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Publishing, but not as we know it
Non-traditional book projects can help writers and illustrators diversify and get paid.
As the boundaries between traditional publishing and self-publishing continue to blur, the range of projects demanding the skills of writers and illustrators has been steadily expanding. An increasing number of organisations are seeing the appeal of being able to create an emotionally engaging story to get attention, create loyalty or brand awareness, invite involvement in a community, project prestige or deliver a message in an emotive way.
I started in publishing as an illustrator, working in a studio as a part of a collective of freelance illustrators and writers in the mid-90s. One of our first big projects was a series of Power Ranger activity books. We had to create things like word-search puzzles, colouring pages, mazes and paper models. It left me with a very open view of what a book could be or what it could be for. The studio had a connection with comics-legend Will Eisner and we had all heard about how he had made comics for the US Army during the Second World War, using stories to teach the importance of vehicle and equipment maintenance.
Our studio would go on to produce a book titled Elegant Times: A Dublin Story (1995), a history of Brown Thomas and Switzers, two of Ireland’s oldest department stores, written by Anne Haverty and art-directed by Josip Lizatovic. Later on, I worked in an advertising agency in London for a few years as an art director and copywriter. It was great training for writing to a brief as well as learning how to be creatively flexible and how the print business worked, just as things were going digital. The times, they were a-changing.
Those changes in book production and the fact that many people previously employed in publishing are now working freelance mean that other types of organisations see the making of books as more accessible. In 2014, about 10 years after first being published as a writer, I was commissioned by a retail-display company to produce a picture book for one of Dublin’s biggest shopping centres.
I was to create a story around the family of snow-people that featured in their huge Christmas displays. The budget for the book was small and the deadline was insane but I needed the work. It was a publishing job on an advertising timescale – pretty common with this kind of project. With the story approved, I started sketching in September, with the final print file due in November, including parts of the images being used for augmented-reality elements, visible on a phone app as you walked around the shopping centre.
The print run was 10,000, the book would only be sold in that shopping centre at Christmas and proceeds went to the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. It was sobering to know that the budget for these Christmas displays was so big, they could choose to make a book as a charitable sideline.
It was sobering to know that the budget for these Christmas displays was so big, they could choose to make a book as a charitable sideline
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These kinds of projects fall into two loose categories: commercial or community-orientated. But emotional engagement is key. In 2020, I was asked by Green-Schools – part of the international Eco-Schools network – to produce a lively, action-packed picture book to introduce the idea of environmentalism to young children. Printed books and e-books were given away to school for free and there were online events as well as a classroom resource to go with the book. In 2023, a group in County Leitrim celebrated the link between its county and Margaret Haughery, a major historical figure in New Orleans, commissioning a children’s book about her. I pitched for that one but it was Jon Berkeley who got it.
In Ireland, the Per Cent for Art Scheme means that 1% of the cost of any publicly funded building development can be allocated to the commissioning of a work of art. This normally takes the form of a sculpture, murals or other physical installation but in 2020, as part of the scheme included with the construction of a new school in Ennis, writer and illustrator Chris Judge won the tender to produce an illustrated children’s story with the students of the school, a book entitled A Town Called Ennis.
These non-traditional publishing projects vary hugely in terms of budget, scale and reach. You could have a local authority or small company hiring you for their niche self-publishing contract or something like Headbomz, where in 2018, I was asked to write a middle-grade book for ISPCC Childline’s Headbomz campaign, promoting positive mental health. The campaign was sponsored by Vodafone and there were cinema and TV advertisements and a print run of 25,000. It was also available for free in Vodafone stores and every primary school in Ireland received a copy.
This work is not everyone’s cup of tea but if you want to make your living from making books, there is an ever-widening array of books to be made. Keep an eye on media where arts projects are advertised, including local authority email lists. Follow arts and writers’ organisations online. Let people know you’re open to this kind of commission. You need to be able to work fast and to a brief, to be able to write or illustrate in different ways, be open to trying different approaches and to connecting with other parts of a larger project. You should understand the basics of how a book is produced and know how to charge for your time and ideas.
Some of these projects offer almost as much, or sometimes more, creative freedom than aspects of traditional publishing and, in some cases, much bigger budgets. You can get more respect, too; you are providing expertise these organisations don’t have and they value that.
Some might regard this as mercenary work for an artist but for others it’s a chance to do something different; to open a new channel of work, reach a new audience or get into a different industry. It’s writing, it’s illustration, it’s storytelling – and it pays.
