Thursday, May 28, 2009

My First Book





I had always wanted to write a children's book. I foolishly thought "How hard could it be? It's just for kids." So I dove in armed only with a limited grasp of the English language and no formal literary training. Twenty rejection slips later, I started to understand "How hard could it be?"

My first book was published in 2001 by Hyperion. Jake Gander Storyville Detective. 
Developing picture books is truly a collaborative process as I found out when told  " We love the story, just change the beginning and ending."  Publishers, in my experience, have your best interests at heart and when they ask for changes you either 1. Dig in to defend / clarify your original vision or 2. Change the beginning and ending. I did the later and it was the right choice.
The images above show the before and after (the after and before for the cover) of some of the art for the book.
This is my first post so please forgive the bad layout. I promise I'll get better.