2025 is special because my 10th children’s book will be released this year! I feel so lucky. When I feel lucky I have the urge to pay it forward. The number one question I get as a children’s book illustator is “how do you get book deals?“ and you’re right, kidlit industry is such a mystery. Honestly there’s no single straight path. But let’s try to peal the layers as much as possible. This month I’m sharing my PORTFOLIO journey.
Self publishing vs traditional publishing
Before I start talking about my portfolio I want to quickly recap two basic paths illustrators can take when making children’s books. First one is self publishing which I haven’t done yet. Self publishing means that you and your author does everything. Second one is traditional publishing which is how I work. Here’s a super basic info about them.
Traditional Publishing
My agent negotiates my $, my rights, my schedule etc with the publisher
My agent is great at thinking about things such as royalties, international rights, media rights, use on AI etc.
I usually have an advance which means I get paid in chunks throughout the book making process. If I “earn out“ the advance, then I start to get paid in royalties.
The publisher provies a team of experts when making the book
Art directors, book designers, editors, marketing team etc
The publisher prints the book
The publisher promotes the book
Chances to get the book promoted on their social media platform
Chances to get the book distributed via Scholastic book fair, school libraries etc
Chances to get invited to national events such as ALA conference
Self Publishing
You negotiate your $$$
You will be negotiating with (usually) your author about how you will get paid. If it a flat fee? Royalty? Per hour? The good thing is if you negotiate well, you earn all of the $$ you make from selling the book.
You negotiate your rights
You and (usually) your author will come up with a plan on who owns what and how
You make the book in your own schedule
You print the book
You promote your book
You and your author will be promoting your book. I’ve seen driven authors doing so many school visits and book festivals.
Which one do you prefer? There’s no wrong answer and both can be super successful! I went with the traditional publishing because I’m not good at negotiating. I need to rely on a team when I’m creating a book.
Both path requires some kind of portfolio. Whoever hires you needs to see your work. You need to earn their trust.
My portfolio journey : the beginning
So you picked a path. But you don’t know where to start? Yep, I was there too. I was working as a full time game artist when I started thinking about expanding my path to making children’s books. I went o 3x3 magazine conferences. I had my illustrations critiqued by art directors and illustrators. I even made a book dummy. But nothing clicked until I asked an illustrator who already had published books.
I am forever thankful for that lunch. This illustrator (not sure if he/she wants to be named so keeping it private) gave me the best tips on what to prepare and how to prepare it. That lunch led my to my agent who gave me even more specific tips.
So here are things I did wrong and how I improved it.
The book on the left is the physical portfolio / booklet I handed out. The book on the right is the one I made after I met my illustrator mentor and my agent. Similar right? But the one on the right has more movement, a sense of direction. A hint of mixed emotions rather than a singular happy face. Then there’s a subtle story. It makes you wonder. Is the bunny going to a party? Or coming home from one? Why does she have so many balloons? Why is she not so colorful?
I still had a game artist’s brain so I thought I had to create a “nice looking illustration“. I was thinking of asset art which I love making. But no one cared for these kinds of illustrations. Why? Because there’s no story. Just looking nice wasn’t good enough to gain art director and editor’s trust.
I thought I had to incorporate text because well… I wanted to be hired as a children’s book illustrator. And it’s common for children’s books to have text. So I included texts in my portfolio. A cheeky pun perhaps? I was wrong again! My agent said the illustration on the right is way better. Why? Because it has a sense of story. Again, you start to wonder. On top of that I drew my own text. Yes I LOVE hand lettering. Showcasing what you want to be hired for is important. With the illustration on the right I got to show that I love story, humor, hand lettering and characters.
Oof this is an embarrasing one. I thought showcasing my voice was important. But how I did it was wrong. I am all for women empowerment. But as you can see in the illustration at the left, I had some not so clothed figure. I think there’s an appropriate time and place for that. But it didn’t need to exist in portfolios. The surprising thing was that the illustration at the right with the boy in the bathroom was received very well. What’s the difference? People related to it. Some kids are afraid of pooping. Afraid to use the restroom. I’m glad I learned this lesson early in my career.
One of my big request my agent had was to zoom in on what I represent. I am Japanese. I was born there and spent half of my life in Japan. I illustrated local food and culture from Tohoku region when the big tsunami hit Japan. I was sharing it on my social media so people would be interested in visiting the Tohoku region. My uncle lives there and my heart was breaking. I wanted to help. When my agent heard that back story she asked me to use more pages on those illustrations. Personal stories are important. Illustrate it, express it.
So was my portfolio a complete disaster? Well, no. The illustrations above was successful in drawing in agents and editors. I kept those in my portfolio for a while. These were successful because it as a story. Depth. A point of view. A sense of who Shiho Pate is as an illustrator.
That booklet led to my first book deal. I’m so thankful for the community that helped fine tune my portfolio.
Since then I’ve lost count on how many illustrations I’ve created. I started posting more on my social media (mainly instagram). I updated my website frequently. Thank you squarespace for making it so easy to do that!
My portfolio Now
Do you see any of the illustrations I shared above in my current portfolio? No. Because you want to keep creating. You want to be puting your best work up front.
There are old illustrations I want to recreate. But for now I am focusing on creating illustrations that speaks to my heart. What I want to say. Stories I want to tell.
Right now I have my portfolio separated into two categories. One is FULL RENDER and the other is SIMPLE LINES. I did this because I had two very different look.
But again I’m constantly evolving. So who knows how my portfolio will be structured in the future… :)
Wow that was long! Lastly, I want to share the illustrators who have an amazing portfolio websites. I LOOOOVE it when the artists showcases their brand (logo, font, color, structure etc). Do you have a favorite?
Next month I will be sharing the illustrations I did that got me book deals. Yes I’ve done art tests. Yes I’ve created illustrations with book projects in mind. Sorry for the potential misspelling and poor sentence structure. I treat this like a hand written letter to you. If you want me to write about a specific topic please leave a comment below. Thank you for stopping by <3
Love and timid feelings, Shiho