We’re so excited to share a FREE live public Zoom event with Lilla tomorrow, Friday, October 11th, at 12 noon EST/5 pm BST! She’ll be taking your questions about the course, arty books and more, and showing tons of arty books and sharing what’s so cool about them and why they’d be an amazing career step for you.
Plus she’ll be sharing her favorite #MATSprep assignments, maybe performing her famous career tarot and more – don’t miss it!
Join here – you’ll also find the link on the front page of our website at www.makeartthatsells.com and in our Instagram Stories tomorrow.
And don’t forget, Lilla will be picking TWO students at the end of the course for a warm, supportive, private 1:1 meeting to hone your pitch to perfection – wow!
Meet your teacher! Art agent and author Lilla Rogers (left) and her team have assigned many hundreds of gorgeous illustrated arty books to the artists she represented. Right: Lilla’s own arty book, I Just Like to Make Things for Quarry Books.
Lilla’s unique illustrated non-fiction book course, My Arty Book Pitch, starts THIS MONDAY, October 14th! In this incredible course, she’ll guide you step by step to create your own ready to send arty non-fiction book proposal, and share everything you need to know to write, illustrate and pitch your very own art-driven book.
We spoke to Make Art That Sells student Ana Bianchi about her brand new arty book, which is published in fall 2025, to find out what her experience of writing and pitching an arty book was like, and how it all developed from an assignment from Lilla.
Make Art That Sells student Ana Bianchi, whose new arty book will be published in fall 2025.
Q. Hi Ana and congratulations! What Make Art That Sells courses have you taken and which was your favorite?
I spent three or four years taking pretty much every Make Art That Sells class. It is hard to pick favorites, but if I have to pick one, it would be My Toy Pitch with Lilla and Riley. I loved every assignment and I love every piece I created for it. I am actually using some of the artwork from the class in the book!
I also love Illustrating Children’s Books and the Bootcamps – Assignment Bootcamp and Bootcamp Special: Character Play … Well, I love all the classes, really!
Q. How did Make Art That Sells help you on your art journey?
Art, illustration and design is what I have done my whole life. In 2018, after working in branding for a few years and moving from New York City to California, I discovered Make Art That Sells. At that point, I was curious about rekindling my love for illustration, and the classes were perfect for me.
Beautiful colors in this art by Ana for My Toy Pitch.
I was looking to learn about the current state of different art markets. I had been a freelance illustrator in Mexico at the beginning of my career and had an illustrated clothing line for girls in New York, but those were different creative circumstances. Also, I wanted to experiment with style and themes and solidify my portfolio with strong pieces.
Make Art That Sells was perfect for this: a non-judgemental place to experiment and inspiring projects to really flex my creative muscles. Plus the amazing teaching styles of Lilla, Riley, Zoë, Margo, and the other teachers, and a really nurturing community where I made artsy friends.
Q. We love to hear that. What can you tell us about your arty book project?
My book is about color: finding and noticing color all around us, and understanding how colors work together and how to apply those color ideas in a variety of creative fields, not just illustration.
It will be titled either An Eye for Color or Becoming Color Curious (we’re still finalizing the title!) and will be published by Chronicle Books in fall 2025.
Each chapter includes an essay on a color theme and the majority of the book consists of my color-rich photos of natural and human-made color, some with matching color palettes, and a series of creative projects to apply them too. And of course there are some illustrations both from my portfolio and created for the book. So I basically put all my favorite things in it: color, ideas, writing, photo, illustration.
An image from Ana’s portfolio, including work created for Make Art That Sells classes and personal projects.
Q. It sounds like you are definitely embracing the idea of sharing your joy! How did you come up with the idea?
I spent 15 months – five seasons – photographing what was growing, blooming, fruiting, or decaying in my yard every week as a personal project, so I had a huge archive of images. I then created matching palettes during a 100 Day Project challenge, and I thought it looked like something that could go in an art book.
One of the palettes Ana created for her book.
I pitched it to the former owner of a publishing house, who said it wouldn’t work for a book, and suggested I just create calendars and so on. I didn’t take offense, but stayed with my idea and prepared a pitch to Chronicle.
Chronicle told me they loved the images but that the book needed to be reframed as either entirely eye candy or a book with content, as currently it was neither. That’s when I set out to make my second pitch that would eventually land me the contract to produce the book.
Q. Wow – I love how you stayed true to your vision and persisted. How did you go about setting out the project and creating content?
I have always been obsessed with color: I am a self-professed color-lover bordering on being a color junkie, and this was my chance to share all my thoughts about color that I have learned from a wide range of teachers (Lilla included!) or that I have encountered or practiced with during my whole life (I started my art career when I was 5!).
The book is not about color theories but is instead all very intuitive, since I believe color is a personal journey. While it is very much about my color-love journey, it is mostly full of inspiration for the readers to embark on their own journey, either as new artists or, for advanced artists, to deepen their use of color.
Each chapter contains some suggested projects to apply the color ideas in different creative fields: surface pattern, toy design, illustration, fine art, interior design, fashion & textile design.
Finally, throughout the book there are several interviews and quotes from people I know for their strong color use.
More of Ana’s beautiful palettes.
Q. We can’t wait to read it! How did you get a publisher?
All of my books, including this new one, have been un-agented because of chance occasions when I met and connected with editors (this is why networking and building your contacts is so important!).
My book about color is going to be published by Chronicle Books. I first met the editor for art and design books many years ago at a conference for creatives. At that time, I had a chance to do a 5-minute book pitch to her, so I pitched my children’s books. She loved them, but clarified she didn’t do kid books.
Fast forward eight years and I had one book to pitch: a coffee-table book with my color-flora series of photos of what I call Abstract Naturalism comprised of the photos of botanicals and their matching color palettes. I asked a friend who has a lot of books with Chronicle to see if this editor was still there, and she confirmed she was still the one to contact, so I pulled out the business card I had kept all these years and sent my pitch!
Art by Ana for Bootcamp Special: Character Play. You can see how her love of color shines through in every piece!
Q. It sounds like kismet for sure! Any other tips for any of our students who may be about to embark on their first non-fiction arty book?
You don’t need the actually make the whole book before pitching it. That comes once it is in contract.
When working on a book, you need a really solid proposal. The most important thing is to have a very clear, distinct idea for it. Spend time building the table of contents and the reasoning behind it: why each chapter is important, what each section is about, and how everything connects. Is there an underlying story? or, as in my case, a method that connects it all?
Also, be very clear about who this book is for and which shelf in the bookstore will it occupy: the art section? the craft section? the design shelves? Publishers need to see that clearly so that their sales and marketing teams know “this is an illustrated cookbook” or “this is a garden memoir”. Once the idea and flow of the book is clear, then work on a few spreads to communicate your visual thinking and intended look-and-feel.
Ana used both natural and manmade objects to inspire her color palettes.
Thanks Ana and congrats again on the book! See more of Ana’s work on her website and Instagram, where you can see her previous books and her beautiful ceramics, and sign up to her mailing list for updates on the new book!
- TOMORROW, Friday, October 11th: Join Lilla for a FREE live public Zoom at 12 noon ET/5 pm BST ahead of My Arty Book Pitch! She’ll show lots of arty books, and talk about what’s in the course and what’s so cool about arty books. Plus she’ll be taking your questions about arty books, the course, and more, sharing her favorite #MATSprep assignments, performing her famous career tarot and more – don’t miss it! You’ll find the link to join on the front page of our website at www.makeartthatsells.com and in our Instagram Stories tomorrow.
- Monday, October 14th: Class begins! Learn how you can write, illustrate and pitch your very own illustrated non-fiction book in My Arty Book Pitch! Find out more about this unique course here.
- Next newsletter: See Lilla’s favorite #MATSprep warm-up assignments for My Arty Book Pitch!
Lots of love
The Make Art That Sells team xxx
