#PicturesMeanBusiness

A guest post by Linda Owen-Lloyd 

founder of the 'Children's Book Illustration' 

on-line gallery. 

Follow Linda on Twitter @childrensbookil 

Thank heavens for illustrators like Sarah McIntyre to wake us all up to the absurd situation of children’s book illustrators being relegated to second class citizens when it comes to listing their books in bestseller lists, writing about their books in the press and giving them credit in book awards. I believe that it’s a flaw in the way books are listed at source, between publisher and Nielsen BookScan, which is at the heart of the problem. It seems that there is only room for one name to be attached to a book title and this is usually the writer’s. Other information such as the illustrator’s name (or indeed the translator’s) is left to a second tier entry and even if it is entered correctly, usually gets missed out once the information is disseminated across the industry and beyond.  Sarah’s campaign #PicturesMeanBusiness is trying to overturn this flaw and has my wholehearted backing. Read Sarah’s blog on how to support the campaign - http://jabberworks.livejournal.com/693279.html - and with everybody’s help, we just may be able to give illustrators their due recognition. 

Read Sarah’s blog on how to support the campaign - http://jabberworks.livejournal.com/693279.html - and with everybody’s help, we just may be able to give illustrators their due recognition.