Look for the newly-released, “Along Came A Monster” illustrated by
Lorraine Dey – Deystudio, LLC
Explore new books from independent and traditional writers & artists w #SCBWIBookStop https://www.scbwi.org/scbwibookstop/
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manuscripts
This Month’s Book Project…
Here is the current book illustration project I am working on. “Gypsy” – Written by India Blake. It is a story about a shelter dog’s trials and tribulations, and it takes place in the Florida Keys.
This book should be complete by mid-April this year. Keep watching my blog for the next two book illustration projects scheduled for April-May.
Thanks for visiting!
Lorraine Dey
Ordering Children’s Books for the Holidays…
Many people have asked how they can order some of my books. I have set up a simple solution.
Now there is a webpage featuring all of my illustrated children’s books and an easy PayPal shopping cart.
Thank you for your continued support. Enjoy your Holidays!! 🙂
http://www.deystudio.com/sale.html
Lorraine Dey
Happy Authors make Happy Illustrators :)
An illustration from the book I am completing today…
Here is an illustration from “The Christmas Berry” written by Canadian Author Lisa Young and illustrated by Lorraine Dey
On to the next book. Keep watching for images I will post from the “Acres Verdes” collection.
Lorraine Dey
Illustration Friday – Twirl
This week’s entry for IF is a book cover I did a few years ago. Thought I’d dust it off for the subject of “Twirl”.
By Lorraine Dey
“Get Ready For School Visits”
Get Ready For School Visits
First, I am so sorry for totally skipping July’s blog posting. It was “one of those months”. Happy to be back and focusing on my work once again.
This month’s topic is inspired by a NJ-SCBWI conference I attended in June. I learned a great deal about getting set up for school and library visits. I thought I’d share a little of what I learned there.
Author, Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen offered an enlightening seminar on preparing yourself for the marketing end of things, the seminar was titled “School Visits as a Business”. Just by viewing her “event kits” and “educator’s guides” you can learn a lot about what types of things you might need to prepare and set up when getting ready to promote your book through school visits.
I also attended a talk led by Kristin Venuti, author of “Leaving The Bellweathers”. Her seminar was titled “Yikes! I Sold My Book. Now What?” Kristin was helpful in many ways but one that stands out is the answer to my question, “Who do you actually send your school and library visit/marketing materials to?”
Besides the usual local newspapers/PR, when you want to promote a book signing, you can send your brochures and Bio to PTA presidents, Library Directors and School Librarians. The work comes up-front in compiling your list and sending the info. out but you should keep that list going so you can build on it for the next book. (Because there will be a next book once you’ve been bitten by the bug). 😉 Here is another PR avenue to try…a listing of Parenting Magazines.
I am very fortunate that I have experience as a graphic designer and I can produce my promotional materials myself, but as Sudipta shared in her seminar…you can develop something that works just fine by using your own computer and online affordable digital printing services. Be creative in preparing your material and have fun with it. Create activity pages to include in your educator’s guide. This can be something as simple as a cooking recipe that kids can make. A simple desert or drink that uses the same name of one of your main characters for example: “The Duncan Ice Slush”. If you are an illustrator, create a coloring page with a B&W line art image from your book. The more you offer the educators in support of your book, the more likely they are at inviting you in to the classroom. More on School Visits from the experts.
On a personal note: My first picture book, “A Sweater For Duncan” will be released next month and I am sending out my own promotional brochures, etc. for visits and book signings. To keep up with the schedule of events and “Duncan” happenings, visit the official site at: http://sweaterforduncan.wordpress.com
Thanks for visiting!
Lorraine Dey
illustrator – Deystudio, LLC (www.deystudio.com)
(click on the “about” tab above to see more about Deystudio, LLC)
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This month’s featured blog…”Hosting a School Book Fair”
Blog post on how to host a successful school book fair.
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Featured image for this month…(from my RF stock portfolio)
Creating Story Boards and Picture Book Dummies
Creating Story Boards and Picture Book Dummies
In my last post I mentioned that I had submitted my first written manuscript to the publisher. Well it looks like this year I will be starting out 2010 as an author/illustrator! Happy New Year!
Raven Tree Press has contracted my book “Hector-Armando’s Big Rain Forest Party”, (working title). It is scheduled for a Fall 2011 release and I will be spending this year creating all of the illustrations for this book about a little armadillo. I plan to keep a journal as both the author and illustrator, and will include information on the “process” in future posts. This first post is where I start working… the rough story boards and cover designs.
This means I have to come up with sketches of the scenes to be depicted on each spread and also the front and back covers. I will put the roughs together following the page sequence that they are to appear in the book. This small mini version of the book is called a book dummy or mock-up. I had been making sketches and little rough scribbles as I was writing the book. Now I need to bring it to the next level so the publisher can see what I have in mind for the entire book layout. Here’s an interesting look into the process and What Happens inside a Children’s Publishing Company.
(This is a very rough initial draft of a cover possibility and it will likely change before the final art is produced).
Here is my journaling so far for anyone interested in how this whole process looks and how long it takes…
Dec. 21, 2009 – Submitted manuscript to publisher. (This is a publisher I have already worked with. It would take much longer if you are submitting to a new publisher)
Jan. 12, 2010 – Received an email from publisher… Lorraine,
“Exciting news! People at our home offices love your book proposal. I have just gotten a green light to offer you a contract for the book and to establish a production schedule with you.”
My Schedule: The first thing I will need to focus on now is finalizing the rough story boards and book dummy. If I were to have submitted this manuscript to a publisher I never worked with before, I would have created a dummy book to submit along with the manuscript. And possibly a finished spread or two to go along with it.
Feb. 28th – Rough covers and story boards are due to the publisher
Mar. 15th – Final cover art is due to the publisher
April 15th – Final Illustrated spreads 1 – 3, (pages 3 to 7) due to publisher
Aug. 15th – Final Illustrated spreads 4 – 7, (pages 8 to 15) due to publisher
Sept. 30th – Final Illustrated spreads 8 – 11, (pages 16 to 23) due to publisher
Nov. 15th – Final illustrated spreads 12 – 16, (pages 24 to 32) due to publisher
Fall 2011 – One year later, the tentative publishing release date for “Hector-Armando’s Big Rain Forest Party”
I am very excited to illustrate my very own picture book this year. I look forward to sharing the progress with you here on my blog each month. For a look at my first illustrated picture book that I completed last year, “A Sweater for Duncan”, visit the FB fan page.
Lorraine Dey
illustrator – Deystudio, LLC (www.deystudio.com)
(click on the “about” tab above to see more about Deystudio, LLC)
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FREE Vector of the month from Deystudio, LLC:
click on image above to get a PDF file.
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This month’s featured site…”Illustration Friday”
A weekly opportunity for Illustrators to showcase their work.
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Featured image for this month…(from my RF stock portfolio)
“Working With a Development Editor.”
“Working With a Development Editor.”
Many picture book illustrators decide to try their hand at writing the manuscript as well as illustrating a picture book. I took that plunge this Fall and created a manuscript for a picture book with a working title of “Hector-Armando’s Big Rain Forest Party”.
Since this was my first attempt at writing one, I hired a development editor to help me in making sure the plot, characters, and narrative, all flowed properly. I contacted Simone Kaplan who was very easy to work with. For me, the use of an editor was crucial and in working with Simone, I gained a great deal of insight into the writing process and learned so much from her. Thank you Simone!
NOTE: I have submitted the manuscript to the publisher and will let you know as soon as I hear any news, (good or bad). Wish me luck!
There are several different types of editors you can hire to help finalize and polish your story. Since I had a particular publisher in mind when creating this manuscript, I felt that I needed to concentrate more on the actual structure of the book. A copy editor will correct things like punctuation, spelling, etc. but the publisher I am focused on already has a copy editor and so I needed to use more of a development editor for help with the foundation of the story and characters.
I came across this old SCBWI France Interview with Simone when she was still working as an editor at Harper Collins in 2001. (though I’m not sure she’ll appreciate me pulling this from the dust pile).
Here is some valuable information on getting your manuscript read and out of the publisher’s slush pile. This is a helpful article by another editor, Harold Underdown.
And here is a great article on what editor Cheryl Klein likes to see in an artist’s portfolio. Also, Cheryl has a great post on “How to write a query letter”.
Don’t be afraid to use an editor for your first manuscript. It is well worth the effort.
Lorraine Dey
illustrator – Deystudio, LLC (www.deystudio.com)
(click on the “about” tab above to see more about Deystudio, LLC)
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FREE Vector of the month from Deystudio, LLC:
click on image above to get a PDF file.
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This month’s featured blog…”Children’s Publishing”
Children’s Publishing information from Scot Franson.
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Artist and Illustrator 
