LONDON BOOK FAIR

Last year I went along to the London Book Fair with the third years, mainly to see what I would be going through this year. It's an opportunity to se publishers, meet art directors and generally try to be professionals. It's also the biggest place full of books I have ever seen.

Apart from preparing my portfolio, in preparation for the London Book Fair I went through the exhibitors that would be there and picked out a few that I thought were most relevant. I noted some details about each of them and which stand they would be on:

As I think my portfolio is pretty much children's book illustration orientated, I tried to find exhibitors that seemed relevant. I looked for those that mentioned illustration and children's books in general, and also bigger companies that represented publishers that I had heard of- such as Bounce that deals with Nosy Crow. 

When we got there a couple of us went to the table the university had in the 'Illustrators Gallery'. We sat and looked after the table whilst those who had been there a day already went to have a look around. The table featured a group portfolio, business cards and any other small promotional items that people had made. We had interest from a couple of people from Usbourne who looked through our portfolio and took business cards of the people they liked the look of best.

While we were watching the table some people from our year came to and from the table and told us how they were getting on. From the beginning most people seemed quite dejected and didn't have many positive things to say about their experience going around the fair. Many publishers either didn't want to see any portfolios, or if they were lucky they got a business card for the art director.

From when I wandered around the fair, trying to find the people I had written down on my phone, I found it incredibly awkward. It just didn't give the impression of an illustration friendly place, and I felt pretty irrelevant being there! When I looked  at the stands every time the people there were sat at tables in meetings, and I felt like I couldn't approach them without interrupting. And especially after what everyone else had said I didn't want to interrupt them to be told that they wouldn't look at my portfolio!

When it came to 4 o'clock we all gathered at the Children's Hub to hear from a panel of art directors, some of which we would be meeting and showing our portfolios to. This was the most useful part of the day for me, hearing questions asked by students being answered by the professionals.

First off they all introduced themselves and said where they were from- there was Audrey Keri-Nagy from Walker books, Emma Hayley from Self Made heroes,  Sean Williams ( YA fiction) from Scholastic and Strawberrie Donnally also from Scholastic (pre-school and picture books). They also spoke about their roles at the company and what they did there.

They each spoke about how best to send work, and although some said email was fine it was interesting to hear that more people would be more likely to see work if it was sent through the post, as it's so easy to miss emails (this gave me an idea for my promotional items as it means I could think of things that I could easily send in the post to people). Something they also brought up was to not give up if you don't hear from them straight away, and that to keep sending work in.

They also spoke about different ways books were created- and Strawberrie in particular talked in detail about this. She said how one option was an illustrator could come with a loose idea for a book, or they might be intrigued by something in their portfolio and then build a book from there. Another way was if an illustrator had a fully formed story and illustrations from the beginning, and another was that they would try and find an illustrator they would best fit a story they had. This differed to Self Made Heroes way of working (which is graphic novel based) where they can be a writer, an illustrator or someone who does both. She mentioned that it's best they see a few pages of script or images- but they do not need a whole book ready to go straight away.

After they had answered the questions asked by Keiran (but chosen by students) the organiser of the art directors afternoon gave each of us a number- I was 7 which is my lucky number so I saw this as a good omen. The first 8 were called up to be the first to sit down with someone, and I sat down on a table with a woman who had the number 7- because I thought that made sense. She asked how I had found the day so far and I said how interesting it was listening to the art directors answer questions as I had little knowledge regarding the publishing business. She went on to say that she was from Usbourne (not one of the people I met earlier who came to the table) and that they work differently from the other publishers, and that they work with a group of in-house illustrators that have been there for years. I don't really know why but this kind of made me feel more nervous, or that she was't really interested in seeing my portfolio.

As we went through I explained what the work was about and how I made it, and she was very complimentary. She said in particular that I work well with limited colour palettes, and the colours I used looked very fresh. She also pointed out characters that she liked.  I think I should have spoken about my work in greater detail, because I went through the portfolio quite quickly. At the end she asked if I had any questions and I asked if they use in house illustrators does that mean they rarely take on any outside artists, and if they through what means would they find them, ( I basically asked if I should get an agent) and she said that they sometimes look through agencies, but they also generally keep an eye out everywhere for new talent- looking at packaging, social media etc. She said thank you for letting me show her my portfolio and I thanked her for taking the time to look at it, we also swapped business cards.

As soon as I got up I realised I was the first one finished, which is a bad sign- and everyone else was sat chatting!

Overall I wasn't overly happy with how my meeting went. In all honesty I think I could have been better prepared, even though I had gone to the book fair last year I still didn't feel comfortable at all. If I could have done my meeting again I would have done the following things differently

1. I would have talked in greater detail about my work and taken my time going through my portfolio. I got that toxic type of thought in my mind where I didn't think she care about seeing my work so I didn't go into much detail- when that probably looked like I didn't care about my own work!

2. I would have prepared more questions to ask, however it was one of those situations where I felt so out of my depth at that kind of place where I didn't even know where to start asking questions. However I definitely should have asked for feedback/ criticism on my illustrations/ general portfolio. She said some positive things about my work which was nice but it wasn't very helpful. I could have also asked for her feedback on my general presentation and how I was meeting her, and if she had any tips for meeting with art directors. I also should have asked her more about herself and what her career has consisted of. NOW I can think of questions!

3. If I could have changed my portfolio I wish I had more brief based work rather than just stand alone images. I do think that my drawings can be applied to different things and that someone could see potential- but in the Q & A one of the art directors mentioned that it's better to show that you can work to a brief rather just show a load of drawings that you made because you like them.

4. She asked me what I wanted to do after University and I don't know, so I sounded a bit unsure which I'm worried came across as 'I don't care'. If I had this discussion again I would rather just make something up so at least I know what I'm talking about.

Overall I am glad I went to the LBF even though I didn't think it was completely beneficial at times. It was such a long day, especially being ignored by people, and it was quite drawn out to have the art directors afternoon right at the end of the day. I think that the panel Q&A was the most useful part of the day, and all in all I learnt more about what I should do next. It was handy preparation and takes away the nerves from meeting people in the future.