Guest Post - Will Terry Talks about Step 7: Assemble the dummy

Will Terry grew up just outside the beltway of Washington DC in Beltsville Maryland. His plans to become a circus lion tamer were dashed when he found out he was allergic to lions – so he started drawing them instead! Later – someone lied to him and told him he could make lots of money drawing professionally – the beginning of the end. In 1992 after leaving the BYU illustration program he started showing his portfolio around and began getting work. His work has appeared in national advertisements for Sprint, Pizza Hut, M&M Mars, Pepsi, Fed Ex, Master Card and Citibank and Target and in such publications as Time, Money, Wall Street Journal, Mac World, Arizona Highways, Seventeen and Better Homes and Gardens. His work has also been accepted into The Society of Illustrators. He's illustrated board games for Hasbro and educational books for Leapfrog and in the last 10 years he's focused on illustrating over 25 children's books for Random House, Scholastic, Simon Schuster, Albert Whitman, Harcourt, Houghton Mifflin, and Dial.

When He's not teaching at UVU, working on children's books or illustrating iPad apps he might be working on his new company – FolioAcademy.com which sells online streaming art tutorial videos. Will enjoys snowboarding, hiking, and backpacking with his three boys in the Utah back country and a warm fire with his wife Laurel.


Wow – what an honor to be asked to guest blog! So much good information already posted by some very talented authors/illustrators – I hope I can add a few thoughts that might also be helpful.
Making book dummies has been very helpful in conveying my stories to editors over the years and while I think it's often a very important step I don't believe it's always necessary:

1. I ALWAYS make a book dummy when I'm trying to sell my story with my illustrations to a publisher.
   
   I think it's obvious to most who will be reading this - but combining words and pictures is vital to convey your intentions to an editor. A picture is worth a thousand words and you're shooting yourself in the foot if you don't make an easy to follow representation of your project.
   
2. I DON'T make book dummies for my commissioned book projects. To me it's an unnecessary step to go through the process of making a physical book dummy for manuscripts I've received from a publisher to illustrate. Instead, I make a PDF of my sketches with text so I can quickly click through to check pacing, redundancy, inconsistency, flow, and perception. This is a faster method for me and since my publishers only want to see finished sketches.
3. I BELIEVE there are many ways to make a successful book dummy. I try to avoid getting caught up in “the right way” to do it. I know author/illustrators who have sold books with everything from extremely polished dummy books to simple PDF's. In the end you need to keep in mind that the goal of the dummy is to sell the book and no more. If you've attended writing conferences for any length of time you quickly realize that editors all have different requests for receiving and reviewing book projects. If you prepare your manuscript on the advice of one particular editor you might be creating a submission that's wrong for others. Confusing? Absolutely! The following is a list of do's and don'ts I use in my own submission process. It's not perfect but the following are either things I've learned from editors or things that make sense to me.

The Dos

• Do - make a book dummy.
• Do - make it clean and simple.
• Do – integrate the text where you've designed it to go.
• Do - make it 32 pages (or other multiples of 4 pages where appropriate)
• Do – make it on your computer (if you can) so you can print multiple copies (for loss, damage, or multiple submissions – I use Photoshop but you can use a wide variety of programs – InDesign works well too).
• Do – Include the cover in the dummy book on an extra piece of paper (in addition to the 32 pages).
• Do – Include one or two color samples ( these could be integrated into the dummy or loose).
• Do – bind it like a 32 page picture book (staple, glue, sew, etc. gathered in the middle).
• Do – consider making a digital book dummy i.e. PDF (submission might be difficult if you don't have an editor willing to look at it).

The Don'ts

• Don't - worry about making it actual size (Give editors some credit for imagination)
• Don't – glue pages together to join front and back sketches (I believe that gluing paper together makes for a sloppy, heavy, hard to turn disaster for an editor to examine. Print your sketches on the front and back of each page just like an actual picture book. Your dummy book is a reflection of you. Put your best foot forward by sending a clean dummy).
• Don't – include original sketches in your dummy. (It's the mark of an amateur – if the dummy gets damaged or lost you have no more dummy – show an editor your professionalism by thinking ahead).
• Don't – hand color your dummy (shows you have way too much time on your hands and again becomes original work).
• Don't – paste the text into your dummy (it's messy and detracts from the overall feel and look of the presentation)
• Don't – use a crazy type font (Go with“Times” or something very simple – you won't sell your book based on a funky type face but you can certainly detract from it with the wrong one. Editors work with professional graphic designers. You're not going to impress them with your funky font choice so don't try.)
• Don't – Include “C – copyright” anywhere in your dummy. (It's the mark of an amateur. Editors don't steal manuscripts. If they like it they'll buy it. Putting “copyright” on your dummy will get you tossed aside quickly – established authors/illustrators don't do it so you shouldn't either – you have a better chance of getting hit by lightning the second time than having your manuscript or idea stolen).
• Don't – make an elaborate cover, binding, or sleeve for your dummy book. (You want to look like you know what you're doing – professionals don't waste time on superfluous additions that won't be re-created in the printed book but will only distract from your goal – getting your book looked at.
• Don't - send a book dummy that you aren't proud of (if you know you can do better – do better – this has to be a labor of love – time and money take a back seat to the creation of art!)

Dummy assembly

It's that time, folks--time to put it all together into a neat package. What you're striving for is to look professional (you ARE a professional illustrator, even if unpublished), but not to get so elaborate that an editor or art director is going to think you're some sort of artistic diva. No matter how well-thought out your proposal, the text of your story will most assuredly undergo some editing, and that will mean rethinking layouts, adding or deleting characters--whatever it takes to make a viable property for a publisher. You want to demonstrate that you know what you're doing, but also that you're flexible and willing to make changes.

This is a fine line--in the end, you have to be happy with the way you present yourself. I've heard some people say minimal presentation is best, and there's certainly NOTHING WRONG with standard typing paper folded in half, with text and copies of illustrations taped (neatly) into place. An experienced publishing professional has the imagination to fill in the gaps and see what you intend.

True confession: I thumbnail and storyboard up a storm, but I've only produced one dummy in my career so far. (Yeah, yeah, I know!) For my one, I chose to do a slightly fancier job, because I wanted something to keep in my portfolio. My process is outlined below. If you're looking for suggestions, this is ONE WAY to do it--and I do think the dummy helped to sell the manuscript in my case. I submitted both for a conference critique, and got a request from an editor (yay!) . . . but she also said (apologetically), "You wouldn't necessarily expect to illustrate this yourself, would you?" LOL!

So, with that caveat in mind:

STEP I: Choose a convenient size for mailing and display.

I knew my page width would be 7" max, because legal-size paper is the largest my printer will accommodate. I played around and discovered that between 5.5" and 5.75" worked well, proportionately, for the other dimension. This gave me a finished book size that would fit easily into a mailing envelope (more on what should be in a submissions packet next week!), and would also fit nicely in the front pocket of my Itoya portfolio.

STEP II: Gather your tools.

Here's what I used to produce my dummy:



legal-size paper for printing spreads
110-lb. cover stock for front and back covers
quilter's needle
waxed dental floss
pushpin (for making pilot holes for stitching)
scissors
clear adhesive shelf liner

STEP III: Print your spreads.

I used Photoshop--you can also use a layout program like InDesign. Figure out the imposition (i.e., the way individual pages print when bound into a book). For a traditional 32-page picture book, you'll have eight sheets folded in half, printed front and back.

Here is the imposition for the first sheet of paper. (My story starts on page three, with pages one and two for title and copyright info.)



I composited the images and text, using Times New Roman as a "neutral" typeface. Mine worked out to be 14 pt. for my page size.

STEP IV: Assemble the printed pages in the proper order, including a blank spread for "endpapers."

Fold all nine sheets in half. Along the center crease, punch five evenly-spaced holes. I stitched the pages together using a simple technique, a quilter's needle (one with a large eye) and waxed dental floss.

Here is an excellent tutorial, using three holes instead of five (it doesn't matter how many holes, as long as it's an odd number).

STEP V: Print your front cover and back cover.

I chose to print mine separately and glue to the endpapers, because I wanted to print a full bleed, which would not have been possible with my printer and legal-size paper.

STEP VI: (Optional) "Laminate" your cover with clear self-stick shelf liner.

I figured this would hold up better for repeated handling. Also, my printer inks are not waterproof, and I didn't want to run the risk of having the dummy arrive smudged or water-spotted.

STEP VII: Fold; crease as well as you can, then trim edges neatly.

Use a paper cutter or a craft knife (which I forgot to include in my tools photo).

And, voila!

Front:



Back: I used my "elevator pitch" as jacket copy.



Inside spread: Yep, those are my pencil thumbnails, blown up.



The hastily-done color spread (NOT recommended, given the editor's comment!):



And the dummy at home in my portfolio (to get an idea of scale, my portfolio is 8.5" x 11"):



In the end, I think it accomplished what I wanted to do--which was to demonstrate the flow of the story and how the page turns would work to reinforce the pacing. Also (I think) it shows that I understand the picture book format. What wasn't so successful, obviously, was the presentation of my skills as an illustrator!

The point is, there are MANY ways to produce a dummy: better and easier ones, I'm sure . . .

Join us at #kidlitart Thursday, June 2, at 9 pm Eastern, to discuss your favorite dummy assembly techniques--and if you have a tried-and-true method, please feel free to share and/or leave links in the comments section below.