How to write a picture book

At this time last year, I was rather busy. I was working on a book called “A First Book of Animals”.  The book is written by Nicola Davies and has about sixty illustrations. At the same time I somehow managed to finish my own picture book called “The Greedy Goat”.

At the end of June, a year later “The Greedy Goat” is going to be published. I’ve just received a first printed copy of the book!

I almost forgot how much fun I had working on “The Greedy Goat”.I opened the book.

I looked through my sketches and folders on my computer.It’s the same as looking through the diary. 

The memories come back to me.

I did enjoy looking at the old sketches and through the very first versions of the book. It was interesting to see how many changes my editors and I did since the idea of writing about a greedy goat came to me.

Writing and illustrating books can be sometimes be a rather lonely job and getting the story, the text and the illustration into the final shape can take a long time. Sometimes longer than you think.

I’m often asked by people who write, illustrate, or do both, for advice about how to get published. As much as I would like to help, it’s impossible for me to do it through an email. There are lots of books around, which will give you an idea of how to approach an agent or publisher, but none of these books can help you with your story on which you are currently working.

Well, here is an idea:

This summer I was asked to be a tutor in a course at The Ted Hughes Arvon Centre at Lumb Bank.  The course will be running from the 8th to 13th August. Please read about the course here.

In case you don’t know Lumb Bank, it is an 18th Century mill owner’s house in Yorkshire which used to belong to Ted Hughes.  It is set in a beautiful wooded valley close to Heptonstall village where Sylvia Plath is buried, and is 2 miles from Hebden Bridge.

It didn’t take me long to accept the invitation, especially after learning that my co-tutor on the course will be Joyce Dunbar.

Joyce is a great writer and author of more than 7o books for children. She has tutored on Arvon courses before and you can’t wish for a more experienced writer than her. Personally I can’t wait to work with Joyce.

The other great news is that Joyce’s daughter Polly Dunbar is going to be the speaking guest on the course. I’m a great admirer of Polly’s work and her book “Penguin” is still one of my favourite picture books.

So if you are serious about writing, illustrating or both, please join as at The Ted Hughes Arvon Centre at Lumb Bank this summer. You are more than welcome and as far as I know there are still some spaces left.