Thursday, August 28, 2008

Exciting Book Contract News

Daniel’s about to be a published children’s picture book illustrator! In fact, Harper Collins has offered him a two book deal to illustrate manuscripts written by Audrey Vernick. The first book will be released Summer 2010 and will be called “Is your Buffalo ready for kindergarten?” and the second is set to launch Summer 2011 and will be called “Teach your Buffalo to play the drums.”

So how did this miracle happen? Well, it all started with SCBWI (The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators). We joined a couple of years ago when we first started working on our joint picture book project (still a work in progress). This year we decided to go to the Bologna Children’s Book Fair and to SCBWI’s 2 day pre-fair conference. Daniel submitted 3 of his daily drawings (view them here, here and here) to the first look session (a panel of art directors from major publishing houses) and got great feedback. So great that most of the AD’s asked for his card…but because he wasn’t expecting anything to come of it, he didn’t come prepared. All he could give them was a link to his daily drawing blog.

Well, about 3 weeks later, Daniel got a cryptic comment on his blog from Martha Rago, Art Director at Harper Collins. Daniel wrote to her and she said she had a project that needed a fresh, quirky perspective and she’d like to see what he would do with it. Because he doesn’t have any sequential drawings in his portfolio, he would have to illustrate three spreads from the manuscript to prove he could handle it. So he did, sending in his samples at the beginning of May. At the end of July, the good news came – the team at Harper Collins loved his illustrations and they wanted him not only to illustrate the book he “tried out” for but also a second one with the same buffalo character.

And now that he has his foot in the door, and is officially a freelancer (as of today) that can concentrate on illustration, things are really looking up. And we are both on cloud nine.

23 comments:

Traci said...

Congratulations! That's fantastic.

Anonymous said...

His drawings are fantastic, and that's great news. Congrats!

Ali said...

Great story! I showed a few pages of his archives to my kids and they got a kick out of them.

Jenn's Bookshelves said...

How awesome! Congrats to you both!

Jenn's Bookshelves said...

How awesome! Congrats to you both!

Anonymous said...

That's awesome news, congratulations!

Susan Helene Gottfried said...

Mazel Tov!!! I hope this is the start of good things for both of you.

Serena said...

Wow! What fantastic news. Congrats!

Heather J. @ TLC Book Tours said...

WOW! Congrats! I can't wait to see the finished products!

Anonymous said...

Lenore - great news! I loved the drawings you linked to ... congrats to Daniel!

PJ Hoover said...

Great news! congratulations!

Anonymous said...

Congratulations! I will be on the lookout for those books when they are published. What an exciting way to start the holiday weekend. I hope that you enjoy the celebration!

Alea said...

Thanks for sharing the story! I really like his illustrations! They are very diverse! I look forward to seeing the books someday :)

Luanne said...

Congratulations! What fantastic news. We'll all be watching for the finished product!

Linda said...

Lenore - I am SOOOOOO happy, excited and proud of Daniel (and of course you!). I can finally spill the beans on my blog now!

Jena said...

congrats!

Kathleen Gilligan said...

That's awesome news :) Congrats!

Anonymous said...

Great drawings! My little one liked them alot:)Congrats

Shooting Stars Mag said...

that's so amazing! congrats to him. I bet he's stoked and you as well. I looked at the links you posted and i love the drawings!!! :)

-Lauren

Liviania said...

How exciting! Congratulations.

Angela said...

Hey I got an e-mail from Bridget about this last month and read about it on the blue board but still... I want to say a huge CONGRATULATIONS to Daniel here!

Woooo----Yooooo!

PS did you sign up for the class?

Carrie Harris said...

How fabulous! I love to hear good news like this. Hope you celebrated copiously! :)

Michele said...

That is very exciting news! Congratulations!!! You guys must be so excited and very proud!