Illustrated Children's Trade Books
  Children's Book Publishers
  Information Useful to People New to the Field
  Are You Interested in Being Published?
  How to Show Work to a Publisher
  Agents and Contracts
  Suggested Reading
 

In the United States, about 5,000 children's trade books are published annually. Approximately 75% of those titles are books that have not been published previously, at least 25% are reissues in new formats, mainly paperbacks. Children's trade books include titles read to babies and toddlers, and to children in day care centers and kindergarten; they include books for the early school years (ages 5-8). In all such books, pictures or other graphic components are essential to the book; some have few or even no words. In a good children's book with words, the words are as important as the pictures, the text and illustrations complement and enhance each other.

Children's trade books are also published for older readers (ages 9-12, and beyond); illustrations are often an important feature of such titles. Trade books for young adult (adolescent) readers rarely include illustrations, except for nonfiction titles that are customarily illustrated.

Children’s Book Publishers

In the United States, a successful children's trade book publisher fills two distinct -- and often distinctly different -- roles. On the one hand, most publishers wish to contribute to the literary, artistic, educational, and emotional development of child readers, to give children pleasure, and to find and publish talented writers and illustrators who share their goals. On the other hand, in this country publishing is a commercial enterprise: a publisher must publicize and market its books to sell them, as it is sales that make it possible for a firm to continue publishing and to sustain its backlist (books published before the current year).

 Most major children's book publishers of both hardcover and paperback books belong to The Children's Book Council (CBC), a nonprofit trade association that encourages interest in reading and the enjoyment of books for children and young adults. The Council is the sponsor of National Children's Book Week, in existence since 1919; it encourages adults who work with children to examine children's books and to use them creatively in their work. CBC's Member List lists the names and addresses of publishers, and customarily the name of at least one person responsible for editorial matters, and includes brief descriptions of the number and kinds of books each CBC member publishes.

Literary Market Place, published by R.R. Bowker Co., and available in most libraries, lists all know U.S. publishers. In its "Book Publishers -- Type of Publication Index" appendix, there is an indication of which houses publish "Juvenile and Young Adult Books."

New illustrators can get an idea of the characteristics of publishers' lists in several ways. Many libraries have excellent collections of children's books, but may not have a representative sampling of this year's children's books on their shelves. Bookstores may stock a great variety of books for young readers; this is particularly the case in the several hundred bookstores in the U.S. that specialize in children's books. (People in or visiting the New York City area can examine all new children's books published by CBC members at the Council's library; as library hours vary, call before visiting. The Council also has kept on file all publishers' children's book catalogs since 1970 if they have been sent to the CBC.)

Information Useful to People New to the Field

• Many new illustrators begin in children's books by illustrating a text that someone else has written, or by illustrating book jackets.
• It is often a surprise to discover of a favorite picture book how few words it has, and each one chosen with care, as are the graphic images on a page.
• On the content of children's books, many subjects and stories appear over and over again, sometimes because publishers want them, but often because artists have new insights about them. Generally, children's books have few restrictions relating to what they can be about; they are "about" whatever their creators choose to make them about.
• In texts for older readers, the words (and a budget) usually suggest what the illustrator's contribution will be, except in the case of some nonfiction works such as photo essays, where the reverse is true.

• Illustrations for books can be prepared in many mediums and employ a variety of techniques. While until recently it was expected that nearly all children's book illustrators would preseparate their art into two, three, or four colors, technical advances in full-color reproduction techniques now make preseparations unnecessary.

People new to children's book illustration sometimes ask if there is particular background or training that prepares them for this work. A great many illustrators have attended art schools, and may have been attracted to the field as students, or come to appreciate it later as children's books revealed themselves to illustration as an area in which personal artistic expression is encouraged. This is not to suggest that art school training is a prerequisite for illustrating children's books. A consensus exists that artists who may have been working in graphics in another area and new illustrators alike can acquire most of the technical skills they need as they become involved in children's books.

Some publishers, art directors, editors, and artists representatives assert that an overall understanding of both children's literature and contemporary children's book publishing is useful to a newcomer. Courses, seminars, conferences, and workshops -- especially those about children's book illustration -- often afford introductions to the field. (Many of these opportunities are announced in the "Calendar" section of the periodical Publishers Weekly, available in most libraries.) Others feel that attending such events is not such a good idea for new illustrators and writers, that workshops and courses may unintentionally suggest there are accepted ways to create children's books when, for most artists, it is their personal vision that matters.

How to Show Work to a Publisher

Artists should know that a portfolio is essential to an illustrator introducing work to an art director or editor. The portfolio should present a sampling of an artist’s work, including a range of work in both subject matter and mediums. It need not contain only illustrations intended for children. It should reveal an illustrator’s individual strengths and not just an ability to conform to some perception of what a publisher will like. Publishers are interested in both published and unpublished work in a portfolio. While an illustrator need not write an original text to accompany pictures, some publishers wish to see a dummy book. Finally, what is included in a portfolio should be reflective of an artist’s best work. 

Illustrators need not be apprehensive about showing a portfolio or other material to a publisher—no responsible publisher steals ideas.

Agents and Contracts

Almost all publisher members of The Children's Book Council are hospitable toward and wish to know about new children's book illustrators whose work can be submitted to a publishing house directly. Illustration agents offer many important services to clients, especially those who are already published. A partial listing of agents specializing in children's book illustration can be found in the annual Literary Market Place.

When an illustrator is offered a contract for a book, it is up to the illustrator to read the contract closely. One publisher's contract will vary from another's in many respects, not just in rates offered for work, but in other details as well. Attorneys who do not specialize in publishing agreements are unlikely to be familiar with some clauses in publishing contracts. Most publishers offer a royalty to an illustrator, but the royalty rate (a percentage of the sales price of a book) may vary from the same publisher. Some publishers may offer a flat fee to an illustrator, and no additional compensation. The Graphic Artists Guild Handbook: Pricing and Ethical Guidelines, published by the Graphic Artists Guild (www.gag.org), is a useful book to examine in respect to pricing

Suggested Reading

Numerous books have been published on the subject of writing and illustrating books for children. Some of these titles have been revised from time to time. For a listing of titles on the topic, consult Subject Guide to Books in Print (R.R. Bowker Company), revised annually and available in most libraries and many bookstores. The listing below contains both in-print and out-of-print (indicated by an OP following the publishing information) books, since several of the OP books contain important historical information regarding children’s book illustration. To locate OP books, search online at Amazon.com or BN.com, or contact an out-of-print bookseller. Your local or university library may also have copies of these books in their collections. 

American Picturebooks from Noah’s Ark to the Beast Within by Barbara Bader. New York: Macmillan, 1976 (OP). Bader’s massive volume is both a comprehensive history of American illustrated children’s books, from the beginning of contemporary children’s book publishing, and a critical study of the genre. Its scope is awesome, examining as it does picture books as “an item of manufacture and a commercial, social, cultural, and historical document; and foremost, an experience for a child.” 

Books: From Writer to Reader by Howard Greenfeld. New York: Crown, 1989 (OP).A standard work about the publishing process updated to incorporate technology changes in the industry. This is the best book for anyone who wants a short, accessible explanation of what happens to a work after it has been accepted for publication.  

Children’s Writer’s and Illustrator’s Market 2002 edited by Alice Pope. Cincinnati, OH: Writer’s Digest Books, 2001. A comprehensive guide, updated annually, providing contact information, from editor names to Web site addresses, for book and magazine publishers, as well as guidelines for writing query letters, getting an agent, attending conference and workshops, and other publishing information. 

Words About Pictures: The Narrative Art of Children’s Picture Books by Perry Nodelman. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1990 (OP). Picture books as narrative art, and an examination of how pictures tell stories. A stimulating theoretical analysis of the genre, this book is important for illustrators whose work aims to go beyond the purely decorative. 

Writing with Pictures: How to Write and Illustrate Children’s Books by Uri Shulevitz. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 1997 (reprint ed.). Without a doubt, the Shulevitz book is the volume most frequently cited by professionals in the field as the best and most useful in existence for new illustrators. A Caldecott Medalist himself, with a long and distinguished career in children’s books as both an artist and teacher, Shulevitz organizes his book into four parts: Telling a Story, includes chapters titled “Picture Book or Story Book?,” Picture Sequence,” “The Story: A Complete Action,” “Story Content,” and “Picture Book Characteristics.”; Planning the Book includes chapters titled “Storyboard and Dummy Book,” “Scale and Shape,” and “The Structure of a Printed Book”; Creating the Picture has chapters titled ‘The Purpose of Illustration,” “Drawing Figures and Objects,” “Picture Space and Composition,” “Principles of Technique,” and “Style”; and Preparing for Reproduction includes chapters on “Printing, Basics, Color Preseparations” and “Techniques for Reproduction.”

by The Children's Book Council
Information supplied by: http://www.cbcbooks.org