Cats and Copyediting: Using Illustration to Market a Book
How to collaborate your way to good design and marketing success
I want to start with a great Steve Jobs quote. I found it in Ian Leslie’s book Curious.
“… (Some people think) that a really great idea is 90% of the work… (and if you just tell it to other people), they can go off and make it happen… the problem with that is that there’s just a tremendous amount of craftsmanship in between a great idea and a great product… Designing a product is keeping 5000 things in your brain and fitting them all together…”
Many of those 5000 things involve collaboration: going back and forth, revising, and fine-tuning ideas.
That’s why it’s important to hire creatives who understand the nature of collaboration — the give-and-take. Who are willing to invest in your success because they know your success and theirs are linked.
What do collaboration and craftsmanship look like?
Copywriter and USC marketing professor Freddy Nager hired me to illustrate his book, Copyediting With An Attitude.
Freddy loves cats and wanted a cat character for the illustrations. (“You can’t have a book on attitude without them.”) Specifically, he requested “a cat wearing sunglasses holding a large pencil.”
I began by reading the book. Freddy sent me the manuscript. Then, I let my mind roam free and made some thumbnail sketches like the below illustration.
I did more thumbnails and tried to incorporate some of the book’s key points. Things started to get more fluid at this point. The cat’s not necessarily holding the pencil.
I needed to define the cat character more clearly. I came up with nine character designs. Freddy liked #4.
It was time to send Freddy some rough sketches. The book contained an Introduction and 4 “acts” or chapters. One of the tips that jumped out for me in the Intro was: “Proofread, edit, then wait at least 24 hours to proofread once more.”
So, my first rough sketch was based on that idea: a cat with an hourglass on his head, holding the kind of sign used by a flagman.
Freddy liked it but asked to see an idea for a different tip: the wisdom of proofreading your copy out loud.
That second sketch is on the right below; that’s the concept we used for the final illustration.
The second act or chapter talked about creating a brand bible: specifying naming conventions, including acceptable abbreviations and acronyms for your brand; guidelines for using slang; whether it’s ever acceptable to mention competitors, etc.
My first rough for Act 2 referenced the brand bible concept.
Act 2 also talked about the importance of consistency: formatting all items in a list the same way, sticking with the same tense (past, present, future), the same voice (first, second, third), etc.
Freddy asked for a rough for “evaluating consistency” (below, right); that’s the concept we used for the Act 2 illustration.
I did a total of 5 illustrations. One of them stressed the importance of using active verbs to energize your copy. It was also used for the cover.
The above sketches and revisions show the back-and-forth nature of collaboration. A creative (illustrator, designer, copywriter, whatever) has to be an invested partner — a collaborator who shares the client’s goals (in this case, producing a book that stands out, attracts readers, and racks up sales).
A client can proceed with confidence when he knows the creative will invest in his (the client’s) success and do all he can to achieve the shared goal.
I invested here by reading the book, identifying key points, creating an appealing cartoon character, submitting ideas in sketch form, and then revising those ideas based on client feedback.
Feedback is a huge part of collaboration. When we collaborate with others, we rarely get things right on the first try. That’s where feedback comes in.
You’ve got to listen to client feedback with an open mind and resist the urge to immediately jump in with your own ideas. You will get your chance. That’s why the client hired you — for your experience and expertise.
Since its publication, I’ve also been promoting the book at no extra charge by posting about it on Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social sites. I even created a promotional graphic for it.
Collaboration. It’s a challenge, but it’s worth it. Because when you invest in your client’s success, you’re investing in your own as well.
Thanks for reading my story.
Mark Armstrong writes about marketing and visual communication. Learn more at Mark Armstrong Illustration.