Yoon Gets Book
Imprint Of Her Own

Count My Blessings: 1 Through 10
by Salina Yoon
ISBN 0399246606
Buy this book
via Amazon.com.

If you have young children in the house, odds are there’s at least one Salina Yoon book on your shelves.

Since 1998, Yoon’s created or illustrated more than 70 beloved kids’ books. Interactive novelty titles are her specialty, including foil tab, fuzzy face, and slide-up series. Her bestselling project, The Icky Sticky Frog (Piggy Toes Press, 1999) with its long, stretchy tongue on the cover, just saw its twelfth printing.

2006 has been a banner year for Yoon. An imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group gave the mother of two toddlers her own line to produce at least 10 books a year, starting in spring 2007. And her most recent publication, the charming bedtime prayer count-along Count My Blessings: 1 Through 10 (Penguin Putnam, 2006) marks her picture book debut, a longtime dream of Yoon’s.

AUTHORLINK: Congratulations on your new line. How did that come about?

YOON: Thank you! You are referring to "A Salina Yoon Book," a new brand of novelty books launching in the Spring of '07, published through Price Stern Sloan (PSS), an imprint of Penguin. Before Penguin and I decided to brand these books, I had created over 20 books for PSS. Each format series was unique; its size, its shape, its novelty element, and I changed the art style depending on what I felt the book needed. So it made sense for us to try and brand the books to unify them with simply my name.

YOON: Count My Blessings: 1 Through 10 is a dream come true. I've always wanted to do a picture book, but nothing ever came to inspire me, until my babies. This book was written especially for my boys, Max (almost 3) and Mason (11/2), a true labor of love (the book AND their delivery!). I wrote this book to instill in them what our family values are, and to "count" what really matters in life. It's also about JOY, as the book cover illustration exudes! Toddlers are just full of joy, and they find it everywhere! The bear character is my Max as a bear. These are his happy expressions, smiling so widely that it makes his eyes smile back. His stuffed animals, wooden trains, and his grandmother's quilt all inspired the pictures.

AUTHORLINK: How did you get started with novelty books? Did you always know you'd ultimately be creating books for children, or did you have another career in mind?

YOON: I got started with novelty books by interning at Intervisual Books, a children's pop-up and novelty book company, while in between semesters at Art Center College of Design. The experience swept me off my feet! I was in love! I had always known that art and design was the direction I wanted to go, but I didn't know where this would take me. It was a beautiful thing when I found it, and it continues to be. I'd say I'm even more passionate about it now than I ever was because I work for myself and this allows all the creative freedom in the world.

YOON: No. A novelty book has three key components: the format, the concept/text, and the illustrations. The three need to work in unison. Certainly a publisher can match up the three with three different individuals, but this rarely happens. If you can't offer at least two of the key components I mentioned, it would be very difficult to get a contract. If you're not an illustrator, develop a unique format and concept (text) and this would offer enough to a publisher to consider the submission if the ideas are strong. Text alone would be difficult, and format alone would be difficult. Similarly, illustrations alone would also be difficult.

AUTHORLINK: How hard is it to sell a novelty book concept to an editor? And what do you use to pitch it – a dummy? A manuscript with descriptions of illos/flaps/tabs/etc.?

YOON: Novelty book concepts are not as easy to sell as one might think. As I mentioned above, the three key components of a novelty book must be well fused, and work as one great idea, not a collection of three. Of the three, if one is weak, it makes the entire book weak. To submit a novelty book, a dummy is the MOST essential tool in order to get your ideas across. A written description, even diagrams, are not effective. I gave a workshop on building a professional dummy at the annual SCBWI conference in L.A. in August of this year, and made a guide (with diagrams) for building both picture and novelty book dummies. They are available on my website in the "freebies" section: www.salinayoon.com

YOON: Nothing actually changes in terms of my creative freedom. Branding my name is really just a marketing tool. I've always had great freedom with creating my books since I design the format, write and illustrate them. Penguin rarely asks me to create something specific, though this does occasionally happen. But even specific requests are left very open-ended so that I may create from them. An example of a request might be to create a lift-the-flap book for Christmas.

AUTHORLINK: If a writer with no illustration skills had a concept for a novelty book, how would you recommend the author market the book to editors?

YOON: BUILD A BLANK DUMMY! "Blank" means "no art." This is the most effective way of presenting a novelty book idea. Building a dummy does not require talent as much as skill and patience. And skill can be learned simply by following a step by step process, which I attempted to write up and diagram after realizing the need for this from many that asked (again, look in the "freebies" section in my website: www.salinayoon.com). The text can either be included in the dummy by simply taping it in there, or submitted separately in standard manuscript form.

AUTHORLINK: Are there a finite number of houses that do novelty books? Or will just about any house do a novelty book if the idea is great and the numbers seem to work? And who does a better job with them – the big conglomerates or the specialized independent publishers?

YOON: Most large houses seem to include novelty books on their list. Here are just a few, with the imprint in parentheses: Penguin (PSS), Scholastic (Cartwheel), S&S (Little Simon), Harcourt (Red Wagon), Random House. B&N is also in on the action with their line, Back Pack Books. I've published with the first three listed. And no, not any house will do a novelty book if they don't typically do them. So research first, before submitting. Printing and publishing a novelty book is a far different process from printing a picture book. A publisher would have to have a separate department that deals with specific printers, a production group, and even a marketing/sales group that specializes in novelties/board. This is why most houses have separate imprints for novelties. It requires a whole new set of resources, skills and talents. The second question is difficult because I've seen it go both ways. I've worked on both ends of the spectrum,.. from the tiny to the large house. From my personal experience, quality of the end product and creative freedom was the same for both. What was vastly different was the advance/royalty. Better with the BIG!

YOON: I owned a copy of the Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market, which lists contact info and guidelines for submitting to all publishers in the US. Each project I submitted took months for responses so I submitted them all over New York. One submission a month was my goal during my first year of freelancing. It was very slow going. The submission to acquisition process took between 9-12 months each, sometimes longer! I remember not receiving a check in the mail for a five month stretch once. This nearly broke me down to just find a job. ANY job. Starbucks looked good. My husband kept me in focus, and continued to support me. But during that five month stretch, I started to submit about 7-9 submissions a month. I made three dummies each of every idea. My FedEx bills were huge, but I kept sending them. Multiple submissions to multiple publishers. I don't think there's a publisher in NY without a dummy of mine. I was planting seeds during the proverbial drought. And an abundant harvest I did have 6-9 months later!

AUTHORLINK: Where do your ideas for books come from? Not just the story, but the moving parts, and how the two interact? How do you take the germ of an idea and grow it into a pitch-able ms/dummy/proposal?

YOON: Ideas come from almost anything and everything: holidays especially, my children, cartoons, toys, funny greeting cards, wrapping paper, even other books. A book idea came from looking at a rubber ducky floating in the bathtub, while bathing my boys. It was so cute! This inspired Five Rubber Duckies and a Baby... submitted recently for Spring '08. Sometimes, the format will be the first idea, then the concept will soon follow. Or vice versa.

Once the idea is in my head, I write and draw it up simultaneously, back and forth. I always create a full-color cover with title, plus a color interior sample, and may include the entire text, or just one line of text to show the general idea. But with first submissions, it's always best to include as much as you can. Once a publisher is familiar with your style, you can present with less.

YOON: I don't think my kids quite comprehend that mommy makes these books at their young age, both being under age 3. But I do enjoy sharing it with them and seeing what might trigger a smile, a laugh, or an "again!" Max enjoys the Count My Blessings book because he recognizes all of his things in the art!

AUTHORLINK: What would you recommend aspiring children's authors and illustrators always keep in mind as they create?

YOON: For novelties, KEEP IT SIMPLE and FUN. Novelties are typically for age 5 and under, so the format and concept need to be simple and appropriate for this age group. Feel free to browse my collection of books for examples on my website. But look at others too! Research will save you years! Good luck to all!