Trying to break into the world of traditional publishing certainly is a long and slow process, but on with it we go. As recorded in
this earlier blog, I've been busy this year writing and drawing new pages of proposed Shakespeare books, under the guidance of my agent Emily, with the hope of attracting a publisher.
To date I have produced...
+ Midsummer Nights 5 pages redrawn and coloured
+ Twelfth Night 4 pages redrawn and coloured
This followed on from the initial samples produced to show to publishers...
So, over the last six months, I've written and drawn 156 pages of all new Shakespeare comic strips. That's a whole bloody book, none of which has seen the light of day yet. It really is quite frustrating. But the dangled carrot of the prize of getting them adopted by a proper publisher is what we're working towards, with fingers tightly crossed.
This week we got feedback from the publisher with whom we've had a meeting, and for whom I'd redrawn pages of Midsummer and Twelfth Night, and had written and drawn a brand new Romeo and Juliet. They suggested they'd like to see some different "more teenage" looking characters for the youngsters in Midsummer. So:
Weds 11/ Thurs 12 June - Midsummer Nights Dream pages 43-46 (6 pages) written, drawn, spot-coloured and delivered to Emily.
Tuesday 25th June - At very short notice (ie Monday afternoon) I got called in for a meeting with another publisher, another big one. They want something different from the Shakespeare books, and I'm to do some spec work for them next week (for which they are paying a small fee). What will I come up with? What will they make of it? These are the questions that make this whole publishing business so unpredictable.
Update: This new publisher wanted me to come up with ideas for a science book for kids. I did so, sending them 10 pages of Cat Duck Science a week later. We await response.
July 18: I hear back from the first publisher. Here's what they had to say:
Firstly, I wanted to say a massive thank you to you and Kev again for making the time to see us at (address) and for working with us to create the revised samples. We’ve had a lot of internal discussions about this project because we think Kev is great – his way of interpreting Shakespeare with humour is a testament to the strength of his creativity and writing. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so much at Shakespeare and still chuckle at the Amazon joke. We can also see how brilliant he would be at events and engaging with school children which is so important in this space.
Having said that, I feel that we’re not quite managing to communicate what we're looking for with the package and hoping to see in his revises. I understand that this is frustrating from both of our perspectives, but we don’t think that we've managed to get to a place where his revised artwork is aligning with the current market. Since publishers have all been buying more in this space, we want to be really certain that we’re achieving the kind of child appeal for the characters which would help the series to stand-out in this slightly busier market. Currently, we're not totally convinced that a 10-year-old would really connect with them – or at least not to the level that they might opt for the book over other options available to them. It still feels to us that the style sits squarely alongside BEANO, which I’m sure will have a nice resonance for lots of adults but we really want that pester-power element to the buyer demand, too, which we think might need something a little fresher. When this is combined with the Shakespeare pitch, we think that the commercial positioning isn't quite there in terms of making a colour costing feasible – even though we can absolutely imagine the buyers who would love to pick it up for their kids, and the schools who would readily engage!
I have been so appreciative of Kev’s willingness to revise his artwork but I don’t want to ask for more development when we’re not quite connecting as I really don't want to waste his time. From our perspective, there would be so many positives about working with Kev and while I’m sad that this isn’t quite the project for us, if Kev wanted to take a beat to take a look at how his style might evolve in order to develop a non-Shakespeare project, I would be delighted to take an early look.
Thank you so much for considering (publisher) for this project – I had a great time discussing all things graphic novels with you and Kev – and I hope we can connect on another project (maybe even Kev’s next project?) soon.
Sigh. Onwards and upwards.
My Books and where to get them:
Shakespeare Omnibus Collection (all 3 books) -
Amazon
Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories -
Amazon
