Art Director Laurent Linn

Week of June 24, 2012—Reflections from SCBWI, Orlando

Tuesday, June 26, 2012—Art Director Laurent Linn

 Laurent Linn is Art Director for Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. Laurent sprinkled his presentation with picture book examples and humor. Laurent began by saying that picture books are a shared vision between author and illustrator, and that authors and illustrators have the same intent and purpose in their work. Just like an author, an illustrator wants to tell a story and make an emotional impact.

WHAT IS A PICTURE BOOK?

It’s all about the story. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers loves stories, and actually don’t publish much non-fiction. Laurent shared some examples of picture books that are all about the story:

R Christian the Hugging Lion

R Jump!

R Broom! Zoom!
R The Scarecrow’s Dance

R Night Flight

R The Problem with Puddles

WHAT IS A PICTURE BOOK PHYSICALLY?

A picture book is a printed book. At Simon & Schuster Books for Younger Readers, picture books are always hard cover with a jacket—though that varies from publisher to publisher. Trim size varies (and covers are always a bit larger than the inside pages). Picture books are almost always thirty-two pages in length. The next most common length is forty pages. Anything other than the standard thirty-two pages (even less pages) is more expensive to produce, however.

WHAT IS A PICTURE BOOK IN A LITERARY SENSE?

Picture books are flexible—they can be fiction, non-fiction, a toy, interactive, a pop-up, and more. But there are rules to follow and there are limits to what people will buy and what they will pay. Very little of the expense of a picture book is in the printing and production—most of the cost is the up-front investment in the manuscript, art, and in-house expenses.

WHAT IS A PICTURE BOOK ULTIMATELY

A picture book is looked at, read, and enjoyed. A picture book can change a child’s life. But to create something that truly appeals to a child is extremely difficult. But ultimately . . . the author and illustrator’s job is to create a story.