Julie Olson Books - Author/Illustrator

"Dear Cinderella" and other work

It's a busy season...I don't know why it's always that way for me...more work over the Holidays than in the summer. But that's alright. Here's what's been going on.

I received my advance author copies of "Dear Cinderella" from Scholastic. I illustrated this cute girly book and it'll be out in February 2012. It is always fun to see the finished result of months of hard work. And they even added glitter to the cover (glitter always makes things even more special, right?). I love it. My seven year old daughter read it again and again the day it arrived. Christmas came early for me. I'm sorry this book can't be to you by Christmas, but you can pre-order it so it arrives when it's released if you'd like.

Then I was told that ToysRUs will be stocking the book on their shelves. They requested, through Scholastic, that I sign bookplates to place in each copy. I happily agreed to sign them. I was a little surprised to see 1,275 bookplates arrive via UPS on Monday. It took nearly three hours to sign them all. My right hand is a little bit cramped. So if you happen to see the book in ToysRUs come February, open up the front cover and see my signature and think of my little cramping hand. But I'd gladly do it all again. :-)

I've also been working on adding color to my ebook and I just finished and sent off all the sketches for another book I'm illustrating. It's nice to feel productive.

Creating an eBook

Text and Images for "Princesses, Princesses, Princesses" are copyrighted by Julie Olson 2011

I am working on an eBook for Nook and Kindle and downloadable pdf. I decided to take this approach with a personal project of mine and see how it goes. Tell me what you think so far. Keep in mind this pdf viewer has compressed and pixelated the images greatly. But you'll get the general idea. Honest critiques are welcomed. Now is the time to make changes. :-)

Working on a few projects

So my summer was fairly slow in the illustration arena but very full with adventure and fun on the home front. And then school started and my baby boy began to walk. I think things were turned upside down for me then. HE GETS INTO EVERYTHING now. So even though he takes a lot more of my time and attention right now (and for the next few years of mayhem) I'll enjoy the sweet moments and get what I can done when I can get it done. Here he is in a rare, holding still moment...

That said, I've been working on a couple of projects...

Project #1 came about from the picture book marathon. I'm working on an ebook for the Nook. It's the "Princesses! Princesses! Princesses!" book. I've got it all sketched out and laid out. Now I need to put color to it and get an editor friend to look at a few of my phrases in the text. Here's a sneak peak at one sketch.

Project #2 is a picture book called, "Purple." I didn't write this one, but it's a sweet story about a little boy's blanket and all the love it had to give. (in the same vein as "The Giving Tree" but the blanket will not be personified in the illustrations like the tree is).

Little Penguin: Emperor of Antarctica

My book "Little Penguin: Emperor of Antarctica" just released. You can check for it at your local bookstore on get it here. It's so fun to see your books actually printed. They even got the color matched really nicely on my illustrations. (That's always a concern)

"Lazy" days of Summer

I had grand plans at the beginning of this summer. I'm in between contracts right now so I thought, "PERFECT! I can work on my own projects." I thought with the kids out of school and no homework or school obligations to worry about, I could just let them run free and get some personal illustration projects done. I did finish my "Doggy Day" picture book dummy and have my agent shopping that around. And I got started on another story about a little girl who wants to be a princess. I got the story written and edited down and have about 1/3 of the sketches done, but that's it. Here's a little sketch of the main character...

UGH! I wanted to get so much more done! Oh well. Maybe this picture depicts what I've actually been doing instead. No, really...I've been trying to be a good mom and give my kids a great summer. Between swimming lessons, family reunions, birthdays, camping, swimming, hiking, crafting...the summer has flown by. It's been a great one for our family...just not for my illustration career.

BUT...school starts next week and I'll just be left with a 1 year old at home. I'm hoping his nap times will be nice and lengthy and I'll get back into a routine. So I apologize for the lack of posting. Maybe you've been so busy you didn't even notice. :-)

Here's to a productive Fall!

All for Nothing

I've never had it happen before, but a publisher has decided not to publish a book I illustrated. They killed the job. Fortunately it was a "Flat Fee" project meaning there were no royalties in the contract. Instead, it was a large up-front flat fee. So if a project had to be killed before going to print, this would be the one because I'm not out any potential money by it never going to print. (Here's a link to a few posts about the project)

But no matter what the job is or was, it is really frustrating to have put in so many hours and months worth of time into it and then it never comes to fruition. Maybe I should see if any of the illustrations are sell-able. Here's what was going to be the cover...