In the Beginning...

Here’s five things from the week that was:

I’ve spent the week returning to <checks notes> last year’s project, The Big Blank. It needs further development and I’m excited to work through some of the sticky points that emerged as I shared it all with my paid subscribers. Very often in the process, you hit moments that can be read as “oh, no! this isn’t working out” when it’s maybe best to shelve the whole thing for a minute1 to re-frame it as “why isn’t this working out?”

This is some of the hardest work we do as makers of things… to really examine the various bits critically. And as always, putting it through the “is this interesting to a kid?” rubric. Progress is being made.

Shhh! I’m offering 30% off yearly subscriptions until the end of this month! I’m not solid at math (more of an art kid) but that is <beep, boop, beep> $2.80 per month. I can’t make this happen without your support. I love Drawing a Blank and hope you find it encouraging and inspiring!

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The intention of our art can shift from self-expression to self-sustainment. From creative choices to business decisions.

The key to navigating this phase of an artistic journey is learning to tune out. To prevent external pressures from entering our inner process and interfering with the pure creative state.

— Rick Rubin, The Creative Act

I’ve felt like these two minds are very much like oil and water. They don’t mix well or if at all. Stressing about income puts me in a head space that cannot access the best parts of my creative self. And I’m most definitely not able to think about business when I’m really cooking on a book idea or an illustration. In fact, thinking about its success or failure mid-flow is a sure way to knock myself out of it.

I think tuning out or sequestering one or the other out is the key, but it can be very, very hard to do. I’d love to know what you do? How do you manage the business side vs the creative side?

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Be sure to use AI when making
your next, I don’t know, meal plan,
for example. Definitely do not call
your friend who loves to cook and ask her
for her favorite recipes or tips or ways
to save time making meals,
because you will end
up talking for longer than you had hoped,
hearing, perhaps, about her father’s cancer
diagnosis or how lonely she’s been or even
what she’s planted in her spring
garden and then lost with the early frost.

Excerpt from Shawn Smucker’s poem Please Use AI

This made me cry. It gets at what I was trying to say last week,2 in a perfectly apt, 100% fully-human and beautifully artistic way. Thank you, Shawn.

This week I spent some time with my friends Ginnie Hsu and Lauren Stohler. We sometimes critique new work, sometimes share little ideas that may someday grow up to become books, and always talk #kidlit shop. There’s so much good in community! Talking with friends that are in the same boat highlights how much time I normally spend alone in my studio, as an art recluse.

Lauren is easily the most brilliantly funny author/illustrator I know. Her work is an instant-buy from me and The Crown is one that I’m pre-ordering… right… now. I mean it has Fish Butts in the title.

Ginnie has a new zine out called The Seed Packet. She and her fiancé own a flower farm and spend a good amount of time with dirty boots, ducks, and seeds. Talented, thoughtful storyteller and gardener in one riso-printed, hand-made booklet? Yes! Order here.

I came across a couple of kidlit business resources this week and thought about how much I needed this when I was first getting started. The kidlit and publishing vernacular is like a different language and a misstep can mean real regrets. (Believe me, I know.)

1. Literary agent Kate McKean shares a bunch of common terms and situations in this post, How the Money Works. Really good stuff.

2. Giuseppe from The Illustration Department boldly gets after Rate Expectations. (This is another reason you should spend time with other people working in your fields — you can compare and contrast your fees and contracts to make sure it’s all on the up and up.)

See you next week!

Best,
Jacob