How I Chose an Illustrator for Maybe Now
Maybe Now is the fourth book in my Maybe This Time series. When I wrote the first two books, Maybe Baby and Maybe Him, I never thought there would be more to the series. A single reader asked about more books in the Maybe This Time world and days, weeks, or months later I conceived the ideas for the final three books in the series.
Zoe Andreis, the heroine of Maybe Now was always the outlier in her family—the artist, the rebel. As I wrote her story, I started to think, what if she (and I the author) could share the comic strips she drew, the ideas and jokes that bounced around in her head?
Usually, a character’s job and background are hinted at, maybe shared, but are not a part of the story that readers see.
Inspired by fellow author Jenn LeBlanc, who writes romances illustrated with her own photographs, I decided to include Zoe’s comics.
Why?
Why not?
The biggest barrier to sharing her ideas with you was bringing the concepts to life. I may have a number of talents, but drawing is not among them. I often draw with my first grader, and let’s just say, our skill levels are about equal.
So I put out a call for illustrators. The response was amazing and overwhelming. I narrowed down the choices and had Zoe’s signature cartoon (the one on her t-shirt at the start of the story) drafted by the artists who were finalists. At the end of that process, there were two artists who I liked.
Both took a terrible sketch (mine) and made it into something a comic strip artist would be proud to call their own.
The choice, then, came down to these two artists. They were both talented and willing to work on a tight turnaround schedule to produce the thirty plus comics needed for the book.
Ultimately, I chose Josh Bauman, the illustrator of the last cartoon. The decision rested on a single difference. He’d taken my original concept and added a twist. In the last panel, he spelled out ‘Greek’ in Greek.
It made the comic funnier, more irreverent, and just plain better. Although we chose not to use that final version in the book (because the Greek word probably wouldn’t be obvious to most readers), it made me laugh.
Josh did a great job on the two strips: Wanderlust and Canoga Park. The book wouldn’t be the same without him.
Want to see the comic strips? Visit ZoeAndreis.com. Want to read the book? Get Maybe Now. Jolie Moore is a romance author and the host of the podcast Fifty First Dates. You can see all of her books here Amazon. If you click on my Amazon link, I’ll earn a commission from sales at no cost to you.