We were lucky to catch up with Gaia Cornwall recently and have shared our conversation below.

Gaia, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you have an agent or someone (or a team) that helps you secure opportunities and compensation for your creative work? How did you meet you, why did you decide to work with them, why do you think they decided to work with you?

I knew from the start I wanted to work with a literary agent. It really makes sense in the publishing industry where un-agented submission opportunities are so limited. But also in terms of my personality and personal strengths, I knew it would be great to have a partner who could advocate for me.

However, it took me years to sign with an agent and in fact, I didn’t have one when I got my first book contract. Before I signed with Candlewick Press, I reached back out to previously contacted agents on my list, but it still didn’t work out with any of them! It wasn’t until the year after that book came out, that I met a colleague of my now-agent, who suggested that she might be a better fit. And he was right! I’ve been with Emily Van Beek, from Folio, Jr ever since.

All to say, if its taking you years to find an agent remember it’s extremely common, and that you’re in good company. Like the publishing industry in general, its a slow moving process, but one that is totally worth it in the end.

Gaia, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I write and illustrate books for kids. I grew up in a creative family, with parents who encouraged all kinds of art and always had us at our public library. So I have very early memories of drawing on anything I could find and of having very specific opinions of “good” picture books, even before I could read.

Somewhere along the way, it all felt very intimidating. Not only freelancing and working for myself, but also the creating for kids part! Not doing well in the one illustration class I took at art school didn’t help. So my path back to picture books was very meandering. I was animator working on projects like cartoons for tv, to shorts in documentaries, helped create film festival, was a video editor for Planned Parenthood Federation, did graphic design and built websites. Little by little I started doing bits of freelance illustration in all kinds of industries- from print magazines, to images for clothing companies. Around this time, I started researching the children’s literature industry as much as I could. I went to local events, workshops, conferences, and ended up joining a critique group that I am still a part of! Slowly (ten years, ahem,) but surely, I created and revised stories, and submitted manuscripts and dummies(–rough drafts of picture books–) to editors and agents, and was rejected, over and over again.

Early in 2013 I was pregnant and I know it sounds cheesy, but I think experiencing my body do something so insane made me brave enough to contact an editor– at my dream publishing house– who I had met years earlier at a workshop. The dummy wasn’t right for her, but she thought her co-worker might like it, so she passed it on. I signed a contract with Candlewick Press in 2014 and Jabari Jumps came out in 2017. When my editor, Katie Cunningham, and art director, Pam Consolazio, later asked what other projects I was working on, my first thought was “Oh my gosh, they’re going to let me make another book?!” and then, “Okay, I really need to try to find an agent again.” I signed with Emily van Beek, from Folio Jr, in 2018. I happily still work with all of them, including my latest book, Fairy Walk, which is coming out in April.

One of the wonderful parts of my job is that while the art and writing is mostly a cozy, solitary one, there is also a talking to kids, and a generally being more out in the world, component. As an extroverted introvert this feels like a good fit. Since I have a book coming out soon, I’m moving back into the “talking to people” part of my job and looking forward to it.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I think creating for the publishing field is an exercise in resilience. You have to be sensitive enough to create work that people respond to, while also being incredibly tenacious. Today when almost all media is instantly available for consumption, I think it always surprises people how long it takes to create a project. Of course some industries move much faster, but a typical picture book takes two years to complete. And that’s after the contract is signed, so doesn’t count hours -or years- of rough drafts, research, sketching etc, all the work you do on your own before submitting to your agent, and then the work you might do together before they submit to publishers. Making a picture book from idea to a physical object is excruciatingly slow.

Like most creative fields it’s also very competitive. Similar to an actor constantly auditioning, a writer or illustrator is continually submitting proposals for work. The majority of–even if you’re published with an agent– will never get made into books. Rejection, or– especially when you’re starting out– just silence, is a huge a part of the process. So much so, that the term a “good rejection” exists. (ie When an editor writes a personalized email explaining why the manuscript doesn’t work for them, and hopefully some ideas to improve it.) Being able to keep submitting after getting rejected is not for the faint of heart or thin skinned. Unfortunately, in this case, I’m pretty sensitive and rejections always feel personal and tragic. So I would be completely lost if I didn’t have my groups of writer/illustrator/creator friends who I can moan to.

I don’t remember when I first heard of the Marshmallow Test. (A study of delayed gratification, where kids are offered one marshmallow to eat now, or they can have two if they can wait ten minutes. With said one marshmallow sitting in front of them. The results are then supposed to correlate to success, or not, of the kids as adults. Those correlations have been debunked. Regardless!) From sketches to my first book coming out took ten years. And at some point in the middle of that I realized, I may be sensitive, but I will for damn sure wait for the second marshmallow. Even if it takes ten years. (My husband framed a marshmallow for me when I signed that contract.)

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

There are so many wonderful things about making picture books, but the most rewarding aspect was a surprise. It didn’t fully occur to me that readers would read my book and then it would become their book, their story. Once it’s out on those shelves, it doesn’t belong to me anymore. I guess similar to parenting– you love your children, and shape them certainly, but you don’t own them. They are their own entities that go out into the world and have whole lives without you. And so it is, (especially, I think,) with picture books.

Readers of all ages, take my characters, and words, and bring whole worlds and back stories into them. One time an adult casually mentioned how great it was that a dad character in my book was a widow. (This is never mentioned.) Kids from all kinds of families will tell me that “this family looks just like mine.” Just a dad and a sister is pictured, but readers fill in the blanks from their lived experiences: Their mom died, their other dad died, their parents are divorced, they live with their mom/grandparents/foster families but visit their dad, their mom works and their dad takes care of them… It’s so cool to see a book you’ve made connect with people in so many different ways.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.GaiaCornwall.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gaiacornwall/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GaiaIllustration/