Episode #85: How long do you work per day making a book? -with Nathan Hale

Welcome back to Kids Ask Authors! On today’s episode, authors Grace Lin and Nathan Hale answer this fun kid question; “How long do you work per day making a book?”

TRANSCRIPTS:

Grace Lin: Hello. I'm Grace Lin, children's book author and illustrator of many books, including the middle grade novel, When the Sea Turned to Silver, and the picture book, A Big Mooncake for Little Star. Today, I am here with Nathan Hale, the author and illustrator of the Hazardous Tales series. Hi, Nathan.

Nathan Hale: Hello, hello.

Grace Lin: Thank you so much for being here today. Are you ready for today's kid question?

Nathan Hale: I am ready.

Grace Lin: Okay. Today's kid question is from a person named [inaudible 00:00:31], and they ask, how long do you work per day making a book?

Nathan Hale: Oh, this is an interesting question for me, because unlike a lot of children's book creators, I'm a cartoonist. All of my books are graphic novels. So if I'm just writing during a day, I can probably write for maybe three hours, if I'm working really hard. I can't write for very long. It wears me out. But I draw my books and I draw them in a graphic novel cartoon format. And that takes forever. I will draw 10 hours a day, 15 hours a day. Some days I draw 20 hours a day, if I'm right at the very end of a deadline. Cartoonists have to draw all day long to make those graphic novels.

Grace Lin: Wow. So in one day, how many pages do you think you draw, or boxes?

Nathan Hale: My goal is to do two pages a day, and that's taking it from just words to a set of finished colored pages. I can't always make that deadline, and a lot of times I don't. Sometimes I fall behind and I'll have to try and do something crazy, like four finished and colored pages in a day.

Grace Lin: Wow. And what takes you the longest?

Nathan Hale: Hmm. Taking the longest, the thing that takes the longest is kind of, well there's different things. The thing that takes the most time and energy is to construct the page in a way that it's fun to read, so that like there's a little joke right at the end and that you're not confused. Nothing's worse than reading a comic and you're confused as to what's going on. So I do a lot of readjusting and moving around. And then drawing the ink lines, making sure the whole drawing looks good. Those are probably the two things that fight the hardest for the most time.

Grace Lin: So there's the planning stage and then there's the inking stage. So which part takes the least amount of time?

Nathan Hale: Coloring, coloring goes pretty quick. And I'm lucky because a lot of my books are just one color. It makes life easy.

Grace Lin: So how long does it take for you to do one book, then?

Nathan Hale: Right now, I can do, the writing takes about three months and the illustrations take about four to five months, four or five months. So each book usually runs about eight to 10 months, and then you readers read it in about an hour.

Grace Lin: I know. I remember for one of my novels that took me five years to write, and this lovely reader came up to me and she's like, she said, "I love your book. I read it in one day." I'm thinking, I spent five years writing that book, but it was great, though. I mean, honestly, that they consume it that fast means they really loved it. So in some ways that's the best compliment, though sometimes it's just so strange that the rate of consumption is so much faster than the rate of production.

Grace Lin: And it's interesting because, I mean, for me, I used to be, when I had the time I would work all day, especially when I was illustrating a book. But now with the pandemic and everything going on, I've just not been able to squeeze out the time to work. So the question is like, how long do you work per day making a book? I probably only work like three to four hours a day now, but I really should be working like 10 hours a day.

Nathan Hale: Yeah, me too. I had kind of the reverse during the pandemic, because I had a big deadline that I was way behind on. And then the pandemic hit, and I was like, well, I have no excuse now. I have to do this. And so I just buried myself so completely in the drawing and stuff every day. But once the deadline was finished, then I was like, I need a deadline to work on so I can pretend there's not a pandemic going on. Because drawing took my mind off it. It gave me something to concentrate on. It gave me something to work towards. But yeah.

Grace Lin: Well, that's nice. It's good that your art and your work can kind of soften the pandemic blow.

Nathan Hale: Yeah, I holed up in a little bubble and just worked and worked and worked. And the book that I finished in the first couple months of the pandemic is coming out next month.

Grace Lin: Oh, what's it called?

Nathan Hale: This one is book number 10 in Hazardous Tales. It is called Blades of Freedom. Very excited for it.

Grace Lin: Awesome. Yay. Well, I'm sure all of our listeners will look forward to it. All right, well thank you so much, Nathan, for answering today's question.

Nathan Hale: Great question.

Grace Lin: Bye.

Today’s BOOK REVIEW from Grace! She’s reviewing, The Yellow Suitcase, a story by Meera Sriram, pictures by Meera Sethi.

My name is Grace. The book I would like to talk about is The Yellow Suitcase by Meera Sriram and Meera Sethi. This book is about a girl from India named Asha and how she feels after her Grandma dies. Asha always brings her Grandma a suitcase full of gifts when she visits. Her Grandma usually gives her gifts to fill her suitcase to bring home. When it was time to leave her Grandma’s house this time her suitcase was empty. She wanted to just leave it behind. She was surprised when she saw that her grandma made her a quilt before she died and it was in her suitcase. I liked this book because it had really colorful and detailed illustrations.

Thank you so much Grace!

More about today’s authors:

Nathan Hale is the author and illustrator of the Eisner-nominated, New York Times bestselling graphic novel series on American history Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales. He also created the sci-fi horror comics ONE TRICK PONY and APOCALYPSE TACO. He is the illustrator of the graphic novel RAPUNZEL’S REVENGE and its sequel, CALAMITY JACK. He also illustrated Frankenstein: A Monstrous Parody,  The Dinosaurs' Night Before Christmas, and many others. He lives in Utah.

Grace Lin, a NY Times bestselling author/ illustrator, won the Newbery Honor for Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and her picture book, A Big Mooncake for Little Star, was awarded the Caldecott Honor. Grace is an occasional commentator for New England Public Radio , a video essayist for PBS NewsHour (here & here), and the speaker of the popular TEDx talk, The Windows and Mirrors of Your Child’s Bookshelf. She is the co-host of the podcast Book Friends Forever, a kidlit podcast about friendship and publishing (geared for adults). Find her facebook, instagram , twitter ( @pacylin) or sign up for her author newsletter HERE.

Special thanks to the High Five Books & Art Always Bookstore, Ms. Carleton’s 2nd grade class at Jackson Street School for their help with our kid questions and reviews.