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My experience landing 9 publication offers with Penguin Books
In the middle of December 2024, I received an email with the title ‘Publication Offer: Cosy Calm’ from a person with a Penguin Books logo. Perhaps this is the behaviour of someone with low self-esteem, but I immediately thought this was a scam. 10 months prior, I had quit my corporate dietitian job to become a full-time artist, and a publication offer landing on my lap just felt too good to be true. I answered the email despite my suspicion, which led to a video call the next day, then guidelines and deadlines, and before I realised, my first (book) child had been born.
Truth be told, it was such a joy to make colouring books. Cosy Calm, my first colouring book, aligned with my usual art style amazingly. I took a lot of inspiration for my idea of a cosy, calming afternoon: sharing a cheese board with friends, going on a picnic by the lake, sketching at your favourite local cafe, ending the night with delicious pizza…I wanted to bring comfort to people who picks up this colouring book, wind down and colour like they did as a little kid. In such a fast-paced, productivity and money driven society, colouring has brought many adults joy, reminding them that life doesn’t have to be so stressful sometimes.
After the first colouring book was published, I thought that would be it; I was too afraid to expect more. To my surprise, the colouring book was extremely well received, and I received more book offers, and that’s how the season-themed colouring books were born:
I often questioned myself: Why does someone with no publishing experience get to work with the world’s top book publisher? My publishing director answered that they have a list of creators they keep an eye on for good performance, then choose one that fits the market demand - colouring was a huge trend and I was lucky enough to be chosen!
My relationship with Penguin Books has been such a joy ride working with passionate people. From having me sign 140 books at Kinokuniya Sydney, to signing 400 books at QBD head office, then flying me out to Penguin Books head office for an interview, everybody I have met along this journey was nothing short of wonderful.
The biggest challenge in creating colouring book pages is striking the balance between cutesy, detailed, but not too complicated. I wanted the pages to have enough small details in the colouring pages to draw interest, yet not complicated enough to scare away people who don’t have enough artistic experience, or simply don’t enjoy colouring in intricate pages. To resolve this problem, I aimed to always include one or a couple of big, blobby or four ft animals as the centrepiece of the page - they are the ‘easy to colour in’ part. Then I surround them with smaller, more intricate details, such as twirling leaf vines, delicate flowers, and sparkly stars.
Another hiccup is the lack of colour in the pages - obviously, I would like people to use whatever colours their heart desires, but there are times I felt I could not portray an object clearly enough without the use of colours. I started to look up reference photos as I created the pages to make parts of my drawings more realistic and easier for people to identify the objects. By making the lineart more exaggerated and the pose of each element more dynamic (eg. Animal sitting still versus hopping, dancing around). I also loved illustrating pages that highlight the playfulness that lies in size difference. In my colouring books, you may find a gigantic fluffy cat lying in between the crevices of mountains, as well as a pair of tiny puppy and kitten reading a book that is taller than them, sitting on an adult-sized armchair.
Going from posting my silly doodles online to publishing colouring books has been a steep learning curve in terms of daily creative brainstorming and deadline management, but it is an experience I will never forget and forever be grateful (or even prideful!) for.
