Finishing Touches

Today has been my last day to work on my Lila and Sausage story, before presenting it to a publisher for the first time (eek!). I've been finishing those thumbnails (see Progress Report), so it's drawn all the way through in miniature. In places I've also trimmed the text further, as I went along.

Obviously book shapes vary enormously, not just from publisher to publisher, but even within the same imprint. I decided to design it to fit the page proportions of Class Two at the Zoo and Class Three all at Sea, partly because these are my other Hodder titles and it's Hodder I'm showing it to first, but also because the almost square format suits the story, as it makes for longer, slimmer double page spreads.

I have also done this colour sample of Lila and Sausage today, as well as one complete page from the story.

I am off to London with it all first thing in the morning, for a lunchtime meeting. Afterwards, I'm getting together with an illustrator friend (remember Cassia?) for a debriefing, followed by commiserations or celebrations: whichever seems appropriate!

I arranged the meeting tomorrow, to coordinate with a party in the evening. It's Egmont's 'author and illustrator' party: at the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden this year. I'm invited because they are the publishers of A Lark in the Ark.

It's a long way to go just for a few glasses of free wine, so the meeting makes it more worthwhile. It'll also help to cheer me up if Hodder hate my idea!