Publishing My First Children's Book?

Today I wanted to share an exciting update regarding the progress of one of my books! If all goes well, I should be able to share my first children's book in just a few months!

I don't talk about this much because my primary project right now is still my adult fantasy series, however several years ago I began writing children’s books and I have so many finished stories just sitting around waiting for an illustrator. When I wrote these books, I hadn't drawn for years (and even when I used to as a teenage/young adult, I could only draw from simple reference, with the exception of designing & drawing maps), so my half-hearted attempts to illustrate the books were disastrous. So, deciding that I would never be good enough to illustrate them myself, I set my books aside until I could afford to hire someone to do it for me.

Fast forward several years, about three months ago I came up with several cover ideas for my fantasy book, so I decided I would go ahead and try to teach myself how to draw in hopes of saving money by doing it myself (at this point, I had so many finished projects that needed illustration that it was looking impossible to afford artists for them all). I was estimating my book would take at least another year to fully finish, so I decided why not try to learn and see where it takes me? I may not become good enough to illustrate my book in time but I can improve either way—and at least there's a chance.

I started out by learning to draw human anatomy from YouTube and free drawing resources online, and within two weeks my drawings were good enough that I was fairly confident I would be able to illustrate my books if I kept at it. Seeing my massive improvement in only a few short weeks gave me a huge burst of confidence, so I continued drawing 3-5x a week and started working through the book: “The Fundamentals of Drawing: A Complete Professional Course for Artists” by Barrington Barber.

Just several days ago, on Tuesday, I got to thinking about all the old children's books I wrote and how badly I wanted to be able to read them to my kids while they're still little. On a highly-motivated whim, I downloaded the Sketchbook app, watched an eleven-minute tutorial about digital drawing on YouTube (I knew absolutely nothing about it!), texted my brother (who does professional digital-design) for advice, and just gave it a try. Four hours later, I had completed a two-page spread for one of my children’s books and I was stunned with how it came out. For the first time ever, I had developed my own style and original characters instead of copying someone else's work. I actually loved how my artwork looked instead of feeling discouraged. For the first time ever, I stopped worrying about technique and perspective and just did it. I lost myself to drawing and the result was rewarding. I found myself drawing perspective without needing to reference a picture or item, which is something I genuinely never thought I'd be capable of doing.

Since then, I've fired up the old drawing tablet that I bought a year ago on a whim but never used, and I've done a mock-up for my children’s book as well as another full 2-page illustration and revisions to the original. I am also learning about formatting and all the logistics of producing a children’s book so that I can be well-prepared when the illustrations are complete. I am very excited about the prospect of finally being able to share one of my books, and I am even more excited to share these special stories with my own children in-print instead of just reading them from a Google Doc. I hope everyone will enjoy them as much as we will!

I know this was a very long and rather dull post, but the reason I shared my whole journey of learning to draw is because I want to encourage others to do the same. There's no need to rely on technology to create images for us when we have the capability to do it ourselves with so much more soul and imagination! Learning to draw does take time and effort, but it's so rewarding to see your progress after many failed attempts. Even for those of us who have packed-full schedules, small children, and little time to ourselves, if there's a will you can choose to make a way; most days I only have time to draw for 15-30 minutes, but I force myself to make time for it regularly regardless of how busy I am. Consistency is key, and practicing even ten minutes each day just four days a week still yields great results.

In addition to my children’s book project, I have been making great progress on my fantasy book! It has been a hopeful and encouraging two weeks in my writing life. I will be posting an update regarding my fantasy book very soon, so stay tuned for that.

Thank you for reading! Have an incredible week!