Write your picture book story with Lilla’s writing course designed for artists!

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Category:Featured
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Light your fire: 2 FREE mini assignments from art agent Lilla

Lilla here. Something else came up in a recent live Zoom event with my My Arty Book Pitch students that I wanted to share with you. Here’s what I want you to know. I see how hard you’re working to get that project to happen, whatever it might be. For my My Arty Book Pitch students, it’s their illustrated book pitch, but it might be building a portfolio or setting up a new website or sending out kidlitart postcards or honing your style. That new phase – learning new things, discovering new things you want to do – should never stop. Here I am, in my late 60s, and I’m still figuring out what floats my boat, how I can help, what makes me excited, and what I’m dying to do. My first book, I just like to make things, for Quarry Books. I want you to keep that passion.

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Peek at some of Lilla’s art history 👀

Lilla here. As many of you already know, before I was an art agent, I was a full-time illustrator, and today I wanted to show you some of my old artwork that I recently shared with my My Arty Book Pitch class. I went to illustration school in California, and after I graduated I moved to New York, because that’s where you had to be to be an illustrator back then, before the internet was invented. I lived at 255 Clinton Street, Brooklyn. In 1985, after I’d been there about a year, I got a job from San Francisco Focus, who I’d done a few illustration gigs for already when I lived in San Francisco. They wanted me to illustrate an excerpt from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, maybe because I was in Brooklyn, so they thought I’d have some insight. In those days you couldn’t just Google your references,

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LAST CHANCE! My Kid Book Pitch class closes TODAY!

Do you want 2023 to be the year that you finally write and pitch your picture book story? Have you already taken My Kid Book Pitch and want to polish your story writing skills? Or have you already published a picture book and want to write another? Then hurry HURRY – registration for My Kid Book Pitch closes TODAY! This course won’t run again until 2024, so if you want in then book your spot now. You’ll get tons of tools, support and advice to help you write your very own unique picture book story, including Lilla’s fabulous 128-page downloadable workbook, a set of her dreamy Magic Cards, her Write a Story Recipe, twice-weekly live Zoom events where she’ll review student art and talk you through that week’s worksheets and assignments, and tons more. Plus Lilla will be choosing her favorite submission to the class gallery and offering one lucky

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FREE VIDEOS: 11 different themes for your picture book story

Art agent Lilla shares 11 different themes for your picture book story Hurry HURRY – My Kid Book Pitch 2023 starts TODAY, and there’s still time to sign up! Join the class now and get Section 1 of your [128]-page workbook and your full set of Lilla’s dreamy Magic Cards, and join Lilla for your first LIVE webinar of the week! Don’t miss out! Here’s your schedule for Week 1. Find the full schedule for this four week magic-packed class here. Still wondering what your story could be about? Still worried that you’re maybe not really a writer? Lilla has tons of experience of working with artists and other creative people, and she designed this course especially to teach artists and illustrators how to write, beta testing it on her artists before rolling it out to you, our wonderful students. Katie Vernon, a Make Art That Sells student who is

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Win a FREE place in class TODAY! Join the Live with Lilla!

Lilla’s picture book writing course, My Kid Book Pitch, starts in just a few days, on Monday, May 29th, and you could win a FREE place in class in today’s Zoom! Join art agent Lilla plus author-illustrator Erica Root for this FREE live event TODAY at 12 noon ET/5 pm BST – click here to find the time for wherever you are or RSVP for the Facebook event here to get a reminder. Join the ZOOM here   Here’s what to expect in this FREE live Zoom: Lilla will be talking about the FREE Magic Cards warm-up exercise we shared yesterday (click here to get it now if you missed it), showing off some of her favorite picture books and explaining what makes them so great, and popping up a volunteer live on-screen so they can chat 1:1. Plus she’ll be chatting to Make Art That Sells student and author-illustrator Erica Root, and giving

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Get your FREE Magic Cards!

Get your mini set of FREE Magic Cards from art agent Lilla and learn how you can generate picture book story ideas! My Kid Book Pitch starts THIS MONDAY, May 29th and we can’t wait to see all the magical quirky picture book stories you come up with. Today we’re giving you a FREE sneak peek at art agent Lilla’s secret weapon for unlocking your dreamy imagination: her unique Magic Cards. You’ll find your Magic Cards below. Then don’t forget to join Lilla for a FREE live Zoom event TOMORROW, Friday, May 26th, at 12 noon ET/5 pm BST. She’ll be talking about the Magic Cards, sharing some of her favorite picture books, and giving away a FREE place in class! Lilla will also be joined by her artist Erica Root. Don’t miss it! Join here – you’ll also find the link on the front page of our website and

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FREE VIDEO: Creating stories for picture books

Discover the secret sauce for coming up with your own unique picture book story idea! There’s less than two weeks to go until the start of My Kid Book Pitch, art agent Lilla’s one-of-a-kind picture book writing course that’s specially designed for creative people just like you! By the end of this incredible four week course, you could have your own children’s book pitch ready to send (along with suggestions on who to send it to), including: your special story idea an original and engaging character that editors will love a show-stopping opening line that will catch a reader’s attention and set the tone and mood for the whole book (this is what editors are looking for) a fun and authentic storyline with a narrative arc a compelling title a professional story-boarded dummy … but how do you come up with your own special story idea? Lilla’s Magic Cards in

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FREE MINI VIDEO LESSON: How to write picture books

Imagine getting paid to write and illustrate your own beautiful picture book … Walking past your favorite local bookshop and seeing your book in the window … Or visiting the library and hearing children exclaim over a book that you created! Why write your own picture book? Picture books are magical for creative people to write and illustrate, and they’re a great source of income. Children’s pictures books are radical and progressive and such a cool market for your voice. Plus they can be a lucrative income stream. According to research data and analytics group WordsRated, which focuses on the publishing industry, the US children’s book market is projected to reach $2.62 billion in 2023 – the seventh consecutive year of revenue growth. But how? Art agent Lilla created her picture book writing course, My Kid Book Pitch, which starts Monday, May 29th, to show artists how they can write

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Join us on Tiktok and YouTube

How do you do, fellow kids? Since we here at Make Art That Sells are achingly cool and hip [can someone check that young people still say cool and hip? Also achingly] we have now have accounts on both YouTube and Tiktok and we’d love it if you could give us a cheeky follow/subscribe! Watch Lilla’s interview with the brilliant Vanessa Brantley-Newton on our YouTube channel – and make sure to subscribe for more great content. Our YouTube channel is packed with tons of content to inspire you and support your creative career, including Lilla’s interviews with her artists, her fabulous FREE five part series on how you can write and illustrate your very own arty non-fiction book, creative director Riley’s Toy Talk series, tips from Lilla on how to find trends in home décor, Lilla’s interview with the amazing Vanessa Brantley-Newton and loads more! Find it here. Follow us

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Lilla’s time management hack for artists

Lilla here. Today I want to share a time management hack that I came up with when I was an illustrator and that I still use now as an agent. So here’s the scenario. Maybe you’re getting loads of illustration jobs, which is wonderful, or perhaps you’re juggling some paying gigs with coursework, childcare, your full-time job, keeping your Instagram and your Etsy up to date – I get it. I’ve been there when I was a full-time artist with tons of projects and young children. Some of my art from my time as an illustrator: a fun commission illustrating a record label’s page in a Grammy Awards program (left) and for the cover of Chronicle Books (right). Here’s a hack that I came up with that’s great for visual people: 1. Write each item on a small sticky piece of paper like Post-it notes. An item to write down