Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Don't Sweat the Dummy by Fred Koehler

I worry about the dummy. Did I do it right? Are my sketches too simple? Did I spec out the end papers and the intro page correctly? Did I choose the right fonts? Is that why previous dummies have been rejected?

At a recent SCBWI conference, I had separate portfolio reviews with an agent and an art director. Both of them gravitated toward a particular piece in my portfolio. The art director, Lucy Cummins of Simon & Schuster, suggested I turn it into a simple father's day story. The agent liked the idea, and I had one month to send a dummy.

So I sat down and wrote 87 words that made me laugh and cry. I sketched it all up in about 15 hours, which is all that's left in my month after a full time job and two toddlers. It wasn't fancy. It was downright sloppy. It didn't show the cover, have a title, or even have all the right pages. But I sent it anyways.

The agent emailed me back within a day and asked for more illustration samples to show around to some editors. WHAAAA?!! It's that simple? No custom fonts? No comparables? No hand-assembled book? No fully-fleshed pages?! All it took (to peak some interest at least) was a successful concept. Here's the simple format I used.


You can see some more of my work at flikr.com/superfredd. Cheers!

7 comments:

  1. Fred ... simple in that it was an hour or so for extra sketches + 10,000 hours before that. Hazel.

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  2. So is the motto: simple is better? Thank for making this so much clearer. Picture book writers are terrified of the dummy book. Especially newbies. They should see this post.

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  3. Sometimes it is that simple.... the key is TALENT! and you have it.

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  4. Robyn, I would say that the motto is "Write a great story." There's a lot of learning behind this one teensy little bite from an agent and a lot of prior rejections. A successful concept, no matter how you decorate it, has a shot at getting some attention. And a less successful concept, no matter how beautifully dressed, won't. Good luck!!!

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