One of the things I love about working in children's book publishing is the wonderful people I get to meet. Being able to watch authors and illustrators gain well-deserved success and recognition for the brilliant things they do is a real perk of the job!
With two Bloomsbury picture books - Shhh! Don't Wake the Royal Baby! (2013) and Happy Birthday, Royal Baby! (2014) - already under her belt (and another on the way), Ada Grey is an exciting picture book talent and a definite one to watch. We had a chat about her exciting start to illustrating picture books . . .
Ada, you signed with Bright at the end of 2012, and in just a matter of months your first book was published. How did it feel?
It was an amazing whirlwind experience that I never expected! Vicki (Willden-Lebrecht) has been amazing, and I’m so grateful and lucky that she landed such an important title for me. I’ve wanted to be an illustrator ever since my mum read Where The Wild Things Are to me when I was little. That’s when I first realized that people did this fabulous thing as a job. And here I am, thanks to Bright!
How did you come about joining Bright?
For years I had a small advertisement for the Bright Agency that I had cut from a magazine somewhere (the AOI mag?), pinned to a board above my desk. I’d always thought that they were the agency I’d most like to join, but I never had enough confidence in my work to approach them. It stayed there for years, all yellowed and curled, until one day, after a series of events, I realised that life is just too short not to give things a go. So I did.
One of the best decisions I’ve ever made!
What advice would you give illustrators who are trying to crack into children’s book illustration?
I’m no expert, but at the heart of it, just draw in the way you love to draw, in the way that makes you happiest. Don’t try to be something you’re not, but do be aware of the market. Go and live in the children’s section of your local bookshop or develop an obsessive collecting habit!
If you choose not to get an agent, get yourself the Children’s Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook and find out who the right people to approach are. Join the AOI and SCBWI for advice, support and networking.
If you’d like an agent, investigate which ones might like your style. Someone who has something a little similar perhaps, as long as you’re bringing a new flavour with you.
Get your blog, website and Twitter up and running too, they can be invaluable tools (note to self – get my blog, website and Twitter up and running!).
And learn how to do your accounts – very boring but very necessary!
In 2013, Shhh! Don’t Wake the Royal Baby! knocked Julia Donaldson off the top spot in the Bookseller children’s chart. That must have felt pretty good?!
Oh gosh, that was a complete and utter surprise! Julia Donaldson is just incredible, a true master of her craft. If I had a squillionth of her talent, I’d be a happy bunny!
Martha Mumford and the lovely folks at Bloomsbury spotted an important event that would have resonance for parents of new babies around the world. A crying baby and our efforts to soothe and comfort are a universal experience, and I think Martha captured the humour that can exist in the ways we try to do that. Mixed with the fun of the Royal Family doing things we wouldn’t expect was a fabulous idea.
It was so much fun to work on!
What do you enjoy most about the book-making process?
Absolutely everything!
There’s nothing else I’ve wanted to do so much in my life.
Everyone I’ve met in the publishing world has been utterly lovely! There’s something about picture books that attracts lovely people - perhaps it’s the collective will to give joy and nurture the imagination in us all?
It’s so exciting to be handed a text for the first time. I’ll read through the story three or four times initially, but I find that pictures are popping into my head in the first reading already. I’ll doodle and jot down notes and plan out the landscape of the world that the characters and story create. On the second and third readings, pulling that world together is immensely satisfying. It’s then that even more details begin to emerge, things that don’t exist in the text.
I find the “colouring-in” bit, where those outlines take on form, almost meditative and very relaxing. It’s the least “work” like part, it’s just fun!
And finally, holding the book in your hands and seeing it in a shop window is such a buzz of excitement, but a little surreal at the same time. I did that?? I did that!!
But best of all is sharing a book with my daughter, and getting a giggle of joy or a thousand questions. That’s what it’s all for.
If you could meet any authors or illustrators, alive or dead, who would they be?
There’s just so many! Quentin Blake, Roald Dahl, Jon Burningham, Sara Ogilvie, Neal Layton, Maurice Sendak, Michael Rosen, Oliver Jeffers, David Roberts and, of course, Julia Donaldson. The list goes on. But I’d be so much in awe, I’d be all bumbly fumbly and spill my tea.
What are your views on the picture book market right now?
I’ve only just begun to learn about the market, and I’m immensely excited by the scope of talent and originality out there. It’s amazing, and a bit intimidating at the same time. I could come out with twenty books each time I visit a bookshop if I had the funds!
If you could change one thing in the world of picture books, what would it be?
In LovelyLaLaLand, the picture book fairy would provide free picture books to every child on the planet (and the gas bill fairy would pay my gas bill) and the designers and editors would get a credit in the books too!
Describe yourself in five words
Dedicated
Enthusiastic
Shy
Forgetful
erm . . .
Thank you for answering my questions, Ada!