Yesterday morning at the NSW Writers Centre at Rozelle I had my manuscript appraisal with Mark Macleod. I had booked it about three months ago so it's been a long countdown. I was hoping I would get an honest opinion of my work (stories/style and also illustrations) and I hoped I wouldn't cry if the news wasn't good. After all, creative work is a piece of yourself and it makes you feel vulnerable having people poke at it. I knew it needed a poke though and I hoped it would be gentle. The NSW Writers centre (1 1/4 hours from where I live) is a lovely old world hobbit mansion on peaceful grounds of purple jacaranda. It set a nice calming tone. People were sitting around quietly. I don't know what they were doing but it gave my approach to the building a ' place between worlds' kind of feeling.
Once inside I found I would be meeting with Mark in the Harry Potter Room, which turned out to be a reference to the rooms small size, tucked in under the sloping roof, much like Harry's room under the stairs. Mark was in the room, door open with the previous person who was struggling to get a few more answers out of the guy before she had to go. It's true that a 1/2 hour just isn't enough. I am so glad I booked the hour which flew past anyway.
Mark seemed nice upon meeting him and began by asking me to tell him a little about myself and then what I was hoping to gain by this meeting with him. He is a writer and editor and has done all sorts of work within the publishing industry. So his professional opinion is what I sought of course. He looked at all of the stories I had brought with me and the illustrations. He decided to talk to me about the illustrations first. I suppose you could say this was the bad news though it wasn't too awful. He felt I needed a year of work on my illustrating, studying movement and gesture. He liked my use of colour and composition but felt my figures were a bit stiff. It was hard in a way that the book I self published and had brought in was a bit stiff and I feel I've improved a fair bit since then, but I knew what he meant. I had been thinking of doing a life drawing class anyway, so that confirmed it.
Next came the stories. He felt the stories lacked a bit of drama and that I was giving too much info to the reader. As in, he felt somethings need not be explained to the reader but left for the reader to figure out themselves. Those were his main comments, summed up. He had time to read over all my story synopsis which I had taken with me and seemed to really like all my story ideas. He was very encouraging and told me my ideas are what people are wanting to read right now (well, that was fortunate). After some rewriting he suggested I send off to a publisher. I asked if multiple submissions were OK in his opinion. He said yes, certainly it was generally accepted. Because of the months it can take to get your work seen at a publishers, it has become acceptable. You just need to mention how many other publishing houses you have sent it to, BUT no names. Sending three off at once is good he said. I asked about why publishers really preferred you do not illustrate your own work and the answer he gave me finally made sense to me and I can accept it. The reason is practical and economic. If you have an unknown illustrator, you can attach them to a known writer and the writer gets the sales happening with less marketing/advertising needed. An unknown writer and illustrator needs a lot of work because they are an unknown and book sellers don't like unguaranteed sales. Fair enough.
At the end of the session which was so, so helpful I asked Mark to sign a book I got of his called ' Tomorrow' . I was afraid he wouldn't think it appropriate and would think I was sucking up. On the contrary he was highly delighted and seemed to take it as compliment, so I'm so glad I did it.
So, now I will treat my illustrating as a separate project as he suggested and work on improvements. In the meantime i will be rewriting till the end of the year and then researching appropriate publishers to send my stuff to early in the new year.
If you do not have a professional opinion available to you as a writer or illustrator, do invest the money in getting one. It's more than worth it. Mark Macleod costs AU$60 per half hour and I recommend an hour minimum.
Today I have the workshop with Markus Zusak, Gabrielle Lord and Richard Harland. How much fun am I having?!
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