As the editor, I am the one who is personally in contact with submitting artists, I am not part of the judging committee. However I have been watching carefully to see what things the judges are looking for in the entries and what things catch their attention and I can pass on my observations. (Just as a side note, I am also the only one who sees cover letters and these are not attached to the entry that goes to the judging committee beforehand.) Although your entry will not necessarily be disqualified if it does not follow the suggestions below, it also may not present as well as other entries if it does not.
- Art that is for the current contest! Make sure you have chosen the correct templates for the current contest, otherwise your entry will be held until that contest comes up. Also, ensure that you have age-appropriate characters to the audience of the particular book. A style that would work for the Elementary Safety Book For Children may not work for The Teenage Survival Handbook. Great entries have lost because the artist didn't understand their audience.
- Professional look with good page construction, interesting characters and depictions, consistency of style and bright, solid colours that will translate well on to newsprint. (Wax or pencil crayons are NOT good mediums to use.) Digital images are preferred as they give a cleaner look to the art, and it enables the artist to submit one page rather than cutting and pasting. Colours must have good contrast because newsprint bleeds. If your colours are too dark and similar, once they are printed on newsprint your art will lose its definition. (I have started to flag entries that will not produce well for the judges so that they can take it under consideration when choosing a winner.) Great entries have lost because the artist has copied someone else's style.
- Pages shown in the proper format. Except for the front cover, all other page layouts can be modified providing everything including the wording shown still fits the page. Each page of content (excluding cover) has a working area measuring 7"X7" (18 cm X 18 cm). Page layout should extend to the edges of this measurement, but not go beyond. You should submit your own style of print for any headlines that appear (Except for front cover). Lettering can also be depicted in the font of your choice that you believe is complimentary to your artistic style, again as long as the actual wording is not modified. Great entries have lost because the art that was submitted didn't fit correctly on the page.
- The front cover page layout cannot be modified, or lettering or colours changed. The total working area is 7" wide X 10 1/2" long (18 cm x 26 1/2 cm). Your artwork must work around existing words. Our logo colours MUST NOT be changed! Great entries have lost because the artist has overwhelmed the name of our book with their art.
- Good use of white space between wording and art, without pictures being too small. Artists must have a good conception of how they want the finished page to look complete with wording, and be able to convey that conception to the judges. Therefore, entries should be submitted in a finished format, complete with wording. If you are unable to present your art and the wording as one finished page, you should cut and paste the page together manually to show how it would appear. Great entries have lost because the size of the art did not balance well with the wording.
- All pages of your entry should be labelled with your name, address, phone number and e-mail address ON THE BACK. The only page that should contain your name on the front, is the front cover which you will display as your artist's signature. Great entries have lost because attention to their art was detracted by the post-it note that covered their contact information.
- Print your art off with the best printer quality possible to show your colours and details. You may find it is in your best interests to have your pages professionally printed off rather than using your own printer if the quality isn't there. Since the majority of artists prefer to submit their art on glossy paper, we have adapted our rules and are now recommending artists use it so all can fairly compete. You may think printer quality shouldn't count, but presentation is everything. Do not staple your pages together, or bind in plastic pages. Pages will be removed from all coverings for presentation to the judging committee. Great entries have lost because the artist was competing their dot-matrix printer quality against a laser printer.
- All pages must be printed out and mailed in. Artist entries cannot be submitted electronically. They can be produced electronically and then printed out. (The winning artist can submit the all artwork for publication electronically.... but the initial entry must be printed out and mailed in. For your own reference, if you are using Photoshop files for your art, they should be saved in a tiff format for Mac at 200 dpi with the lwz compression box clicked on.)
- We cannot accept entries that arrive Courier Collect or International Entries with a marked value unless the sender takes responsibility for the taxes/duties that will be calculated by Canada Customs.
- Great entries have lost because the competition is unbelievable! Who knew there was so much talent out there? Try again for the next contest. Next time your great entry could be the winning entry!
Please
have mercy on the Editor and the Webmaster. Read all the rules and instructions
BEFORE you call or e-mail for help! It has
been taking up a huge part of our day answering artists' phone calls and
e-mails from across the country. Most of the questions have already been
answered on this website. If you absolutely need information that isn't
covered here, then by all means, ask for help.
I
will e-mail each artist the moment their entry arrives to let them know
that it is in our possession.
If you have sent your entry by courier, you can also get a confirmation
from them. Please do not call to ask if I have received your entry until
you have given it sufficient time to get here, and you have already checked
with your courier and your e-mail. (When writing out your e-mail address,
take extra time to form all letters, numbers and punctuation precisely
so I can tell what it is.)
Winners will be chosen and notified in the week following the deadline. Once the judges have made their decision on the winner and the runner-up, I will contact them personally. If you are the winner, I WILL get in touch with you! I will call you, I will e-mail you, I will send you a registered letter if I have to. If you don't hear from me... you are NOT the winner. Our webmaster will post a message on the contest page as soon as we have notified the winners, so you will know that the decision has been made. Until that notice is posted, assume that you still have a chance and wait for my call.
As a courtesy, I will also e-mail the top 10 finalists with judges' comments within three weeks of the contest's end. If you do not hear from me, it means your entry was not in the top 10 finalists. Not winning does not mean that there was anything wrong with your entry. It only means that some of the other artists had a better entry. Try again! Maybe next time YOU will have the best of the bunch.
Toni Ziganash, Editor
