22 Jun 2022, 05:48

Hi all, I'm working on my first children's book series and since it's my first time I was hoping I could get some critique/feedback from others on it before I proceed further in my current direction. The books will be in Chinese.

I've actually already sent the dummy of the first book to some publishers, but because of the market situation here (ie. the market is so small that children's books, especially in non-English languages, are generally loss-making enterprises), it's more like I'm a customer that the publisher is going to provide editorial/publishing services to, and while one of them seemed keen to work with me, I think that's probably more because they're happy to get some business rather than that they like my work. And I probably won't get editorial feedback from them until I sign a contract (which already means forking out money on my side).

(Actually hearing from a publisher first-hand that their children's books are all generally loss-making was quite disheartening for me and is frankly making me seriously question the viability of this as a career, but that's a topic for another time :')) I'm applying for a government grant to fund my work on this so I don't go broke in the meantime)


My books have a somewhat comics-inspired style (story is mostly told through dialogue in speech bubbles) which I don't see that often in other children's books, so I wonder what others think about this.

I'd also be happy to hear if anyone as any comments on the technical aspects of my style, whether you feel it "works" for a children's book (characters are rendered more realistically but backgrounds are a little simplified and cel-shady).

And of course, is the storytelling working?

(English translations are annotated next to/below the Chinese text, but final version will be Chinese-only, ie: please ignore the English text in the composition)

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Excerpts from the storyboard, including a finished 2-page spread

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Thanks in advance for your feedback and time!