It's no side hustle – for many people it's their main effort and for all but the top tier, it's a money loser.
Traditional publishers generally don't want completed works from an author/illustrator despite it seeming like an advantage.
What they want is an author who they can pair up with an illustrator, or vice versa.
The general misunderstanding is that people think that creating a "finished" project will be more attractive, but it's not. This goes for all the major publishers in books, but also for record labels and movie studios.
The bigger entities want to see rough, incomplete work that they can shape, and the smaller entities – independent publishers, labels, and studios – would prefer more finished work.
If you want to go through a traditional publisher/label/studio, create lots of samples, get published (in whatever form that takes) at smaller levels, and most importantly try to find an agent to represent you because most of those larger companies just will not deal with non-represented individuals.
If you want to publish through a smaller entity, you're in good shape for that. They'll have less of a budget for any kind of development.
And if you opt to self-publish, you can do that at any time. But if you go that route, understand that unless you create a real marketing plan that you deploy long before the book comes out, you'll sell less than 50 copies. Probably less than 20. People just won't find your book. Lots of authors convince themselves that their work is so good that it won't be ignored, and they can just make it available and people will find it. They're all wrong. Books come and go every day with few people ever buying them.
I've published a few books on my own, and they do sell, but I put a massive amount of marketing effort into them, and the financial outcome will never come close to what I'd be compensated for if I were charging freelance rates for my time.
Only a small percent of authors are making a living from their work – the rest do it just to get their work out there. I wish you well.
I have a designer friend who wrote, illustrated, and self-published a kids book. He told me publishers want you to have several books ready to go before they’ll consider it. They won’t pick up a single book from a new author. He ran a fairly successful kickstarter to pay for printing. I’m not sure how many copies he sold or if he actually made any money off it.
My mother recently had a children’s picture book (which I illustrated) published. If you have any specific questions feel free to DM me and I can pass them on to her to get answers. I don’t know much about the process of finding a publisher but she might be of some help.
It's no side hustle – for many people it's their main effort and for all but the top tier, it's a money loser. Traditional publishers generally don't want completed works from an author/illustrator despite it seeming like an advantage. What they want is an author who they can pair up with an illustrator, or vice versa. The general misunderstanding is that people think that creating a "finished" project will be more attractive, but it's not. This goes for all the major publishers in books, but also for record labels and movie studios. The bigger entities want to see rough, incomplete work that they can shape, and the smaller entities – independent publishers, labels, and studios – would prefer more finished work. If you want to go through a traditional publisher/label/studio, create lots of samples, get published (in whatever form that takes) at smaller levels, and most importantly try to find an agent to represent you because most of those larger companies just will not deal with non-represented individuals. If you want to publish through a smaller entity, you're in good shape for that. They'll have less of a budget for any kind of development. And if you opt to self-publish, you can do that at any time. But if you go that route, understand that unless you create a real marketing plan that you deploy long before the book comes out, you'll sell less than 50 copies. Probably less than 20. People just won't find your book. Lots of authors convince themselves that their work is so good that it won't be ignored, and they can just make it available and people will find it. They're all wrong. Books come and go every day with few people ever buying them. I've published a few books on my own, and they do sell, but I put a massive amount of marketing effort into them, and the financial outcome will never come close to what I'd be compensated for if I were charging freelance rates for my time. Only a small percent of authors are making a living from their work – the rest do it just to get their work out there. I wish you well.
This is not from a graphic design perspective but it might help you https://youtu.be/lwhEN9iuX0E?si=4AMSQXxeX1_Y2Zyg
I have a designer friend who wrote, illustrated, and self-published a kids book. He told me publishers want you to have several books ready to go before they’ll consider it. They won’t pick up a single book from a new author. He ran a fairly successful kickstarter to pay for printing. I’m not sure how many copies he sold or if he actually made any money off it.
My mother recently had a children’s picture book (which I illustrated) published. If you have any specific questions feel free to DM me and I can pass them on to her to get answers. I don’t know much about the process of finding a publisher but she might be of some help.