We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alison Sanders. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alison below.

Alison, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Before we talk about all of your success, let’s start with a story of failure. Can you open up about a time when you’ve failed?

My biggest failure so far is self-publishing my own book. It was the first children’s book I wrote and illustrated. While I don’t think the book is “bad” per-say, knowing what I know now, I would have done so many things differently. First off, I was learning about illustration at the time. I made very simple illustrations that are “ok”, but not as engaging as they could be. The same goes for the writing. It was ok, but not great. If I were doing it all again I would get a lot more feedback and critiques along the way. I wrote and illustrated this book in a vacuum and that just doesn’t lead to the best results.

Then there’s the publishing and marketing aspect. I was so caught up in the “just get it out there” feeling that I never thought about what would come next. I think I assumed once it was up on Amazon people would just find it and it would be passive income. I totally neglected that there’s thousands to millions of kids books up on Amazon. It’s a sea of books, many of them self published. Once I got past the “friends and family” set of purchases sales dropped dramatically. I had to start learning marketing, social media and ads. It’s a whole other skillset from writing and illustrating, and one that I’m not particularly good at or enjoy.

My first book was not a big hit and it doesn’t make much money. I’m ok with that though, it was a massive learning experience. It taught me what things I do and don’t want to focus on, and where I needed to put more time and effort into my art. I’ve now got a strong and growing portfolio of kid lit illustrations. I’m looking for an agent to pair me up with an author to continue my journey. I know that I don’t want to self publish again because marketing is beyond painful for me. I’m able to take all that I learned from my first book and pour that into the next two manuscripts that I’m working on. It’s making them stronger, so that as I shop them around to publishers (not more self-publishing for me!) I have a better chance of getting picked up.

As long and painful as the learning process was I wouldn’t forgo the experience and knowledge I gained along the way.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Prior to becoming an illustrator I worked as a feature film animator. I worked on multiple major motion pictures including, ‘The Golden Compass’, ‘Tale of Despereaux’ and ‘Cats & Dogs 2’. My main focus was bringing characters to life to tell a story. I loved this work and the other creatives I worked with. I got the absolute joy of living and working abroad and the fun of an ever changing set of projects. However those same thing, the transiency, the crunch times, the never knowing how long a project would last of when the next one would come up led me to leaving the industry when I wanted to start a family.

I was a stay at home parent for more years than I planned. However I used that time to retrain as an illustrator. I use the knowledge that I have from my time in animation, storytelling and character development to lend heart and soul to my illustrations. I fell in love with children’s book illustrations in particular during this time when I was reading them constantly to my young kids.

I self published my first children’s book “Nothing Goes UP Your Nose!” in 2023. I am currently working on 2 new manuscripts and various illustration projects. My work focuses on the imagination of children and the magic of daily life.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I want to use my illustrations and stories as more than just entertainment. While I think there’s magic in just telling a story for the sake of a story, children’s books also give us a way to expose children to many areas of the world that they may not have any other access to. A child can learn about nature and space, they can learn about different cultures and types of families. They can develop empathy for a character in a story that can carry over into the real world. And especially important is for children to see themselves in the stories and media that they consume. Especially for children who are in the minority in their community, whether from skin color, culture, disability, etc.. it’s important to know that you’re not alone and that others have struggled with the same experiences.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice

While I think NFT’s are/were not a bad idea in general, the fact is that for most artists it is just a funnel for spam. I basically block anyone who mentions NFT’s to me online these days.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://alisonsandersillustration.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alison_sanders_illustration/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551045552996
• Other: Cara: https://cara.app/alisonsandersillust

Image Credits

Headshop photo credit to Monika Aldarondo Lugo. @laanclacreative.

All other photos credit to Alison Sanders