Final thoughts
Thank you for letting me share my process of bringing Night Train to life with you, and thank you to 24 Carrot Writing for inviting me to do so. I hope it was helpful and am looking forward to reading all the different approaches/processes other illustrators have here in the future.

About the Illustrator
Ileana Soon is an illustrator/vis dev artist who grew up in a small seaside town in Borneo, before making her way to Los Angeles where she currently lives and works. Her clients include The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and Oprah Magazine. She has also won multiple awards, including a Silver Medal from 3x3, as well as recognition from American Illustration and The World Illustration Awards. Learn more about Ileana and see more of her work at http://ileanasoon.com/, on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/ileanadraws/, and on Behance at https://www.behance.net/ileanasoon.

​An Interview with the team from Studio Goodwin Sturges

Studio Goodwin Sturges is an artists’ agency dedicated to nurturing creative talent and developing quality literature for children. At the Studio, Judy Sue and the staff work with children’s book publishers across the country and with artists and authors around the world.

We are thrilled to welcome Studio Goodwin Sturges to 24 Carrot Writing! 
 
 

As authors, we are familiar with querying agents asking for representation. The standard process is to send a query letter and all or a portion of a completed manuscript. Studio Goodwin Sturges’ guidelines ask prospective illustrators to send along a link to a website. How is the process of looking for representation different for illustrators than for writers?
 
Both authors and illustrators invest time, love, and energy (and blood, sweat, and tears!) in the materials we create and polish for submission. But whereas authors should have several completed manuscripts when querying, illustrators needn’t have completed projects. It’s certainly helpful for an agent to see how an artist paces a book, but it’s also entirely feasible for us to gauge an artist’s strengths by looking at samples alone.
 
Illustrators should present a varied portfolio that showcases their range but also their very best work. (In other words, if you only have a few pieces featuring human characters and those pieces are not your strongest work, consider leaving them out of your portfolio. Similarly, if your style has evolved, pass on submitting older work if you’d rather not do books in that vein. Of course, these same basic premises hold true for authors, too.) It’s beneficial for an agent to see that an artist can handle people and animals, characters and environments, fiction and nonfiction. Of course, every artist has strengths and weaknesses, just as authors do. But the more versatile you are, the more likely it is that you will find representation—and work in the marketplace.
 
Our first response to a portfolio is usually a gut reaction:  “Wow!,” “Meh,” or “Pass, just not a fit for our portfolio.” The “wows” usually reflect work in which we love the palette, the line work, and the overall creativity and sensitivity the artist brings to their art. It’s an illustrator’s job to bring their experience and storytelling capabilities to a project and not just mirror an author’s words. We want to see an illustrator speak in a visual voice that is uniquely their own. We also try not to overlap styles in our portfolio so that each artist has the opportunity to shine.
 

​Fresh voices from Studio Goodwin Sturges include Amy Walrod’s plucky heroine in Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza by Philemon Sturges (Dutton); Ora Eitan’s paintings on wood for Cowboy Bunnies by Christine Loomis (Putnam);  Claudia Bielinsky’s cheeky animals in the Vive la Différence! (Casterman); Sebastia Serra’s digital/3D collages from Una llegenda de Sant Jordi by Joan Portell (Andana); detail of Salley Mavor’s needlework from the forthcoming My Bed by Rebecca Bond (HMH, Fall 2020);and Holly Berry’s innovative use of color and black and white in a portfolio sample.

How do editors find your clients? Do editors send you manuscripts and ask you to match them to an illustrator? How do you determine if an illustrator is a good match for a project?
 
Editors and art directors find our clients on our website or the artist’s own site, via social media, through our email marketing, in the portfolio of live art we bring to publishers, at the Original Art Show at the Society of Illustrators, and elsewhere; there are a variety of ways!
 
It’s not very often that an editor sends us a manuscript and asks us to match it with an illustrator. Rather, an editor or art director usually has a vision and approaches a particular artist. However, sometimes the illustrator approached for a project is unavailable, or doesn’t feel a connection to the manuscript. In these cases, we often propose another illustrator whom we think would be a good match. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn’t! Editors often have a ‘wish list’ they’re working through, so they might already have someone else in mind.
 
We know our artists very well, both on an artistic and a personal level, so it’s not difficult to determine if an illustrator is the right fit for a project. Again, it’s gut, but it’s also the artist’s sensibility, strengths, interests, and past experience.

Writers have to be ready to make changes to their manuscript throughout the editorial process. These revisions, while necessary and beneficial, can be painful. What does the revision process look like for an illustrator? 
​
Some illustrators begin by making thumbnail sketches. These might be for the illustrator’s own purposes, or they may go to the editor/art director for feedback. Other times, artists make character sketches before launching into full sketch/dummy mode.

​From there, the illustrator creates full-size, or at least to-scale, interior sketches. The designer will put the sketches together with the text and mark up the document with notes, and/or provide a page-by-page editorial letter. This is where things can get painful. An illustrator has thought long and hard about the compositions and decisions they’ve made, but there can still be major changes at this early stage. A designer will often move sketches around, suggest combining pages, request changes in composition or point of view, etc. Usually an editor/designer asks that certain pages be resketched, while other pages may be released for the artist to go to finish. Pages that need resketching can go through several rounds of revamping before artist, editor, and designer agree on a visual solution to any given challenge.

​Some artists submit finishes in batches; others deliver all the interiors at once. The finishes route through editorial, design, and copyediting, just as the sketches did. (Do authors know that art goes through copyediting, just like words do?!) There are usually some changes to final art for consistency or other issues. Some artwork is relatively simple to revise; other work, like oil pastels or dimensional work, not so much!        

How do illustrators react when they get a manuscript peppered with illustration notes? When are illustrator notes helpful? When are they hurtful?
 
Even if an author submits a manuscript with art notes, the notes often don’t come to the artist. Illustrators are hired to bring their own ideas and sensibility to a text, and excessive art notes can be distracting, or even intrusive and overreaching. While it’s helpful to have minimal notes if they put humor or technical issues in context, in general, writers should be very selective about what, if anything, they need to convey. As authors ourselves, we try to remind ourselves that the illustrator didn’t tell us what to write, so we shouldn’t tell her what to draw. It can be hard for authors to let go, but we must! That’s part of the picture book process, and part of what makes picture books so very special. The dance between text and image, with each telling part of the story, is so magical.
 
One caveat is that if a text is nonfiction or takes place in a specific time or place, it can be very helpful to an illustrator to have notes and/or visual research about costume, architecture, or cultural details that an author may have already uncovered. Accuracy is so important, and this can be a good place for authors and illustrators to communicate, usually through their editor.

When an illustrator is not working on an assignment, what do you advise your illustrators do to grow their craft/art?
 
We advise them to do what we tell our RISD students (and elementary students at author visits) to do:  separate from your electronics and get out and eat up the world! Go to movies, the theater, lectures, museums, parks. Read books, listen to music, cook, garden, get dirty! Try new foods, learn about a different culture, do something you’ve never done before. Be a sponge for experiences and emotions. Fill your well so that you have something to draw upon to create. As makers, we often feel pressure to produce and sometimes forget that we must nourish our brains and souls the same way we feed our bodies.
 
In terms of the book world, we advise artists to stay connected and engaged. Visit libraries and bookstores to drink in new books. What trends do you see? What gaps in the market? What mentor texts or approaches to art or bookmaking can you learn from? Form opinions about what you like and dislike, and why.
 
We also ask our artists to create new samples to freshen up their portfolios or social media feeds. Samples can be tough because they’re not part of a larger project that an artist is fully immersed in. But they can plant a seed or pique an editor’s interest, and sometimes they lead a creator in an unexpected and delightful direction. 

​Yes, covers are a different animal! They’re like posters for the book, and they really serve a different purpose than the (narrative) interiors. The cover art should reflect the feel and content of the book and should pull you into the totality of the story. For this reason, we don’t generally like pulling an interior and reusing it for the cover, as this is rarely the best choice.
 
When schedules allow, the cover is the last piece of art an illustrator makes. (Sometimes a publisher needs two interiors and a cover for launch, and then the cover must be finished earlier.) In our experience, it’s generally much easier to determine what the cover should show once the interior art for a book is done, or nearly done. Not surprisingly, covers go through much scrutiny. Illustrators often offer several cover sketches to provide options for discussion.
 

How does the team at Studio Goodwin Sturges use their own personal publishing experience to guide their clients? How has the process of writing and publishing your own books informed or changed your approach? 

Having worked on our own books allows us to empathize with authors and illustrators on a different level. We can help clients avoid pitfalls we may have encountered, and/or offer strategies to overcome them. And it’s helpful at the marketing stage, to share tips, tricks, and contacts. Most of all, it gives us an in-the-trenches camaraderie. Making books is all about collaboration and the meshing of ideas and inspiration. And that is what we’re all about!

A big 24 Carrot Writing thank you to the team at Studio Goodwin Sturges for sharing their advice and perspective. 

Studio Goodwin Sturges was founded by ​Judy Sue Goodwin Sturges and her late husband, architect-turned-children’s book author Philemon Sturges, in 1989. Judy Sue is also a longtime professor of illustration at her alma matter, Rhode Island School of Design. Studio staffers Sara Dunn and April Prince also have RISD connections; Sara is an alumna of the Illustration program, and April, an author and former editor at HarperCollins, teaches the “Word” portion of Judy Sue’s long-standing picture book course, Picture & Word.

If you would like to learn more about Studio Goodwin Sturges please visit them at: http://www.studiogoodwinsturges.com/. 

​To purchase Construction Kitties go to ​https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780805091052 and to purchase Dig In! go to https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781419705229. 

~Guest blog by Jamie Tan

As a senior publicist at Candlewick Press, my job involves a lot of travel, conversation, logistics, and a ton of e-mail. When I started out in publicity, I walked in thinking that the job would be about reaching out to event and media contacts, acting as an author liaison, and being a public-facing representative of Candlewick Press. The job is that, but with a whole lot of fun and unexpected tasks, mostly involving troubleshooting when the random things go awry.
 
My typical day at the office involves a myriad of tasks. I set up events, pitch journalists, talk to my authors about plans for their upcoming titles, and contribute to the department hive-mind when we have queries or are looking for fresh leads. I spend most of my day responding to e-mail, checking relevant social media, and planning for future campaigns. In my head, I’m thinking at least two seasons (one year) ahead. It’s nothing compared to my editorial and design colleagues, who are often times thinking two years (or more) out.

My typical day at an event or conference involves being an author liaison and amateur photographer. When I am with authors, I make sure I know their schedules inside and out so that I know where we need to be, how to get there, and who to contact if an issue arises. I also want to make sure that the authors are as comfortable and event-ready as possible, which involves taking them out to coffee or simply walking around to ease their nerves. I’ve learned how to situate myself in an audience so that I can take the best photograph possible to be used in social media or a photo round-up post-event. I admit that I’m glued to my phone during events, whether it be I’m waiting for a call or text response to a question, checking to see if anyone has posted about my author on social media, or am trying to decipher the best way to get from point A to point B. For  publicists, a strong internet connection and access to their inboxes are musts.​

When I think about my job description, I think about it like casting a wide net. I’m trying to hit up every angle I can, even the unusual ones. I get my fair share of rejection, but I also have successes. It can be depressing to send out more than twenty e-mails and not receive a response, but it is gratifying when the twenty-first e-mail you send out gets an enthusiastic response. The one thing I’ve learned? Keep trying. You never know what’s going to happen!
 
My advice for authors would be to keep an eye out for opportunities. They are my partners in the publicity process, and I really appreciate it when an author has built relationships within the industry that result in being asked to participate in interviews and also appearances. Several of the authors I work with have really robust social media presences which are really helpful in keeping their names in the public eye. While the publicity department and I have access to a wider range of events, authors are able to tap into their local literary scenes and be aware of opportunities that I might not be.
 
Jamie Tan is a Senior Publicist at Candlewick Press and has her MA in Children’s Literature from Simmons College. Before working at Candlewick Press, Jamie worked in events and marketing at several independent bookstores. 
​You can find her on Twitter @thejamietan.

​Guest blog by author, librarian and children’s book buyer Susan Kusel

You’ve written the world’s greatest book. You want to see it everywhere.
But when you walk into a bookstore or library, it isn’t there. As a bookseller and librarian, this is my most frequently asked question from authors: “Why don’t you have my book and how can I get you to carry it?”
 
Here’s some tips to help get it on the shelf.

​First, don’t assume the book isn’t there. Always ask a staff member so they can tell you what’s actually going on. Maybe you’re looking in the wrong section. Maybe it sold out and is being reordered. Maybe someone bought the last copy just before you walked in. Maybe it’s being shelved or is misplaced.
 
Ask nicely. An author who makes a polite inquiry will get a lot farther than one making demands.  You will make more sales in the long run if you are kind and courteous to the people purchasing and selling your books.
 
Give the name of your publisher and distributor.  The buyer needs to know how to buy your book and if they’ve already ordered it. Your publisher’s name is the quickest way of finding that out. If your publisher has a distributor, you should give that as well. 

Include the ISBN. This may seem like a small thing to you, but providing the International Standard Book Number saves time for a busy buyer. If applicable, give ISBNs for all formats your book comes in. 

Give plenty of time before the book’s release. If you want the book available for the on sale date, you need to provide a long lead-time. Bookstore buyers often buy from publishers 3-6 months before the book goes on sale. Library buyers need time to place the order with their distributors.

Sign stock- but give warning. It’s lovely to offer to sign the store’s stock of your books. Autographed copies help sales. But please don’t show up on a busy Saturday morning. Always get in touch ahead of time. This allows the store to find all the copies of your book, order extra copies, and have someone available to work with you.  
 
Make sure the book is a good fit. Don’t ask a mystery bookstore to carry your picture book or a children’s bookstore to carry your mystery book. Do basic research. If they don’t have your book, it is often not a critique of it. Trust that they know what sells and circulates for them.
 
Read the policies. If the bookstore states on their website that they don’t take self-published books, don’t try to pitch them one. If a library outlines the books they look for in their collection development policy, read it. 

Build a relationship. It’s not about this one book. It’s about getting to know the booksellers and librarians. Make sure it’s a two way street. Buy their books. Attend their programs. Listen to their advice.
 
Include links. When asked where your book can be bought, include a link to an indie or IndieBound. For those looking for a library that carries your book, link to your local library or WorldCat. Bookstores and libraries do a lot of work promoting you. It makes a difference if you promote them.  

​Susan Kusel has turned a life as a book lover into many careers as an author, librarian, and book buyer. She is currently the children’s book buyer at ​[words] Bookstore in Maplewood, New Jersey. She has served on many book award committees, including the 2015 Caldecott committee. Her debut book, The Passover Guest, illustrated by Sean Rubinwill will be published in Spring 2021 with Neal Porter Books/Holiday House.You can find her online at susankusel.com.

Guest Post by Bookstore Owner Paul Swydan

​In my short time owning a bookstore, I’ve had the opportunity to view the marketing of a book from a whole new perspective. Frustratingly, good marketing doesn’t guarantee success for your book or for yourself as an author, but without it at some point in the chain – publisher, author, media, distribution point (in my case, independent bookstore) – the chances of a book becoming successful dwindle fast.
 
As someone who majored in marketing, I have a lot of strong feelings on the subject, and pay attention to it. I think there are a lot of things that authors can do to set themselves up for success. For our purposes here, I’ll stick to the things I like to see as a bookstore owner, though I’m always happy to talk about more general marketing practices. These three items are sort of events-focused, but they are applicable even if you’re not doing an event with the store. A store can only host so many events, after all, and there are thousands of books in each store that won’t have an event tied to it, and we like promoting those books too!

​1)  Send Us Marketing Materials

We want to promote you and your book. If you’re doing an event at the store, we are going to promote the event. I am particularly fond of promoting the event on social media. You can almost never guarantee a good audience for an event, but beyond the actual event’s attendance, you’re trying to create a perception that you’re a part of an exciting event. You know the old saying, perception is reality. As authors and writers who try to shape reality, we’re a little more likely to scoff at the notion, but it’s true. I won’t fill the bookstore for every event, but when I talk to people in my community, there is a distinct belief that there is always something exciting happening at the bookstore, and the main reason for that is social-media promotion.
 
So, help us out. Do you have a specific author photo you want us to use? Is there a review you’d like us to quote, or a phrase or tagline you’d like us to use in promoting the book? Can you get your publisher to foot the bill for a poster we can put up in the store? Usually not, but it never hurts to ask.
 
I’d use Rebecca Kim Wells as an example here. As an Indies Introduce author and a manager/buyer at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, Rebecca has experience on both sides of the equation. At the Indies Introduce Breakfast at Children’s Institute, she encouraged people to help her come up with other taglines for her book than the “angry bisexual dragon novel.” I think it’s instructive to think of your book as a marketer would. When I say things like “everyone should read it!” people’s eyes glaze over. If you don’t give people a description, they’ll invent their own, or worse, they’ll simply ignore it. 

2) Make Your Own Graphics

Don’t be afraid to make your own graphics either. Are you doing a tour? Most authors don’t get a proper tour, because publishers are only willing and able to pay for a select few. But if you have a few events planned out ahead of your release, there’s no reason you can’t group those together and call them a tour. I’ll single out Rebecca again, because she’s doing a fantastic job. She has nine events lined up ahead of her release at the end of the month. The majority of them are local, but they’re in four different states, and when presented together in an attractive graphic, they look really impressive. 
  
At the very least, this sort of organization is a signal to bookstores and the industry at large that you are a person who knows their business and is serious about promoting themselves. But a lot of bookstores either don’t make their own graphics in Canva or Illustrator or run out of time to make them properly. So if you have a graphic they can use, they’ll likely be more than happy to use yours.

3)    Be Creative

The best events are the ones that have something fun and unique. Susan Tan brings a cardboard cutout of her main character, Cilla-Lee Jenkins with her. We call her Cardboard Cilla like she’s another person at the event. People are excited to take pictures with her, including me! 
 
When we did Casey Robinson’s launch party for Iver and Ellsworth, she brought a stuffed Iver that someone had made for her (her mother, I think?). Kids loved squeezing it and holding it. When Gina Perry came for her book, Too Much! Not Enough!, she brought mini kazoos for kids, because one of the characters (Peanut), plays the kazoo in the book. I’m not sure parents really appreciated that giveaway, but the kids sure did! When Scott Magoon came for story time, he took requests from the audience when he was showing how he goes about drawing a picture, and even had some kids come up and draw with him. April Jones Prince prepares a very specific activity/scavenger hunt for each of her books. Brian Lies wraps his car in the graphics from his newest book.

​This isn’t to say that we don’t love the standard bookmarks authors often leave with us. We do, in a vacuum. But in practice, here’s where they often end up:
 

​We’re giving out our own bookmarks (that’s our best marketing) and/or selling bookmarks, so we don’t always remember to distribute yours. What can you do that’s a little different? If you weren’t creative, you wouldn’t be an author, so I’m sure there’s something! And if not, ask us. Booksellers are never short on opinions. 

Paul Swydan is the owner of The Silver Unicorn Bookstore in Acton, MA. To learn more about The Silver Unicorn visit:
https://www.silverunicornbooks.com/?q=h

To learn about events coming up at The Silver Unicorn visit: https://www.silverunicornbooks.com/?q=h.calevents

A Guest Post by Book Marketing Coach Colleen Riordan

Imagine for a moment that your books sell like cronuts in Brooklyn every time you publish a new title. Readers are flocking to the bookstores. They’re hyping your book everywhere—even before they’ve had the pleasure of cracking it open.
 
It’s the dream, right?
 
Avid readers want good stories. They want your stories. And, if they’re anything like you, then you know how excited these bookworms get. They’re scouring Goodreads and book blogs right and left, on the prowl for their next favorite story. But, they can’t love your book if they don’t know it exists.
 
This is precisely why authors need email.
 
The best book marketing, in its simplest form, is just passionately sharing your story with the readers who already want it.
 
Email makes that easy.

​The 3 Myths of Author Email 

Authors often argue that they don’t need to use email to communicate with readers. They feel it’s unnecessary, outdated, and time-consuming.
 
Can you blame them? Social media is exciting and ubiquitous. It’s easy to throw email to the wayside and chase the shiny new toys. Email has been around since the 1970’s, but that doesn’t mean it’s out-of-date. In fact, email is one of the most effective marketing tools today.
 
Let’s tackle some of the myths that authors believe about why they don’t need to email readers.

Myth 1:  Email is unnecessary. Readers will find the books if they really want them. 
​
Imagine if you had an email list of people eager to read your books the moment they get published. These readers are already passionate about what you do, which means they’re more likely to preorder or run out to the bookstore during that first week. If you had enough fans like that, you could hit the bestseller lists book after book.
 
The book industry has a vast reach. Books are promoted on television, social media, newspapers, and park benches. It’s fantastic because at any moment you might stumble across your next favorite story.
 
However, books have a lot of competition. Over your average day, you have access to entertainment non-stop. Your phone, computer, television, and radio are filled with high quality content. A great book has to break through all of that noise.
 
Take a moment to think about how you found the last book you read.
 
Did you stumble across it on the library shelves? Did your best friend gush about it for weeks? Did you use specific keywords to search for it (or something like it) online?
 
Most of us don’t have a system for discovering new books. We hear about them on television. We spot our favorite authors reading them on Instagram. We ask our librarians for recommendations.
 
But between the incredible entertainment already at our fingertips and the sheer volume of advertising we see everyday, even the most die-hard fans are missing out on new book announcements.
 
Typically, books in a series are published a year apart. That’s a long time for a reader to wait. You can’t expect them to religiously check your website or the bookstore on the first of each month, eagerly awaiting the next book’s release.
 
Can you see the flaws in this system?
 
You can’t rely on fate to notify readers about your books. It’s not reliable. It’s not repeatable. You need a method of notifying readers about your books every time something comes out.
 
If you want to a career as an author, you can’t put the responsibility of hearing about your books on your readers. You need to reach out to them and tell them about these amazing stories. This is why email is perfect.

​Myth 2:  Email is outdated because social media has taken over the internet. 
​
Social media is an entertaining way to interact with readers. You can quickly share photos, broadcast new messages, and engage with fans in real-time.
 
So, why not only use social media?
 
Social media networks like Facebook let readers follow their favorite author’s online presence. Here’s the catch: Facebook is not a direct communication channel. When an author posts their latest book announcement to their Facebook page or profile, Facebook’s algorithm decides which of your followers see it and when.
 
On average, less than 8% of your audience will see one of your organic posts on Facebook. These are your everyday, unpaid posts. For the average business page, the rate goes down to 2%. That means that a very small portion of your audience is seeing the post you worked so hard to create.
 
This percentage is variable of course. If you have an incredibly active and engaged audience who love you and regularly comment on your posts or share them, the algorithm will broadcast your posts to more of your followers. However, it still won’t be all of your followers.
 
Now, 8% might seem tiny, but it doesn’t mean you should skip Facebook entirely. It just means you shouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket. All of your social networks have this problem. You simply cannot reach everyone who is following you.
 
Why? Because Facebook—or whichever social network you’re using—is the middleman. You don’t get to decide who sees your posts. They do.
 
Social media networks limit the reach of a post for several reasons.
 
First, they tailor the newsfeed experience for individuals to show them more of what they already like and less of what they don’t. This is based off the how often someone engages with posts like yours and how much engagement your posts get.
 
Second, social media is technically considered ‘free.’ (It’s not. You’re exchanging your data for use of their platform.) However, Twitter, Facebook, and the rest of the social media networks are all businesses that need to make money to survive. One of the ways they monetize their platforms is by asking you to pay to reach more people through ads or sponsored posts.
 
With email, there is no middleman deciding who sees your message.
 
It’s direct communication. You write, and your subscribers get to make the active choice about whether they’ll read your email.

​Myth 3:  Email is difficult and takes time away from writing. 

As you can see from what we covered in the previous two myths, you can’t afford to NOT use email.

 
Without email, you’re taking the risk that even your biggest fans will never find the sequel to books they already loved. They won’t get the chance to share your new release on social media or borrow it from a friend. You’ll waste weeks on carefully constructed social media posts promoting something that few followers will ever see.
 
To choose to avoid email is to choose to spend more time on your marketing just to reach the same number (or less) of people.
 
Imagine having an eager audience just waiting to hear from you—with a smile and open arms.
 
With email, you can have that.
 
At the core of your book marketing, you need a reliable, one-on-one method for communicating with your fanbase. Email excels at creating real relationships with your readers.
 
In the author-reader relationship, it’s your responsibility to reach out with news about your upcoming releases, entertaining activities, and book signings or events. Readers have a plethora of entertainment to choose from. You can’t even become a choice if they don’t know you have something coming out.
 
Through email, you can personalize your messages and treat each subscriber as a unique, book-loving, fan—not just an email address. When your emails are entertaining, educational, and/or aspirational, you are rewarding each and every one of your fans, who will in turn, share their love of your books with the world.

​Colleen Riordan is a book marketing coach and the founder of Wild Ink Marketing. She has over eight years of experience in marketing and communications and a deep passion for teaching authors and illustrators how to sell more books and build their careers through the power of book marketing. 

To learn more about Colleen and Wild Ink Marketing, please visit Colleen at https://www.wildinkmarketing.com/. 

 Our blog is on a brief holiday hiatus,
but all of us at 24 Carrot Writing wish you a happy, sparkling 4th of July week!
​Read, write, and relax!
We will return next week with July marketing month posts!
Cheers!
~​Francine, Amanda, Kelly, & Annie​

~ By Amanda Smith

Earlier this month, I found myself again as substitute teacher in the art room, but this time with middle school students. They were in the process of painting an impressionist landscape. What I encountered, though, was hesitancy. They were so afraid that they were going to mess up their pictures by experimenting with this new style, that even after explaining and demonstrating multiple times, most students still opted to mix solid colors on their palettes and apply flat, texture-less paint to their canvasses.

I recognized that anxiety of “messing up a picture.” I felt that many times as an art student myself and have vivid memories of an art teacher dipping my brush in the bright red and yellow paint of my neighbor’s palette and brushing thick globs of primary colors on my super-careful shades-of-blue painting. I was crushed, and furious, and traumatized by the experience for years. But now, I can see that she tried to push me, in the true spirit of the Impressionists, towards experimenting. To stop resisting change. To be brave. To play.

For interesting short videos on Monet's Waterloo Series, visit WAM's website here. 
For more Waterloo Bridge images, click here.

by Francine Puckly
 
As the Summer Solstice approaches, my mind is churning with a multitude of thoughts and emotions about growth, new beginnings, and the constructive criticism that can derail or redirect our endeavors. I’m excited about the idea that in ancient times the Summer Solstice was once considered the New Year and was both an opportunity to break out of one’s normal routine and a time of merriment and celebration. In present time, the Solstice is roughly the halfway point of the year. A marking of time. A marking of our goals.  And for a few of my colleagues, it’s a marking of delayed projects as a result of rejection or requested revisions by industry professionals and critique partners. How we deal with these requests and setbacks will determine how well we stay on track to meet our goals this year. 

A few years ago, my daughter ran for office in a student organization she had been part of for several years. In the days leading up to the election results, she had convinced herself that she had lost the election and mentally prepared for the deep and complete humiliation that would inevitably come when her loss was revealed. The morning the election results were to be announced, I asked her how she was feeling. She shrugged. “You know? I’m gonna be okay.” As it turned out, she didn’t lose the election for that particular officer position. But another classmate lost in a different race. This classmate was not prepared to lose and was ill-equipped to gracefully handle the results. Lifelong friendships ended that day. The student resigned from the organization. What had once been a source of great joy for the student quickly turned to poison. Someone needed to tell her, "You know? It's gonna be okay."

Which brings us to publishing and the art of critique and rejection, dear writers. How many times have we received hurtful, soul-wrenching rejections of our work or unanticipated requests for manuscript changes and were tempted to throw it all away? Or we hear of another artist’s success and fume at the injustice? In some cases, if we can be objective, we can see that the artist’s manuscript or project had more potential than what we had offered. Sometimes the other person’s idea is more unique, more fully developed, more polished. Other times we feel cheated. We can burn bridges and claim the world is out to get us. Or if we’re smart, we learn what to do differently so that next time we can win. Sometimes, for whatever reason, it just isn’t our time.
            
With all this summering and raining and shining, the growing season is upon us. And all gardeners know that momentous growth springs forth after a significant pruning. And we can respond by pruning words and tightening our manuscripts and possibly even pruning our egos as we realize we have more to learn.  At this time of great light and idleness, try to approach your projects with enlightenment and consciousness with respect to what needs to be done to move forward. If you’re reeling from the pain of rejection or harsh criticism, look for ways to celebrate the joys of the creative life. Hone your craft with the help of how-to books while you dig your toes in the freshly mown lawn. Attend workshops and free lectures. Stop by book launches to support your fellow artists and learn how authors and illustrators interact with their audiences. Read blog posts and memoirs written by authors who were “elected” this year and try to figure out how to apply their successes to your own words and journey.

Regardless of the origination of Summer Solstice celebrations, a plethora of fire and sun rituals across ancient cultures celebrated light. And in noting lightness, we will be able to release burdens, doubts, and fears. Oh, and rejection.

Now go. Be happy. Bask and grow in the warmth of the sun.

~ Francine