Again thanks, I draw inspiration and support from Rabbits like you every time I visit the forum.Thanks for sharing. You know what's funny? I had noticed that you and a lot of other really talented people were agented but not getting work and it made me realise that if you folks aren't getting bites then there's no hope for me!
Like you, I realised that I wanted to do darker, more edgy work, that targets an older audience; the stories and ideas I've been having are much better suited to screenplays than a 32 page picture book.
Another few factors that contributed:
- My local SCBWI chapter all complained about being on minimum wage as picture book illustrators after being in the industry for many years, they also had to get second jobs to make up the difference
- I attended the SCBWI conference and instead of inspiring me it weirdly put me off the industry
I really think your work would be suited to indie video games, your art style puts me in mind of Monster Boy, I really loved that visual style when I played it. Ever thought about making games? It's an industry that's much easier to reach your target demographic and run focus groups and testing (people will test you game for free!). Picture books, in contrast, don't allow you to reach (or test) the actual demographic to prove that a story or style is good (except for friends and family's kids for self-publishing), instead various gatekeepers dictate what makes it through, and what is deemed 'appropriate' or 'on trend.'
