Putting picture book dummies on my website, good or bad idea?

xin li

Hi, I am working on updating my website. Just wondering if anyone put picture book WIPs (dummy books) in their online portfolio? Is that a good idea to show book dummies/ WIPs online if I want to pitch them to agents/publishing house later?

I understood Dummies are encourage to show at conferences and conventions. But I do not see Dummies or PB WIPs online much, I am wondering if it is because there is something I do not understand about how Publihsing world work, or it is because artists are perfectionists in general, and feel strange to share WIPs online.

Marta Kitka

@xin-li I feel like the best way to show your WIP is to post it on your blog and use your online portoflio to show only your best, selected and finished work.

xin li

@MartaD thank you for your input

Lee White

@xin-li I would typically hold off on showing images from a dummy. Wait until after you pitch it, then maybe start sprinkling them into your posts and website images.

xin li

@Lee-White thank you so much for the advice. May I ask what is the reason for this approach?

Coley

@xin-li I was wondering this recently too! Glad you asked the question

xin li

Hmm... I want to elaborate this a bit more, maybe that will help the pro illustrators here to point me to the right direction:
I am buidling a children's book portfolio, and currently my porfolio lack some indoor/home scene, and also I do not have sequential pages in my portfolio now.

At same time, I have a couple of story ideas I have been working on and off during last half a year or so. The stories are in rough thumbnail stage, I am still working on the pacing, and changing bits and parts. So I looked through my rough thumbnails, and picked out some scenes which are happening indoor. I plan to take 2-3 thumbnails from a single story, and take the images to finish and add them into my portfolio. But I may also use them later when I am done with the dummy book and ready to pitch the story.

I probably need to make an effort to promote my portfolio pretty soon to attract future clients. So this will probably happen before I finish my dummy for pitching. My question is:
Are there any portiential issues to include finished illustrations for a dummy book in my website, BEFORE pitching the story to agent/publishing house?

braden H

@xin-li I'm interested because this is essentially what I'm doing, too. Come up with three different ideas. Take a few pages from each to finish for portfolio. Create book dummies and pitch.

Lee White

@xin-li My reasoning is that it's a project that a company could buy so they may prefer the art not already be out in the world. That's not to say you can't do a teaser image or something. Maybe one or two images that don't give too much away. But you want to avoid over sharing it I think because companies like to be sort of quiet about the things they are in the process of acquiring. I am not 100% on this approach however and would love to get some feedback from agents and publishers.

xin li

@Lee-White This makes a lot of sense. I will try to find a good balance. Thank you so much.