The Way I Think About Dummy Books.

How I dug into my past to define my current work.

I have a confession. I LOVE making dummy books. Many people don’t. But I absolutely adore them. It is easily my favorite part of the bookmaking process. I print out my dummy book; I flip through the pages sticking post-it notes where things aren’t working, all hoping to make a real book with big dreams and hopes of getting published. In my process, the dummy book is the cornerstone of my work. After I finish a dummy book, everything else, from final sketches to renderings, is smooth sailing because it is not only a roadmap for where my book is going but also a place where all my thoughts and feelings are collected, like an old diary or journal. During a recent seminar I did for the SCBWI, I realized that I love dummy books because I love pitching new ideas, which, in my former life, was about 90% of my job.

When I was a toy designer and industrial designer, all I did was pitch new ideas. It was constant. My ideas would often get denied, but it never stopped me from sharing my next big idea. It made me fearless, and it wasn’t until recently that I realized how much my past experiences as a toy designer influenced the way I work today as a children’s book illustrator. One of the most significant ways it has impacted how I work is how I look at dummy books because of it.

In design, there is a theory called the “Minimum Viable Product” experience, also known as “M.V.P.” The idea is to show your idea through a prototype, drawings, mockups, or however you choose by making as little an investment as possible while still showing the overall concept of what your product does. Taking this idea and putting it towards how I see a dummy book changed the way I see making a dummy book. Seeing your book as a product you are pitching begins to encapsulate more than just the words and pictures inside but a bigger experience. You begin to ask about who this is marketed to or how this promotes me as an author/illustrator. It also removes the framework of having everything super clean and tight but forces you to stop sketching or rendering when it is enough to convey your idea. The more I think about it, you are selling the concept of your book more than the literal words and pictures because it is almost guaranteed to change before it is published in some way. By focusing on your idea and your book as a product, you will begin to make much bigger decisions more thoughtfully, and what I have found is that my books stay much more accurate to my original intent in the end. Remove the idea of perfect from your dummy book, focus on what makes it special, and drive that throughout every drawing and rendering. Think, “What do I want an editor or art director to take away from this EXPERIENCE of reading my book?” It opens up many possibilities and will help you create concise dummy books, have a clearer message, and move much faster through a dummy book.

Dummy books are a beast. They take time, and they can make or break your getting published, so why not try looking at them differently as an “M.V.P.” and see if it works for you?

New Schedule Alert

My posts will now be every two weeks on Wednesdays vs. “whenever I felt like posting.” :)

New Section Alert

At the bottom of every blog post, I thought it would be fun to list things I am currently reading, watching, and listening to. So here it goes!

What I’m currently watching: Only Murders in the Building

What I’m currently reading: Yellowface by R.F. Kuang 

What I’m currently listening to: Covers, Vol. 2 by William Fitzsimmons