Getting a Nonfiction Picture Book Published - by Patricia Keeler

The fire alarm in the Macmillan building is really loud! I know, because I set if off. I was so excited about having sold my nonfiction picture book, I couldn't wait for the down elevator. I ran into the stairwell, not noticing the Emergency Exit Only sign, setting off lights and sirens. Later, my editor said, "I knew that was you." 

So things got better on my second visit to New York.

With Marsha Marshall, Senior Editor at Atheneum Publishers/Macmillan

Making A Sale

Even though I'd rather chew ice on a bad tooth then market a picture book after my initial 'not-going-to-happen' rejections, I started mailing dummies to editors. I did get some pen and ink illustration work for textbooks, but it wasn't until I saw David Macaulay's The Way Things Work that I got the big idea to make an illustrated book showing where everything comes from. The biggest concept I could think of would sell, right? I called it Sources.

Sample dummy page from Sources

Sample dummy page from Sources

Amazingly, Marcia Marshall, Senior Editor at Atheneum Publishers/Macmillan, got back to me. Sources didn't work for her, but she was good with a picture book about where clothing fibers come from. Unraveling Fibers was to be published in 1995.

Marcia came to my Virginia home on her way to visit her daughter in Florida and collected the finished work for Unraveling Fibers. (So cool to direct my editor past the Virginia Museum and Dogwell Dell ampitheater and up my street. And there she was, munching cheese crackers in my kitchen.)

Marcia was surprised when I gave her a photo book layout and I'd done with my husband, Francis McCall. Switching from illustrations to photographs wasn't really something I thought I needed to talk to my editor about. We had to take the pictures anyway, and it seemed like a lot of extra work to copy them in watercolor.

There are some challenging editors, but Marcia Marshall has got to be the kindest, most understanding of them all.

Unraveling Fibers Photos

Francis and I grew silkworms. You can see silkworms still spinning themselves into the cocoon.

Jenny Wagner holding a llama. Alpacas on the right.

Unraveling Fibers Cover Designs

I did submit an illustrated cover design.

Original cover painting I placed on a bed of wool fibers.

 They rushed out a cover with black and white photos. I think that might be my fault. 

My final cover design on left. Cover created by Atheneum on right.

Unraveling Fibers made the New York Times book review!

Website: www.patriciakeeler-author-illustrator.com

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represented by Liza Royce Agency www.lizaroyce.com