Interview: Sue Lowell Gallion and Lisk Feng talk about creating their new board book, OUR WORLD, A FIRST BOOK OF GEOGRAPHY (Phaidon)

Thanks to Sue Lowell Gallion and Phaidon for sending me a copy of OUR WORLD, A FIRST BOOK OF GEOGRAPHY. This unique board board shaped like a globe is written by Sue and beautifully illustrated by Lisk Feng. Here's my livestream about OUR WORLD:

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(Updated) Want to support an author's or illustrator's new book but can't afford to buy it? Here's what you can do.

(Updated July 17, 2020 - also see reader comments in reply to the original post)

The quandary: You want to support someone's new book and as much as you'd like to buy it, you can't. Perhaps you can't justify the cost of the new book right now. Perhaps your author friend is prolific and has multiple books coming out, and you can't afford to get them all. Perhaps you have so many author and illustrator friends that if you tried to buy all their books, you'd need to sell your car first. Or your house.

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If you love a book, write a nice review. It gives the author encouragement on days they want to take up scorpion petting. - Liana Brooks

Writers: Be aware when research/prep turns into procrastination. Ask yourself: "What are you afraid of?" JUST JUMP IN. You can revise later.

Curious 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

Comic: Celebrity Poet

Why you should always read your email one last time before hitting SEND.

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!