What do you do AFTER you've done your first book?

I'd love to know!

In 2017 I decided I wanted to be a picture book illustrator. I thought I’d give myself 18 months to try and get a book deal. I had a fine art training and a huge love of picture books so this was achievable I thought. The reason for the tight deadline was that I reckoned I could get away with not earning much for a bit, but I didn’t want to just waste loads of time and never give birth to a book. Six years later, my first book has just been published. Had I known back then that it would take so long would I have made a different plan? I’m very glad I didn’t know because this has been the happiest time of my life.

The Bookshop, Bridport. Photograph by George Wright

I’ve spent the last month painting bookshop windows, doing interviews, running workshops, signing books and shouting about it all as loudly as possible. I’ve really enjoyed this part of the process. But what comes next?

Photo courtesy of Chocolit, jumpsuit made by Suki

I’m super lucky that my publisher, Rocket Bird Books, have taken a second book which will be out next year. The artwork for that is all finished. So I find myself in a strange “between books” place. In a way it’s like starting again from scratch, you have to come up with ideas, pitch stories, update the portfolio, send out nice packages to publishers, sign up for fairs to try and bring in some cash: having a book published doesn’t change any of that. I think this is a game of persistence: once you have begun to feel confident about what you’re making it’s a case of knocking repeatedly at doors, making connections, reminding people that you exist, being everywhere all at once so that you might be lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time.

Prawn and Panda sharing a moment

So I’m going to do all that! I have a couple of stories up my sleeve that I’m developing but also I’ve just enrolled on a ceramics course because I want to try something totally new. I’ve made a promise to myself to draw every day, I do TRY to do this but now I’m going to carve out specific time to DEFINITELY do it because I feel much better once I’ve done a drawing. And I’m going to to take a leaf out of Charlotte Durance’s book and keep a whole little sketchbook of paintings because I am a bit of a wimp when it comes to paint. I think it’s really important to keep developing my work because I want each book to feel like it’s moved on somewhere from the last. I’ll be at the Illustrator’s Fair in King’s Cross in July with some pals selling ALL MY STUFF so do come along and say hello. And I’ll be joining the Refugee Tales walk again as sketcher-in-residence. But I’d really like to know what YOU do when you’ve finished a big project?