Arty books – art-driven, illustrated, non-fiction books – are an awesome market for creative people like you – artists, illustrators, crafters, doodlers, photographers and more. Why? Because it’s a new source of income, plus it can bring new paid opportunities, like speaking engagements, teaching opportunities, more illustration gigs, writing for columns, being interviewed on podcasts, and much more.
Also, here’s the cool thing about writing and illustrating an arty book: you don’t need to be amazing at writing OR brilliant at drawing. You don’t even need to be an expert.
What will your arty book be about? Find out with My Arty Book Pitch.
Q. WHAT? Then what on earth DO you need to be in order to pitch, write and illustrate your own arty book?
A. You just need to be excited about showing or teaching or sharing something. That’s it.
Q. Um, are you sure?
A. Yes! Lilla will show you examples of all of these in My Arty Book Pitch, but in short:
- If you don’t think of yourself as a writer, you can create a book that has very little writing in it. Maybe you could create a beautiful illustrated guided journal, or a book of illustrated quotations, or a craft how-to. You could interview other people. You could create a book of lists. (Plus if your book is picked up by a publisher, you’ll get people like an editor and an art director to help you polish it to perfection.)
- If you don’t think of yourself as an artist, you can take photographs, or use graphic design or doodles –check out books like Math with Bad Drawings or Parenting: Illustrated with Crappy Pictures. Sometimes the publisher will provide a professional photographer if needed.
Do you love to craft? How about creating a book of your own stunning patterns, like this collaboration between Sublime Stitching and Tequitia Andrews, a Make Art That Sells student who is now represented by Lilla Rogers Studio.
Also, guess what? You don’t even need to write the whole book to pitch it. A pitch is just like, “Here’s how cool my book would be and I think you’ll love it and will you acquire it?”. All you need is some sample pages and a few other bits and pieces that Lilla will lead you through in My Arty Book Pitch.
So, what should your arty book be about? Today we’re sharing a wonderful video from art agent Lilla all about how you can use dreamy vintage books to come up with your own unique ideas – scroll down to see it.
Lilla will share tons of gorgeous arty books in My Arty Book Pitch, like these vintage books from her collection. This visually rich course is a feast for your eyes and your imagination!
Next week, we’ll show you six different types of arty book, with examples by our very own Make Art That Sells students.
And the week after that, we’ll share a fabulous FREE taste of the My Arty Book Pitch course, with a fun FREE interactive quiz that will help you dig deep and come up with your book idea, so you’re all set to go when class starts on Monday, April 10th.
How to use vintage books for inspiration
Here’s Lilla showing how you can use kooky vintage books to get fresh new ideas for your own arty book. She’ll dig deep into tons of books both old and new in My Arty Book Pitch.
Watch the video now to find out how to use vintage books for inspiration. Lilla will share lots more books and videos like this in My Arty Book Pitch.
Feeling inspired? We can’t wait to see what you’re going to do!
Lots of love
The Make Art That Sells team xxx
P.S. Look out for some GIANT news about My Arty Book Pitch in next week’s blog and newsletter 👀
