Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.
Follow to get new release updates and improved recommendations
About Dayne Sislen
Are you an author?
Help us improve our Author Pages by updating your bibliography and submitting a new or current image and biography.
Author Updates
-
-
Blog postI read a lot of picture books. You could say picture books are my “thing.” Every once in a while I run across a picture book I absolutely love. When this happens I tend to tell everyone I know, even people who (you won’t believe this) never read picture books even to their children or grandchildren. Last month I was lucky enough to run across two picture books that found that special place in my heart. I would like to share them with you.
“With Your Paw in Mine” Is a beautiful and -
Blog postWe all know the old phrase, “you can’t judge a book by its cover.” Is it true? The big publishers believe covers sell books. They spend mega marketing dollars testing out covers for their big-name authors. Will a red background sell better than a yellow background? Should the main image be a close-up of the main character or show the character at a distance? As an indie author, you probably don’t have the funds or the ability to test market different covers. But ask any author who had a poor
-
Blog postBringing the main character for a chapter book to life. When I illustrate books for other authors it is a collaborative process. I want the author to love the characters I create for them as much as I do. Many of my clients send me photos of people they know that they would like the characters to resemble. I say resemble because I don’t create portraits for each page. That would require many photos from many angles of each character and take much too much time to get them just right.
-
-
Blog postIn my last post titled “The Birth of a Chapter Book”, I talked about the process of breaking down the pages to make sure your story will fit on the number of pages available and to make sure the illustrations are distributed throughout the book.
When I started with the author, Nell Jones, all the illustrations ended up in the first 10 pages. After that, the illustrations popped up every 8-9 full pages of text. Some early chapter books use a small black and white illustration at every -
Blog postI am very lucky to be working as the illustrator with children’s book author Nell Jones on a new chapter book Called Little Dreamer. It will be the first book in the Institute of Higher Fun and Learning Series. Many authors I work with prefer to keep their covers a secret until publication date. When that is the case, I can’t share anything I am working on.
Nell has agreed with me that the sooner friends and potentials customers can become a part of the process the better. Nell’ -
Blog postSome self-published children’s books look unprofessional because of the poor quality of the illustrations. It won’t matter that your book is well written, has great characters, and a terrific plot. Customers will only see the cover. All your hard work will be judged not worthy in a few seconds.
Self-published children’s books need professional illustrations. I encourage you to hire a professional illustrator/designer to present your book in the very best possible light. Hiri -
-
Blog postMany children’s book illustrators are resistant to work with self-publishing authors. As a professional illustrator, I get emails from self-publishing authors all the time. They love my illustrations and want me to illustrate their book. They want me to quote a price by return email. But they don’t tell me anything about their book. Is it a picture book, chapter book or middle grade? How many illustrated pages they need or how many characters? Occasionally an author will say I don’t nee
-
Blog postYour manuscript is finished. You’ve had it critiqued and beta read and proofread several times. Now, what? It can take months or sometimes a year to hear back from traditional publishers or agents. Maybe, you don’t want to wait that long or go through the lengthy process.
So you’ve decided to go the self-publishing route. There are so many choices, you don’t know where to turn. The information you find online is sometimes misleading. Every site seems to have an agenda, pushing you t -
-
Blog postThis blog is from an EBSCO Post. I thought it was valuable reading for those with young children or teaching young children. For young readers, picture books are an important part of learning how to read. Usually, this type of format marks the first step in introducing a child to reading and is often the start of language development for many children. Libraries that include picture books to promote literacy to young readers are boosting beginner-level vocabulary skills, introducing sentence
-
Blog postHere is another blog too good to pass up, so I am sharing it with you.
Speech, language and communication are important skills for children to develop. These skills help children to form friendships, engage in learning and develop their reading and writing abilities. But how can you help children to develop them? And what do you do if they are still struggling? Here are my Top Tips: Read, Read, Read– […]
via How can you develop your child’s speech, language and communicat -
Blog postMaybe you have Checked out all the newly published picture books in the bookstore and library and know you can do a better job. Maybe you have already written a book you think might appeal to children. Maybe you have children the right age and know exactly what they want. You want to write your own picture book and have it published.
What’s your next step? Should you try traditional publishing with one of the big 5 publishing houses? A smaller publishing house? A vanity press? Or -
-
Blog postThis is a blog post from the Literacy for Pleasure site that I wanted to share with everyone.
.
As part of our ongoing work on building a Writing For Pleasure pedagogy, we have been reflecting on the third principle of our Writing For Pleasure manifesto: Reading, Sharing And Talking About Writing (3) Children are given regular opportunities to share and discuss with others (including teachers) their own and others’ writing in order to give and receive constructive […] -
Blog postYour picture book cover will either make or break your book sales. You’ve spent many months if not years working on your book. Rewriting it over and over until every word is perfect. But customers will not buy your perfect book if they do not find the cover appealing. I can’t stress how important a book cover is to sales and promotion of a book.
Most books are purchased in bookstores and online. The only way a customer can choose a book is by looking at the cover and r
Books By Dayne Sislen
There's a Mouse on My Head!
Aug 03, 2015
$15.99
Temporarily out of stock.
More Buying Choices
$15.99
(21 Used & New offers)
$9.99
In Stock.
More Buying Choices
$9.98
(20 Used & New offers)
Gigi and Grandma Remember
Oct 25, 2016
$16.62
Temporarily out of stock.
More Buying Choices
$16.62
(13 Used & New offers)
$2.99
$9.99
Only 1 left in stock (more on the way).
More Buying Choices
$2.99
(16 Used & New offers)
Shark Dentists and Other Stories
Jan 31, 2018
$2.99
Available for download now.
$9.56
$15.99
Only 12 left in stock (more on the way).
More Buying Choices
$5.50
(19 Used & New offers)
$9.99
In Stock.
More Information
Anything else? Provide feedback about this page