Hey there, me again with one of those I'm-so-passionate-I-could-burst kinda emails, and I think you'll be right there with me. Let's talk about—*drumroll*—the behind-the-scenes of making a picture book. 🙌
While every picture book has its own origin story, the process for A World Wonder was fairly straightforward, so this will give you a good idea of the process as you think about writing your own book.
You may have heard me mention this before, but A World Wonder was inspired by my own life, conversations with my own children, and my fascination with the Wonders of the World. As usual, the first few drafts of this story were written in my head while running the gravel roads behind my house in the fall of 2021. After about four runs, the storyline came together. I very quickly found my first line:
"There was a house at the top of the hill, just outside of town."
I knew the house would be a key character in the story, so it worked well to start with the house.
The only trouble was the ending. (Ever been there, Reader? I knew where I wanted the story to go, and the message I wanted to send (relationships > accomplishments), but you know how it goes: I didn't want to say it explicitly—I wanted, as any great KidLit author wants, to show it.
I had my manuscript 95% complete, but just couldn't figure out those last few spreads. So I wrote down several options and sent the manuscript to my agent and a few writer friends. All of them them came back with different recommendations, which at some level is super helpful, but on another, it's not helpful at all. 😆
We'll talk about this more in the KidLit Lab Manuscript Masterclass (counting down to April 1 when the doors open, I CAN'T WAIT), but I often tell my students that you will know when your story is finished. If you have to write "The End" or feel even a tiny bit unsatisfied, then you must keep working on it. I admit, I went against my own advice: I was a tiny bit unsatisfied when I wrote up the proposal, but I knew I wasn't going to get it on my own, I needed a publisher with professional editors who do this all day long to help me land the ending.
Picture book proposals are shorter than trade book proposals (yay!) but still require quite a bit of time to put together. My agent originally showed me what to do to put it together, and one nice thing is once you've written one, you have a solid template to work off of. Inside the proposal I include everything from a 50-word summary of the book, the unique selling points, a demographic and psychographic description of the audience, and information on me as an author.
If you're nerding out with me right now, just know you're in the right place. 😉 Keep scrolling for the illustrations 😍
From there, we shopped the manuscript. Because this was a bit of an unusual book (a mass-market book from a publicly Christian author) we wanted to cast our net wide. Plus, I wasn't sure how Christian publishers would feel about a book like this. Thankfully it was well received and it felt like a dream when the book landed with Ten Peaks Press.
Then we began working on editing the manuscript. There were a few light edits to the main manuscript, but then we got to that troublesome ending... “Show not tell" was the goal, and after a few rounds, and a few more rounds, we got there! I am so happy with how it turned out.
Once the manuscript was complete, we moved to illustration. I like to find my illustrators on Instagram, and the moment I saw Janna Mattia's account, I was in love.
I loved the detail and lightness she sketched with, and how well she illustrates people. They're sophisticated and real looking, while also portraying an inviting warmth and a bit of quirk. She was wonderful to work with, and I'm so proud of the diversity we were able to add into the book, even though we only had one lead human character (Again, I considered the house a character.)
She and I first worked together on how Cora was portrayed. Here's a close-to-final mock up of Cora as she ages. I love that we not only aged her physical features, but used her handkerchief to show the passage of time as well. And do you just die over how adorable little Cora is? 😍
Once we had Cora finalized, Janna started on sketches of each spread. This is where the book truly comes to life and is one of my favorite parts of the entire process.
Once sketches were finalized, Janna moved on to color and cover design, as well as the endpapers (the pages that are usually glued inside the cover of the book). I talked with the team at Ten Peaks Press about final details: Font styles for the interior and the cover, what treatments to put on the cover, exploring debossing, embossing, foils, and other accents. We also discussed paper weight and finish. Here are a few initial cover concepts we explored:
When I work on a book, I truly care about every detail from start to finish. This is another thing we'll talk about in the Manuscript Masterclass—as picture book authors, the best books are produced when the author thinks through every single detail and is as intentional as they can be with the final product, not just the words.
Once we decided all of these details, sooner than you can blink, it was done.
Just before Christmas this past year I got my final copy of the book* and it was incredible to hold. Right away my kids sat down to read it through and it made me so happy. Creating a picture book is so much hard work, but it's all incredibly worth it.
Reader, I'm here on the same side of the table as you, ready to help you bring your own picture-book dreams to life. For now, hold tight until April 1, 2024 when the doors open for Manuscript Masterclass enrollment, and then let's have some fun. 💫
"This is a course I will continue to come back to time and time again. I found it so invaluable and rich in helping me get started with the right tools, questions, and encouragement. The story studio and story board was particularly helpful so I could visualize how the words can be laid out and work through character development."
- Anna
Until we chat again,
*The pictures you’ve seen were taken with a “dummy book,” a book that is only the cover. The interior of that book up there? It’s “Like Me.” Ha!
Chamberlain, Ames, IA 50010
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