To see examples of my work, visit http://www.vespersongs.com and click on “Portfolio” (or look at the backgrounds). Remember, this is black and white work.

Thanks–and see you on tour! Visit http://www.soundsfamilyre.com for tour dates.

Luv,
B+V

Skew Sock by Lana Holden

It’s toooo bad I’m totally burnt out of making socks. But if YOU like that kind of torture, you should knit this one! Wonderful artistry, Lana Holden!

LuvInIdleness

It all came about this past summer as a mixture of preparing for a Midsummer Night’s Dream festival, playing a residency at Sycamore in Brooklyn, and collaborating with our friend Sufjan Stevens over peanut butter cookies. No one had any idea how it would turn out, but we were all looking to make some music without consequences.

Ben and I had recorded a full-length album earlier that year (stay tuned), and wanted to just lay back and say a happy goodbye to the dog days of summer. So after a show one night, we and Sufjan talked about getting together to simply play music and see what would happen. Sufjan had played on our previous releases, but we wanted more of his input and less hoo-ha about getting a million players together. Ben wrote all the songs in a week. We set aside a week to record, and Ben and I mostly took turns going to the office, laying down simple guitars and vocals. Then we’d come home, and around midnight, a new and crazy mix would show up in our email and we’d freak out. The result was the synthy, feel-good mishmash we fondly call “LuvInIdleness”.

We did a limited homemade run for our residency, but then our label picked it up and we got to use neon and metallic Pantone® colors. And that was a very happy thing.

Enjoy!

Vesper and Jane Yolen. Check out my necklace by Angela Houk!

First of all, if in any way you have even the most remote desire to be in the world of children’s publishing, attending at least one of these conferences is a must. Joining SCBWI is the first little baby step you must take. It’s uber-cheap ($85 for the first year, $70 each year thereafter), and will clear away common misconceptions, fears, loneliness and bad breath all in one magical formula. But seriously, one of the resounding themes I heard among my peers is that the conference did so much to clear away that bad friend, Fear of Failure. Come on, when someone like the titan Jane Yolen gets up and tells you that, after 300 books, she still gets rejections, it clarifies the fact that it’s just a system like any other. I keep telling myself: People Make a Living At This. They do. It’s just as hard to do it well as any other career. Sure, there’s a whole lot more self-motivation involved, so if you are used to a 9-5 job where you are given your tasks and you dutifully do them as you are told, it may be a hard learning curve. Or if, like me, you’ve gotten the last ten years of work merely by word of mouth, you just need to remind yourself that, in a way, you’re making a lateral move to another branch of your industry. It means meeting a new set of people, dusting off your interpersonal skills, and taking some chances, but come on: after eight years of art school and countless critiques, what is a rejection letter but a helpful suggestion in the end?

As I was walking to the conference on Friday, thinking about placing my portfolio in the juried exhibition, the thought occurred to me that the life I have chosen, being a freelancer, is one constant audition. There’s a sense after you get out of college, or get a steady job, or if you haven’t had to pound the pavement in a while, that your days of auditioning are over–that somehow, if you can land that One Big Break, you’ll never have to put yourself out there again–that no one will be able to reject you (ahem, that is, your work, not you) ever again. Thank goodness that Jane Yolen exposed that theory. In another post, maybe I’ll give you some of her 20 rules of writing. I’m not sure if that’s kosher, so I’ll just put up some of them.

Vesper and Paul O. Zelinsky

I also met Paul O. Zelinsky, who gave a really interesting opening address detailing some of his work methods at the Illustrator’s Intensive (again, a must if you are getting ready to do this). Even though I don’t really have the desire to paint as meticulously and classically as Paul does (though Swamp Angel is a work to be reckoned with!), his gorgeous princesses evoke in me that same feeling as did Hilary Knight in his Cinderella–the book that taught me how to draw. I would copy that book endlessly, trying to get every detail, every curve exactly right, as if I were in a Master Class with Knight himself. I’m just crazy about Zelinsky’s work, and I plan to go back to “school” with his Rapunzel and Rumpelstiltsken.

One more highlight I’d like to point out was hearing (and meeting) the inimitable Jaqueline Woodson speak at the luncheon address. I cannot believe this woman writes for children (mostly YA fiction). What I mean by that is, her writing (and the memorized recitation she did of her work) is so poetic, so real, it had me openly weeping several times during her speech. I promptly went to the first bookstore I found and grabbed a copy of If You Come Softly, a beautiful depiction of first love between people of different races. It challenges your unconscious assumptions without becoming a diatribe. I bought it yesterday at 5:00 pm, and by 7:00 I was almost done. If I hadn’t fallen asleep so early last night (these conferences are exhausting–be prepared!), I would have finished it. I had the pleasure of meeting her, and recommending to her (based on her children’s book, Show Way) the beautiful book by Libby Hathorn and illustrated by Benny Andrews, Sky Sash So Blue. Both books are about slaves piecing together fabric to create treasures for their families: in Woodson’s book, quilts; in Hathorn’s, a wedding dress. Woodson was approachable and warm, and I am now 3 degrees removed from Pete Seeger himself. (I’ll leave that a mystery.)

I’ll be blogging more and updating my website in the weeks to come, so stay tuned. In the meantime, visit me on Facebook and Twitter.

I recently got this email from a solicitor (there is no website or google information for this “company”). I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry: Is this really where the market is being driven–to the complete undervaluing of a skill that takes years to hone? This isn’t punching numbers into a computer or stamping metal on a die machine. It’s months of full-time work, requiring at least 4 years (in my case, 8 ) of expensive conservatory education. OK. Here goes:

I am J., from P. Books. We are starting a publishing program for Children’s Book authors, and we need illustrators for hire.

The way it will work is we will accept stories from authors, and will charge them a publishing package. Right now, we are thinking the package will run $650. Of this amount, $450 would go to the illustrator for the book illustrations and cover. $200 would go to P. Books for the set up of their files, submitting for publishing and the publishing itself.

We figure each book will be around 32 pages, but we are expecting the illustrators to do illustrations that cover both the left and right side pages of the story…

*Hold up, he doesn’t even know how to articulate what a *spread* is? First clue.

….so only 16 images and the cover will need to be done for each book. So, the $450 you would be paid will cover this. Porterlance Books would receive the money upfront for the job, and pay you when the illustrations are complete.

The way it would work, though, is an accepted author would first pick an Illustrator from our site to do a sample cover image. They would pay you $50 for this image. IF they elect to go with you as the illustrator, this $50 would be deducted from the $450 you would receive. If they elect not to use you, you still received the $50 for the cover image. It must be a finalize/full color file (unless you plan on your illustrations for the book to be in Black and White, which you will need to disclose).

You would receive credit as the Illustrator on the book cover, but would grant the Author and P. Books the rights to the illustrations for that book. This way, we have the right to create posters, or other promotional material for the book…and sell the book in any form we decide.
We would expect a 30-day turn around time, from the time you’re hired.
I know $450 for 16 illustrations is not a lot for some of you (I’m emailing a few of you at once), but in these harder economic times, it is still income, for what you love to do. And, besides that, you will likely rack up a few $50 payments just for the cover images.
If this sounds like something you’d like to be part of, email me back. We will expect EVERY illustrator we use to design a finished cover image for a story we will send to all of you. This way, the Authors that come to the site, can read the story, and see what your version of the cover for that same book would be compared to the other Illustrators. This will give them a better idea of your styles (for the same story), and make it easier for them to pick who to pay the $50 to for their cover design. And, it’ll make it more likely that they will like your illustrations, and decide to use you to do the entire book.
You will not be paid for the sample cover of our story. This is something that’s required to be accepted on the site.
I have personally hand-picked only the illustrators I think will work best, while providing many different styles.
I hope to hear back from you.

Sincerely,
X

Oh, so because of these “tough economic times” we should be boot-licking grateful to make the same as a Barista’s weekly take-home pay? And we are expected to do work on spec just to be on the site? AND then do full color final cover illustrations…for $50? Because “this is what I love to do”? Yes, I love it. But there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Or a free children’s book.

I’m really trying to give these folks the benefit of the doubt. It’s one thing if it’s a grandmother with a cute story idea. It’s another if it’s a predator trying to get thousands of dollars of work for free.

As for me, I’ve decided to go the traditional publishing route. Booyakacha.