Joint or seperate?

[silentriddler]

Hi,

My question is - I am developing an anime-type book with an
(Indian) illustrator here. He is very talented and focused,
even if he's younger than me (I'm 24) and he already has an
impressive portfolio (you can see his samples here -
www.kurnooldiocese.com/gaman (http://www.kurnooldiocese.com/gaman)

We'd like to submit ideas/manuscripts to publishing houses
that welcome multicultural ms (like Bebop). Now, is it ok to
jointly submit a picture book manuscript... that is, a
submission that has the text penned by me and illustrations
done by my friend to a US publication?

Or... do we have to do it seperately?

Wondering,
Radhika Meganathan

[Tish Davidson]

I was at a writer's conference last weekend and went to a children's book publishing session where it was emphatically stated that publishing houses DO NOT want illustrations to accompany submissions of children's books. First, they think the words should stand alone and create a vivid picture without art and second, the publisher, not the author chooses the illustrator. And conversely, illustrators should submit samples of their work independent of text. Over and over the publishers emphasized that it should be one or the other for new writers. I am sure there are exceptions, and this applies to the US markets, but this is what people actually publishing children's books were telling prospective authors.

[silentriddler]

Thanks Tish!

I thought so too, and the conference I attended recently implied the same thing. But here in India, it's different... a pair or even a trio can go and submit a proposal, if we pass the publisher would hire us a team for a select project. In US, the picture book market is almost saturated, but here it's just started booming... I guess it's just a different world :)

Warmly,
Radhika Meganathan

[Yeshanu]

You might want to double check with the publisher on this one, silentriddler. What Tish said is true of picture books, but graphic novels (which is what I think your work might be) are a different genre.

Does your work have speech bubbles (like in comic strips) as well as text? If the answer is "yes," then you've got a graphic novel. Check for publishers who publish them, and then ask for their guidelines.