Sally Grindley's Blog

Sometimes it takes a very long time

Creating a picture book (or any other book) and getting it published doesn’t happen overnight, at whatever point in the process we’re talking about. Whether it’s the writing of the story, the mapping out of illustrations, finding a publisher, the completion of finished artwork, the scheduling of the book’s publication, the marketing of it and, more and more, the sale of foreign right, all of these stages take time. As an author, it can be terribly frustrating to finish a story and know that it could be 2 years before it is published, as would be the likely scenario if I were to submit one today.

I actually came up with the idea for my most recent book – The Book at Bedtime (incorporating Goodnight Dragons) – some 20 years ago, but couldn’t quite make it happen, though there was some interest in it from a publisher I was working with at the time. I revisited it a couple of years ago, reworked it and gave it to Peter Utton, the fabulous illustrator I have collaborated with on many books. He liked it, and between us we honed it still further, including a complete set of rough illustrations, to the point where we were happy to submit it to our main publisher for consideration. They turned it down, much to our astonishment, I have to say, because we were convinced we had a winner on our hands. We therefore showed it to our Franco/Belgian publisher, Pastel, keen to know what they thought. They loved it!

Given that we have been very successful with our other books in France and Belgium, especially Shhh!, and Pastel have supported us very loyally over the years, we decided to publish direct with them. The Book at Bedtime will be published in France and Belgium this autumn, some 2 years after I first showed my story and ideas to Peter. That’s actually pretty quick! (If I were to present a new picture book text to a publisher today, there’s a very good chance it wouldn’t be published until autumn 2021.) As for an English language edition of the book, it remains to be seen when that will appear, but there has to be one because, after all, that’s the language I wrote it in, not to mention that we don’t want to disappoint our English fans!

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What if it’s a rejection?

At what point do you give up on a writing project and accept that whatever you might think of it yourself, if it keeps being rejected by publishers then perhaps it just isn’t good enough? It’s a question I’ve had to ask myself a few times, because regardless of the fact that I’ve had over 150 books published, I still have a reject pile of manuscripts that haven’t found a home. Of course, multiple rejects aren’t uncommon: Harry Potter was rejected umpteen times, as was Watership Down, before some discerning editor took a gamble on them. Normally, though, if a manuscript has been turned down a few times, it’s an indication that something isn’t quite right about it: it’s not well enough written, the plot is flawed, the characters aren’t well drawn, there’s no market for it, it lacks authenticity, the voice is wrong, it doesn’t appeal – the list is endless. The trouble is that when a story isn’t quite ‘there’, different publishers may give any number of different reasons why it doesn’t attract them, and that makes it really hard for a writer to go back and try to rework it.

I’ve had this a couple of times recently, once with a story for the 7+ age group, the second with a novel for children around 9+.  In the first instance, every publisher the story was sent to came back with an entirely different reason for not commissioning it, until I lost heart and confidence and put it away in a folder in my garage. (I’ll dig it out again one day and will no doubt spot straightaway what was wrong with it, because that’s what often happens.) In the second instance, I again received several sometimes conflicting comments about why my story didn’t work. This time, however, I was absolutely certain that it had enough going for it that I could/would somehow make it work. Being honest, when I re-read it once more I could see that the storyline was flawed and lacked authenticity. The voice was wrong and there was a remoteness about it. The first thing I did was rewrite it in the first person rather than third. I’m normally very good at knowing which works best, so why I didn’t spot from the beginning that I had got it wrong in this case I really can’t say, but it immediately made a massive difference. It was hard work, though, because it meant a lot of changes – not just a question of changing ‘she’ to ‘I’.

This second novel has been in the pipeline now for some 2 years, and I’ve finally got it to a point where my agent (she’s been invaluable in the process) can present it to publishers again. It’s been the most difficult thing I have ever written, I don’t know why, but all I can hope is that a publisher somewhere will see in it what I see and bring it to market. If not, I’m not sure what I will do. People have talked to me a lot about self-publishing, and that’s something I need to explore anyway for my backlist, but would I have the confidence in my book to self-publish it if it’s been turned down again by a number of different publishers? Would that be too arrogant of me to believe that I know better? I can’t answer that, but I suspect that the 44,500 words will land up in a folder in my garage, never to see the light of day because the story is far too contemporary. In the meantime I’ll keep everything crossed that it will be published in the traditional way – and sometime soon!

(Photo: final check for inconsistencies)

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Breaking into overseas markets

It was interesting talking a few days ago with a young Portuguese woman – in Portugal – about children’s books across the world and how different the book-buying markets are in different countries. I don’t think any of my books have been published in Portugal, though several have been translated into Portuguese for the Brazilian market.

When it comes to illustrated books for young children, it is often the style of illustration that will dictate whether and where a foreign edition (or editions) is published. What appeals in France and Holland, for instance, may not appeal in Germany and Denmark. What appeals in Sweden and Hungary may not appeal in Finland and the US. My own Shhh!, for instance, is hugely popular in France and Belgium, has now sold into China, but has never had a German or Scandinavian edition and died without trace in the US. UK publishers will choose illustrators very carefully and are much more likely to go with those they consider to have a broader appeal, because the more they can attract foreign sales, the cheaper their production costs and the greater chance they have of creating an international success. It’s not an exact science though!

The relevance or intrinsic interest of a story to a particular culture is of course another major factor, especially where fiction is concerned. A story that is too ‘local’ in subject or feel is unlikely to attract foreign editions, and in some countries the market for children’s books in general is small and insular, while for those that are externally sourced it is scarcely nascent – that includes Portugal. Finally, there are stories that have universal appeal and transcend multiple national barriers – The Gruffalo and the Harry Potter titles being prime examples. Don’t we all wish we had written them!

If I look at all of my books – picture books and fiction – my biggest markets, outside of English-speaking countries, have been France and Belgium, Sweden, Denmark and Finland, Germany, South Korea and more recently China, which is fast-growing. It’s a curious mixture! My most successful fiction in terms of co-editions is Spilled Water, which has sold into Germany, France, Hungary, Turkey, Sweden, Finland, South Korea, Holland, Brazil and Sri Lanka. Where picture books are concerned it’s Why Is the Sky Blue?, which has sold into France, Germany, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Holland, Sweden, Norway and Greece, and there’s even a Welsh edition.

One last point: foreign editions don’t necessarily happen straightaway. Only yesterday I received a Chinese edition of Knock Knock Who’s There?, which was published in 1985. It’s only just found it’s way into the Chinese market! Going back to Portugal, I shall be delighted when one of my books finally makes it onto bookshelves there. Which one will it be?

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Goats, a troll and keeping it fresh

I’ve just completed my take on the story of the three billy goats gruff and their attempts to thwart a nasty troll and cross a bridge to fresher pastures. Called ‘It’s the Troll!’, it’s a follow-up to ‘Help!’, which was in turn a follow-up to ‘Keep Out!’ and my all-time favourite ‘Shhh’, first published in 1991 and still going strong. All of them are in some way a twist on a traditional tale, and all of them are designed to encourage children to participate actively in the storytelling process.

I deplore book series that rest on their laurels. It happens too often that someone will create a popular character, situation, theme or format, and then regurgitate it over and over, with just the odd lazy tweak here and there to make it appear different. The ‘Spot’ books were a case in point, where the simple ‘lift-the-flap’ stories about that lovable dog – great in the early books – contained less and less original content as the series wore on. They became a marketing exercise to see how many sales could be generated by milking the popularity of the first books and I think cheated the reader/listener.

With ‘It’s the Troll!’, as with ‘Keep Out!’ and ‘Help!’, I’ve worked really hard to bring in lots of original content, to adopt a different approach and voice in each, to bring freshness to the scary and humorous elements, and to keep the reader/listener guessing. I’ve kept a few elements that identify the books as coming from the same stable, and of course, Peter Utton will illustrate ‘It’s the Troll!, but I prefer to think of them as companion volumes rather than a series, and indeed we changed the format for ‘Help!’, which is more humorous than scary, and added mouse commentators. Will the mouse commentators appear again in ‘It’s the Troll!’? They’re there at the moment, but the new book has other speech bubbles, so we may have to sacrifice the mice if the bubbles threaten to take over!

Peter is working away at the illustrations now and, as with the other books, we have both had a lot of fun in its creation. We hope by the time it is ready to go to press that we will have achieved our aim of making it as original and fresh as possible.

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Spilled Water – a film?

However much I try to keep calm and think of other things, I can’t help but feel a wee bit excited from time to time about the fact there is film interest in my children’s novel, Spilled Water. Nothing may come of it, I’m only too well aware, but it’s good to know that a director, scriptwriter and producercanada goose buy in london online storethink highly enough of it to want to explore all possibilities of getting it on to the big or small screen.

Spilled Water was published in 2003 and sold in ten different languages. It required a lot of research and is the book I’m most proud of. The idea came from a newspaper article about Chinese girls being taken to market and sold into domestic slavery (and worse). The article told of a police sergeant’s mission to return these girls to their families, and that they are called ‘spilled water’, which I take to mean ‘a waste’.

I began to wonder what it would be like to be a young girl in such a situation. The wondering turned into a persistent nagging, and that’s when I knew I had to write a story. I started by reading everything about China that I could lay my hands on, fiction and non-fiction, but I found it impossible to write a word until I went to China to ‘get a feel for’ a country that is so very different from the UK. translate . Much of what I saw there provides the backdrop for my story.

I also spent many hours researching online – everything from weather, to conditions in sweat shops, to food, to how teddy bears are made. http://www.sallygrindley.co.uk/blog/s... http://www.sallygrindley.co.uk/blog/s... http://www.sallygrindley.co.uk/blog/s... http://www.sallygrindley.co.uk/blog/s... http://www.sallygrindley.co.uk/blog/s... http://www.sallygrindley.co.uk/blog/s... http://www.sallygrindley.co.uk/blog/s... even made my own jointed bear, in order to understand how difficult it is to push a needle through multiple layers of fur! I like to be as accurate as possible.

Spilled Water is as much as anything a story about the resilience of children living in the most appalling conditions, and it’s a theme that continues through my other ‘international’ novels, which include Broken Glass, Torn Pages and Bitter Chocolate. Children in the UK have responded very positively to these books, and they are regularly used in schools as class readers.

I’m not on a mission to educate per se, I just like to tell a good story, but if these books make children who live in happier circumstances more aware of the suffering canada goose expedition parka 2xs on sale of others, more empathetic and more tolerant, then that can only be a very positive thing.

As for a film version of Spilled Water, that will be another story… I hope!

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On working with Peter Utton – part 2

I had more fun putting together my new book, HELP!, than any other book I’ve ever written. I say ‘putting together’, because it was more like working on a jigsaw puzzle than writing; there were so many different Parajumpers women elements to think about. And it was a further opportunity to collaborate with my favourite illustrator, Peter Utton.

Shortly after returning home, an idea began to germinate around The Three Little Pigs. I played with it, found the twist I was looking for, decided which elements from the previous two books I wanted to keep, created new elements like the mice narrators, turned the ending on its head so that instead of confining danger within the pages of the book, the danger would be ejected from the book (bye bye Big Bad Wolf!), defined the role of the reader – the reader has parajumpersonline.fr an important role in each of these books – and when I had consigned enough to paper I talked with Peter. He ‘got it’ immediately and set to work producing two full pages of roughs and some character sketches, adding lots of humorous touches of his own. HELP! was on its way!

We had been invited back to Belgium to attend the Belgian Book Fair, and whilst there we showed our Editor at Pastel what we were working on. http://www.sallygrindley.co.uk/blog/o... http://www.sallygrindley.co.uk/blog/o... http://www.sallygrindley.co.uk/blog/o... http://www.sallygrindley.co.uk/blog/o... http://www.sallygrindley.co.uk/blog/o... http://www.sallygrindley.co.uk/blog/o... ‘got it’ immediately as well, and with her on board we were able to approach our English publisher as a united unit. How could they turn us down?

There was a lot of huffing and puffing about the costcanada goose men’s expedition jacket 2015

of producing a larger format and whether in fact the idea for the book worked – of course it did! – but at last we had our way, not least because Pastel were prepared to buy a large number of copies!

Now that finished copies of HELP! are available, everyone is absolutely delighted with it and, guess what, I’m working on ideas for number 4! Once again, I shall be collaborating canada goose snow mantra woman with Peter all the way, and having a lot of fun.

 

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On working with Peter Utton

Publishers are often very good at keeping authors and illustrators apart – something to do with preventing the author from unduly influencing and possibly inhibiting the illustrator.  From what I remember, Peter Utton and I didn’t meet during the creation of our extremely successful book, SHHH! (published in 1991).  I submitted the manuscript to my publisher with notes on how the illustrations should work with the text, and from then on all communication was via the publisher.  Peter sent in roughs for his djarviss.fr artwork, which were forwarded to me for comment and returned to him via the publisher for any mutually agreed alterations.  However, SHHH! is perfect in its simplicity and required very little to-ing and fro-ing in order to marry up words and pictures, so the subject of talking to Peter didn’t really arise.

KEEP OUT!, our follow-up to SHHH!, was conceived some twenty years later and published in 2013.  KEEP OUT! is a good deal more complicated in its structure and required a lot more thought in terms of how the illustrations should work with the words.  I was determined that this time I would have direct contact with Peter, and we did indeed email/phone on a regular basis.  Each time Peter put pencil to paper, he would send me sketches and I would tweak the text over and over again to make sure that it was as tight and relevant as possible.  Even in the very final stages of production, I made one or two tiny changes, because when the colour illustrations were in place they inspired new thoughts.

Our Belgian publisher, Pastel, invited Peter and me to do a book-signing tour in France and Belgium, in order to promote KEEP OUT! and to meet the numerous fans of SHHH!, which has become almost a cult book in both countries.  It was the most time we had ever spent together, despite the fact that we had previously worked on a handful of other titles as well as SHHH!  We were able to bounce ideas off each other, and there’s no doubt we share similar creative aspirations and a very similar sense of humour.  That, combined with the enormous enthusiasm for our work displayed by our editor at Pastel, left us determined to come up with a new book, linked to SHHH! and KEEP OUT!, but with a least parajumpers pas cher one major difference – it was going to be bigger!  We had seen lots of books published by Pastel in larger formats than are the norm in the UK, and we were determined to have our way and buck the norm.

To be continued…http://www.sallygrindley.co.uk/blog/o...

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On the creation of a picture book

I have occasionally been asked by would-be children’s authors if they have to find their own artist for a story they have written that requires illustration, and whether it’s necessary to submit illustrations alongside their story.  The answer is no. who is .  In general, the author of a picture book comes up with the idea, writes the words, then submits it to a publishing house, either via his/her agent or direct to the children’s editorial team.  If the editorial team likes it and wants to publish, it is their job to find an illustrator they believe will bring the text to life.

Publishers generally have a list of illustrators with whom they prefer to work – or they will seek out an illustrator they would like to add to their list.  They are well able to visualise how a text will be complemented by illustration, and what style of illustration will in fact enhance it.  I have rarely been disappointed by my publishers’ choices (and do, in any case, have the right of veto), and though I write picture books with some idea of how I would like the finished book to look – I’m quite visual myself – I’m surprised and delighted by the way illustrators can take my stories and give them a whole new dimension.

Where SHHH! is concerned, I did in fact send the story to ABC Books, the original publisher of the book.  Peter Utton had already illustrated a couple of books for them, I loved his work, and I thought he would do SHHH! brilliantly.  Luckily, ABC Books agreed – and so did Peter – and the rest is history. http://www.sallygrindley.co.uk/blog/o... http://www.sallygrindley.co.uk/blog/o... http://www.sallygrindley.co.uk/blog/o... http://www.sallygrindley.co.uk/blog/o... http://www.sallygrindley.co.uk/blog/o... But under normal circumstances, I submit a story and my publisher then makes suggestions regarding suitable illustrators for me to consider.

Some would-be authors ask friends or family to illustrate their work and then send it in as a whole.  That puts publishers in a very difficult position, because they may like the story but not the artwork.  It can in fact be a deal-breaker – not to mention a relationship-breaker!

I hope that helps.

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How Keep Out! came about

KEEP OUT!, published in 2013, was a follow-up to SHHH!, published in 1991.  Of course, KEEP OUT! didn’t take 22 years to write – it’s only about 250 words long! – but frankly I didn’t have in mind to do a follow-up.  SHHH! was a one-off idea.  It won the Children’s Book Award, was runner-up for the Nestle Smarties Prize, and in many people’s eyes is the perfect picture book.  Most of my books have been one-offs, and that hasn’t always served me well, because series have a greater ability to garner attention and develop loyal followers.  I’ve had a tendency to move on to new pastures, to challenge myself in unfamiliar territory.

Even when a follow-up was suggested, I thought it would be foolhardy to try and emulate SHHH! with something similar – too much danger that it would be compared unfavourably – and I wasn’t prepared to take the lazy (though sometimes lucrative) option of simply regurgitating the same story but with different characters.  But when in discussion with my publisher, Hodder, about reissuing SHHH! with a new jacket, mention was made again about a follow-up, the brain cells started to whir.  I put some ideas down on paper under the loose title of DON’T COME IN!, found it impossible to progress them, and forgot about it.

Many months later, I came across those ideas and began to mould them.  I changed the title to KEEP OUT! – more positive – decided that a bear would figure strongly, and of course it was going to be scary.  What I found impossible was to replicate the ‘flap’ device in SHHH!, where you look back through hole flaps cut in the pages to check that nothing has changed in the scene you have just left.  It’s a device that works brilliantly, and I was keen to use it again.   However, I also wanted KEEP OUT! to cover different ground.  I wound up using flaps in the traditional way, where they simply cover part of the picture and open to reveal something funny or scary.

I left my manuscript to settle, certain that it wasn’t quite right and was lacking the je ne sais quoi that marks out SHHH!  I came back to it once or twice, but had no confidence in it.  Then, one day, after Hodder had asked me yet again about a follow-up, I dug it out and realised that with a few small tweaks it was actually pretty good.  So did my publishers on both sides of the Channel.

There was never any doubt that Peter Utton would illustrate KEEP OUT! The different perspectives he uses provide such variety, and the little extras he adds to his illustrations to keep you going back for more are genius.  Who knows why he came up with Beware of the Broccoli, but it makes me smile every time I see it, and look out for all the eyes and funny hidden creatures.

A key difference between SHHH! and KEEP OUT! is that in SHHH! the reader encourages the audience to keep advancing through the book, albeit quietly so as not to alert the giant of their presence.  In KEEP OUT! the reader is a reluctant participant, hesitant to go forward, occasionally determined to go back, while the audience is allowed to decide whether or not to progress through  pages where bears might be lurking.

As for those lurking bears, we know after a while that there are likely to be three and that they will vary in size, but are we really prepared for the appearance of one enormous bear, sporting a diamond-patterned woolly jumper, to leap out at us as we come to the end of the book?  Peter had to come up with just the right degree of scariness, so had several attempts at sharpness of teeth and openness of mouth.  I think we got it just right.  Of course, we can slam the book shut just as the danger becomes too much, and everyone can breathe a sigh of relief over a narrow escape – before starting the adventure all over again!http://www.sallygrindley.co.uk/blog/h...

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More Than Words

From an article I wrote for Your Cotswold Family magazine:

Oh, to return to the days when I could sit my boys on my knees, snuggle up and read them a story!  In their twenties they’re a bit old for that now, but we had such fun during those irreplaceable times when nothing else mattered outside of our intimate little huddle.

I was the editorial director of a well-known children’s book club and spent my days picking through publishers’ submissions to select the best for our nationwide audience.  I regularly took books home to review and sometimes sample with my sons.  As far as I was concerned, the boys were never too young to be read to, and it was fascinating to watch how their powers of memory, recognition and speech developed through familiarity and repetition.  Even at six months old, they would show genuine excitement when I picked up a board book and turned the pages in front of them, one image following another, one simple word or phrase accompanying each image and expressed by me with great gusto.  Those books were also chewed in the same way that everything else is explored in those early months, but babies soon learn that they don’t taste very nice and are destined for a much higher purpose.

Early learning

According to Mem Fox, author of Reading Magic, reading with a child should start at birth.  In the early days, even though they won’t understand every word, they’ll hear new sounds, words and phrases which they then try out, copying what they have heard.  Believe it or not, by the time babies reach their first birthday they will have learned all the sounds needed to speak their native language, so the more stories you read aloud, the more words your child will be exposed to and the better their vocabulary will be.  By hearing speech patterns, learning that letters make the words that make up stories, and improving their understanding as they listen, children learn the vital skills needed for when they start to read.

The benefits of having parents and other adults read aloud to children have been quantified and recognised among the most important activities for children from birth.  Research published by the National Literacy Trust reveals a third of parents don’t realise they are the most important influence on their child’s language and literacy development, and these figures are further supported by the results of a new study commissioned by Disney, revealing less than a third of parents in the UK read to their children every day.  Half of the parents and grandparents of children aged six and under, agreed that story time allowed them to spend quality time with their child, although 29 per cent admitted they are too tired for stories, and the same percentage felt they got home from work too late to read to their children.

Time team

I would no sooner have missed our bedtime story routine than miss cleaning my teeth, not because it was a chore that had to be done, but because it was as enjoyable for me as it was for the boys.  I was astonished at just how quickly they were able to remember the stories and even individual words, to the point where I would be told off if I missed something out!  I used books to help them learn about different animals, transport, numbers, colours and the letters of the alphabet.  Books helped me to explain emotions and feelings, like anger, sadness, belonging, pain and joy, and to show what to expect from going to the doctor, moving house and starting school.

By the time my boys started school themselves, they were so confident with books that learning to read followed on naturally.  The tables were turned then, and I became the listener as they read to me, which was magical in itself, because I find the whole process whereby young brains learn to decipher little black squiggles on a page quite extraordinary.  We continued with bedtime stories, of course; none of us were prepared to give up those special moments.

I cannot imagine what it must be like for children who have never been exposed to books to arrive at school and have to decipher those little black squiggles, before they have experienced the joys that lie between a book’s covers.  For some, it must forever be a chore, especially if they come from a home where books have never been embraced.  And yet, the ability to read is paramount in everything we do; even mundane things like finding our way somewhere, applying for broadband, booking a holiday or renting a flat.  As for making progress in school subjects other than reading, how on earth is that possible when all subjects rely upon the written word – whether in a book or on a screen – to transmit information in a way that’s comprehensible?

Future proof

For me, as a single, working parent, there was very little that was more sacred than reading to my children, and I allowed nothing to get in the way.  I don’t buy into the excuse that some people make of being too busy.  We’re all busy, but it’s a question of priorities.  Often it’s a case of making a small sacrifice, like missing a favourite TV programme, but for me that was a no-brainer, after all, what’s more important – a child’s emotional, intellectual and physical development, or the latest episode of Deadenders?  As for any argument about the affordability of books, they’re free from libraries.  It just requires a bit of effort to go and get them.

Perhaps some parents worried they won’t do a good job.  Now think about it: what an amazing opportunity us parents have to indulge our acting skills in front of a loving and enthusiastic audience!  I used to leap off beds, roll on the floor, laugh like a lunatic, hop, skip, dance, and adopt a variety of voices and accents that zigzagged haphazardly from one part of the British Isles to another – but who cared?  My boys didn’t know the difference and they were delighted to join in the fun.

Older and wiser

My three sons are all very sporty, and there’s no doubt that books took more of a back seat while they were chasing or walloping balls of various shapes and sizes, but they’ve never lost their love of reading.  What’s more, they’re all capable of challenging me, and beating me at word games now; something that makes me immensely proud.  We may not have bedtime stories anymore, but there’s nothing like a good game of Scrabble or Upwords at Christmas to create more irreplaceable times.

With research giving us hard facts that learning at home is the biggest influence on the achievement of children and the fact it is a far more accurate predictor of a child’s success than the family’s income, it’s clear that the rewards of reading with children are immeasurable.  What better start can we give our children than a love of books that will set them up for life?  It’s not just about words.  It’s about the wonderful imaginary worlds, the general knowledge and the chance to experience other cultures and discover all sorts of amazing things about themselves that will give them the confidence to become awesome citizens of our world.  Isn’t that something every parent should want?

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