Hello,
I'm the illustrator Nick Dollak and I have a question to ask you. Have
you ever wondered how books get made? I mean, really made? Some
people might think it's very easy. They might say something like, "Well, the author
sits down and writes the story, sends it off to a publisher, and then the publisher
prints it as a book. If it's got pictures, an illustrator (that's me) makes the
pictures and they get put into the book." Well...
that's sort of how it happens. But it's not that easy. Anyone who's ever tried
to make a book can tell you that it's a lot of work! I'll tell you how I used
to make books when I was younger and then we'll find out how Preston and I make
our books now. You can scroll down to read on or click on the links below to jump
around on the page. How
I made books when I was young
I
would staple several sheets of paper together, draw the cover art, give the book
a title, and then fill it with pictures and text. Sometimes I would run out of
pages before I was done; sometimes I would run out of story before I ran out of
pages! I never let it bother me, though; if the story wasn't finished, I would
attach more paper as needed. And I could usually fill up extra pages with more
drawings. When
I got older, I used a copying machine, scissors and glue to make a master copy
of a book and then I used that book to make more copies. These books were much
better than my earlier tries and even looked a bit like something you would see
in bookstores. I
even printed up front and back covers, glued them on posterboard (a very heavy
paper), and very carefully spread wet glue over the spine to bind it all together.
As a finishing touch, I glued a strip of paper with the title printed on it over
the spine, and stuck clear contact paper over the cover to protect it. To
make things easier, I designed and built a wooden box in which I could bind two
copies at a time. Take a look at the picture on the right. Top How
Preston and I made our first books
In 1993, Preston and I began producing
little hand-made copies of finished books and sold them in local stores. A guest
bedroom at my parents' house became my print-shop, where I would run my photocopiers
and bind my books. We soon began to get orders for books and I had to produce
batches of 10, 20 or even 30 copies! It got so that my little wooden box was not
enough to bind everything in time. See the picture on the right. For a little
while I considered building a couple more - then I hit upon an ingenious yet simple
solution... Top Potato-chip
clips to the rescue!
That's right, we discovered that those broad little
plastic clips available in grocery stores everywhere were perfect for holding
the books together while the glue dried. I now only needed the binder for the
part where I applied the glue. After that, I could attach a couple of clips, lift
the book out and set it aside to dry. It
was still a lot of work, though. Sometimes I'd be working in that room for hours,
printing one book while binding another, with stacks of paper all around the room,
and a bunch of drying copies standing against the wall with clips sticking up
from their spines like stegosaur plates. Even
after the glue had dried and the spines had been covered, I still had to stick
the clear contact paper on. It would take about an hour just to cover 10 copies,
since there was measuring, cutting, careful peeling and placing, and finally careful
trimming involved... not to mention a huge clean-up job afterward. Top The
start of Malibu Books for Children
Eventually, we decided to get our book
The Boy Under the Bed printed by a real printer. This was and still is
very expensive, but in the long run it costs less than making the books by hand.
Also, the books are much sturdier and look better in many ways. Even
though the printing is now done by someone else, Preston and I still do a lot
of the work. Using a software program called Quark Xpress I take the words that
Preston has written and my drawings and design the look of the entire book. Why
do we do all this? Well, it's cheaper than paying someone else to do it, for one.
Also, it gives us total creative control. Remember, I'm an artist. Every detail
of a book is important. Top Where
do the books come from before we get them printed?
It starts when Preston
comes up with an idea. He gets most of his ideas when he's taking a bath, or going
to work, or brushing his teeth! Then he does what is probably the best thing to
do when an idea hits: he writes it down. Later, he looks over the idea and starts
writing the actual story, based on the idea. Every so often, he re-reads what
he's written and makes changes, polishing his story like a gemstone until it shines
the way he wants it to. Then
he gives me a copy and tells me which parts he wants illustrated and how he wants
the pictures to look. I sketch out small drawings on scratch paper, which he looks
at to make sure we're thinking along the same lines. Later,
I draw the pictures full-size on 11x17-inch Bristol board and show them to Preston
for his approval. Once the details have been settled, I begin painting over the
drawings. I use mostly watercolors, especially a kind of watercolor called gouache.
It's a little tricky to use, but it can look like oil paints if you know what
you're doing. And it dries much more quickly than oil. Take a look at the two
pictures to the right. You can see both the sketch and the finished version of
one of the illustrations for The Sailor and the Sea Witch. Meanwhile,
Preston re-reads his story and looks for ways to improve it. He'll add a paragraph
here, delete a sentence there, change a word in this line or that. Sometimes I
catch a spelling error, or find a misused word, and I point it out. And sometimes
he catches a mistake in my drawings! It's good to get someone else's input. Finally,
the illustrations are all painted. This can take at least two months, but it depends
on how much time I have to work on the pictures, how complex they are, and how
many there are. Preston looks them over, I make whatever changes are necessary...
and then we're ready to prepare a Quark XPress file for the printer. Top Off
to the printer it goes
When we're done, I copy the file onto a ZIP disk,
which is like a floppy disk but thicker and fatter in size and you can put more
and larger files on it. Preston
and I then send the disk, along with an un-bound copy of the book, off to the
print shop. We also send the original pictures, which the printer will photograph
to make the color separations, which are what print shops use to make really good
copies of pictures - much better than any color copier can do. In
a few weeks, Preston and I get a copy of our book, beautifully printed and bound,
with a dust jacket. We look it over to make sure it's perfect, and if it is, we
thank the printer and ask him or her to make the rest of the books. The print
shop sends my illustrations back to me; and in a few months, the copies arrive
- ready to grace fine bookshelves everywhere, including your own. Top | 
