Dave Horowitz

I get that a lot : (

We have the same publisher?

Getting good work passed the grown-ups. Many in the business treat kids like they're idiots.

Study Graphic Design!

If you can draw, you can draw—but graphic design is the how and why behind art. Also, graphic designers, can pick up work a lot easier than illustrators. I paid my dues as a design/production grunt at HarperCollins, and the connections I made there, led to my first book.

I'm so glad you asked this.

I spent too many years trying to get published the traditional route (sending work to editors, art directors and agents).

In the Fall of 2001, I decided screw this. I had an idea for a book that would be easier to execute than describe, so I just made the whole damn thing (something most people would advise against). I made the art, set the type and built a dummy. I sent full color working dummies to publishers and in months I sold that book, A Monkey Among Us, to HarperCollins. Once I had one in the bag getting an agent was easy.

But that was way back in the nineteen hundreds. Today's publishing landscape is very different. If I were trying to break in today I'd be making and publishing my own eBooks.

You can produce them and promote them yourself. If one takes off, you can be sure the traditional publishers will find you.

P.S. If you've got the skills, here's a guide I made to walk you through self-publishing eBooks.

Thanks! Couldn't ask for a better welcome.

If I was smart I would have had a fall back career, but apparently I'm a go big or go home type of guy (aka a moron). My 2¢: Get your degree, become a teacher AND write. It sounds cliche, but if you must write—you will write.

It's true. Whenever I hear someone belittling a kid's emotions, by telling them they don't know what's like to be a grown-up, with real things to worry about I laugh. Sure paying bills sucks, but compared to being three feet tall and being new at EVERYTHING, it ain't nothing.

p.s. Congratulations!

I think it was when I was a kid and Steven Kellogg visited my kindergarten. I was pretty good at drawing, so that seemed like something I could aspire to.

I keep sketch books going all the time, so when an idea strikes me I draw something or make some quick notes. The ideas and characters that keep showing up, usually make good books.

Yes, a lot of ideas get scrapped. The trick is figuring out if they should be scrapped or if you should keep pitching them until you find the right editor. My very best sellers (the Ugly Pumpkin, Five Little Gefiltes, Humpty Dumpty Climbs Again, and Twenty-Six Princesses) were all rejected once or twelve times.