whenever I'm at certain stages in book illustration, I listening to audiobooks as I draw.
SUMMARY:
As long as the story is good, I am willing to read it in any format. I do make a point of buying books from indie bookstores but I have found that my appetite for reading makes it impractical (from a budget standpoint) to buy all my reading material. The Toronto Public Library is a wonderful resource, with print and ebook and audiobooks available.
Also, I squeeze in reading whenever I can. While I'd love to save my reading stints for when I have an entire afternoon to curl up on the couch with a good book, reality is that if I always waited for The Perfect Reading Day, I wouldn't be reading nearly as many books as I do now. Before my recent eye surgery, I also found it a challenge to read a regular print book.
And as summer approaches, consider participating in Donalyn Miller's #BookADay Challenge!
SURVEY:
How do YOU make time to read? Answer my 3-question poll here.
OTHER RESOURCES ON HOW TO MAXIMIZE YOUR READING TIME:
11 Ways Busy People Make Time To Read - by Eva Lantsoght on Lifehack.org
The Best Way To Find More TIme To Read - on FS Farnam Street's blog
How To Read Even More In 2019 by Strand bookstore
5 Ways To Find More Time To Read - by Kristin Wong on Mentalfloss.com
25 Expert Tips To Reading WAY More Books This Year - by John Rampton on Inc.com
Happy Holidays, all!
Thanks to Crayola for animating one of my Broken Crayon pieces! Special thanks to Crayola's Kate Loffio for being so supportive of me and my work.
Meanwhile, I am sooooooo excited about the upcoming launch of GURPLE & PREEN, a broken crayon picture book written by Linda Sue Park and illustrated by me, published by Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers! I'll be posting more info on my Broken Crayon resource page when it's available.
Need a gift for a book lover, writer or illustrator but have a small budget? Give them some TIME.
Looking for a meaningful gift for a friend but don't have the cash? Consider giving them TIME to read, write or illustrate. Click the image above for a print-ready PDF or download the "Gift Of Time" gift certificate here.
Depending on your relationship with the recipient, you could offer to do dishes for a week, pick up the kids from school, x number of hours of running, grocery shopping, babysitting and so on. If your friend complains about not having time to read, combine this certificate with a book.
Some suggestions for presenting the gift:
- Slip the certificate into a white envelope and then decorate the envelope with holiday stickers, sparkles, doodles, etc.
- Roll up the certificate and tie a color ribbon around it. Present it as is, or wrapped in gold tissue paper.
- Print out the PDF smaller (check your printer settings) on cardstock, laminate (or use clear packing tape for DIY lamination), include with a personalized holiday card.
- Combine the certificate with themed gift, like with some packaged soothing chamomile or mint tea, chocolates in a mug, or other "it's time to spoil yourself" items.
- Combine the certificate with one of your favorite books.
Enjoy!
For more free, print-ready goodies, see Debbie's Print-Ready Archives.
