Guide to the Bologna Children's Book Fair 2026 - The Good Ship Illustration

Summary

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Guide to the Bologna Children's Book Fair 2026

The Good Ship Illustration Podcast – April 10, 2026
Hosts: Helen Stephens, Katie Chappell, and Tania Willis

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Overview

In this lively and encouraging episode, the Good Ship Illustration trio—Helen, Katie, and Tania—provide a comprehensive guide for illustrators attending the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in 2026. Drawing on their years of experience as professional illustrators and seasoned fair attendees, they share everything from practical tips (like what to pack, where to stay, and how to navigate the fair) to vital mindset advice (managing expectations, networking, and avoiding overwhelm). The tone is supportive, honest, and brimming with camaraderie and humor—a true behind-the-scenes look at how to make the most of Bologna, whether it’s your first or fifteenth visit.

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The Bologna Children’s Book Fair: What Is It?

(01:21 – 03:04)

• World’s Largest Children’s Book Fair:
  “The world's largest children's book fair. It's a massive event and all of the publishers from all over the world arrive there once a year.” – Helen (01:25)
• Purpose:
  Primarily for publishers to buy and sell co-editions, but with a rapidly growing focus on illustrators—more exhibitions, events, workshops, and review opportunities each year.
• Scale:
  Approximately 1,500 exhibitors from 100 countries; around 28,000 visitors.
  “You couldn’t see it all in a day. It’s huge.” – Helen (02:56)
• Duration:
  Four days of packed programming. Not just for picture book illustrators—enormous variety in art and publishing.

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Should You Go?

(03:07 – 04:49)

• Inspiration Galore, Not a Prerequisite:
  “If you have the means to go, I would go and have a look. Because it's just so incredibly inspiring, isn't it?” – Helen (03:16)
• Not Essential for Publishing Success:
  Many professionals succeed for years before ever attending—it's not an entry requirement but an eye-opener to the breadth of international publishing.
• Perspective Shift:
  “There has to be room for my work in the world, because there’s so much.” – Katie (04:26) Discover different industry tastes outside your home market—there’s a place for every style somewhere.

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Key Benefits of Attending

(05:25 – 07:41)

• Networking & Community:
  “You meet nice people, you make new friends. That’s really lovely.” – Helen (05:32)
• Creative Inspiration:
  Like walking through “50 galleries all at once… the work is so beautiful.” – Tanya (04:49)
• Talks & Workshops:
  Stellar programming in venues like the Illustrators Survival Corner and the Illustrator’s Café, including folio reviews and insightful panel discussions.
• Opportunity for Exposure:
  Publishers may offer folio reviews, and you can network by distributing postcards or chatting at stands.
• Bologna, the City:
  Enjoy Italian food, amazing bookshops (e.g., Inuit in the university district; Piazza Maggiore), and a holiday atmosphere.

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The Illustrator’s Wall & Exhibition

(07:48 – 09:14; 19:36 – 21:22)

• Illustrators Wall:
  A legendary blank wall, soon covered with a “million postcards”—bring your samples, business cards, or even treats (biscuits!). “By the end of the first morning, it’s just full of stuff.” – Helen (08:03)
• Creativity Counts:
  Stand out with unusual formats, handmade items, or memorable presentation (like the illustrator with the giant hat!).
• Bologna Illustrators Exhibition:
  Enter between July–October of the previous year. Highly competitive but career-changing. “In 2023, there were 17,000 submissions by 3,500 people… and 79 in the final show.” – Helen (19:53, 20:19) Getting in means your work is seen by leading publishers and included in a touring exhibition and printed annual.

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Accommodation & Logistics

(09:21 – 12:47)

• Book Early:
  “The whole of Bologna just gets filled with the publishing industry.” – Helen (09:23) Aim to book three months ahead for the best options—hotels, student halls, even campsites nearby.
• Tickets:
  Book online to save money and skip entrance queues. Watch for illustrator/translator discounts (“€22 for illustrators!” – Tanya, 11:24).
• Getting Around:
  Bring comfy shoes, blister plasters, and expect lots of walking. A portable charger is a must.
• Lanyards & Spotting Fellow Listeners:
  Download the printable Good Ship badge for your lanyard. If you see someone with one, “shout, ‘Ahoy, ship!’” (12:09)

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What to Bring & How to Prepare

(12:41 – 19:30; 25:51 – 27:32)

• Portfolio:
  Load a PDF version on your device (iPad/laptop). Consider physical sketchbooks and unique, light-weight handouts.
• Samples:
  Small posters, postcards, badges, handmade books or prints—anything memorable and easy to carry.
• Other Supplies:
  Tissues for the toilets (“Always carry a couple of packets.” – Tanya, 25:51), water, snacks/picnic, tape/pins for the wall, chargers, and possibly a wheelie trolley for book haul.
• Outfit Tips:
  Make your presentation fun—consider a standout accessory, as creativity extends beyond your art!
• Restaurants & Bookshops:
  Book dinners in advance—“those are snapped up by publishers way in advance!”—and leave luggage space for your inevitable book shopping.

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Mindset: Managing Expectations & Avoiding Overwhelm

(12:44 – 24:08; 22:13 – 25:02)

• Set Realistic Goals:
  “The goal is: eat nice food, be inspired, have a nice time, chat to some other people, and if anything else happens, it’s a bonus.” – Katie (13:49)
• Publisher Meetings:
  Most publishers come to do business with other publishers—folio reviews are possible but competitive and rushed. “You see they’re standing there for an hour… then they’re going to get six minutes with someone who’ll probably make some quick judgments.” – Tanya (14:08)
• Quality of Contact:
  Spontaneous, authentic interactions (rather than rehearsed networking blitzes) lead to the best experiences. “Just be open to exciting things… but not being like, it has to happen or else.” – Katie (15:59)
• Self-care:
  Take breaks, don’t feel guilty for downtime, and avoid “comparitus”—the trap of measuring your worth against others. “Carry on sailing your own ship with your own work.” – Helen (23:22)
• Handling Overwhelm:
  “It's like being at a big mad party… your adrenaline is surging… it's just so exciting and you feel like anything could happen.” – Tanya (22:39, 22:49)

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Noteworthy Quotes & Moments

• “Somebody’s getting paid to do it!” – Helen, on unusual trends in kids’ art (04:39)
• “We are having hundreds of salty badges made at the moment, aren't we?” – Helen (17:50)
• “They looked at my work and they’re like, ‘He used too much brown. Next!’ I was like, okay…?” – Katie on blunt folio reviews (14:30)
• “If you spot someone wearing [a Good Ship lanyard], shout, ‘Ahoy, ship!’ and wave at them!” – Tanya (12:09)
• “I’m only gonna take, like, one change of pants, and the rest of the suitcase is gonna be empty so I can stuff it with books.” – Helen (28:03)

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Final Tips & Post-Fair Actions

(28:35 – 31:39)

• End-of-Fair Bargains:
  “On the last day… publishers are nice and relaxed and ready for a chat… and they sell off all their books.” – Helen (28:38)
• Follow Up:
  Contact people you met, send a friendly message, mail small goodies or your dummy book.
  “The fortune is in the follow up. Most people don’t follow up… so by doing that, you’ll be at the top of the pile.” – Katie (30:36) “Ghosting counts as rejection; add it to your 100 rejections!” – Tanya (30:59)
• Share the Experience:
  Tag @goodshipillustration in your Bologna photos and let the hosts know about your fair adventures!

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Essential Packing List Recap

(25:51 – 27:32)

• Tissues for toilets
• Comfortable shoes
• Blister plasters
• Water & snacks/picnic
• Tape/pins/sticky tack for the Illustrators Wall
• Portable charger & cords
• Printout lanyard/badge
• Portable, memorable samples
• PDF portfolio on device (+ optional sketchbooks)
• Minimal clothing, extra suitcase space for books
• Business cards/postcards/dummy books
• Vitamin/C supplements (“Barocca” for stamina)
• Ladder / scaffolding if you're feeling ambitious! (Jokingly)
• Restaurant bookings in advance

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Staying Inspired & Looking After Yourself

• Enjoy the city, local food, museums, and bookshops.
• Downtime is just as important as being at the fair.
• Don’t feel pressure to fill every day—permission slips for self-care are encouraged!
• “Relax. Lie down. Remember all the inspiring books, people, illustrations you saw.” – Katie (29:21)

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Conclusion:

The Good Ship team’s message is clear: Bologna is exhilarating, vast, and overwhelming in the best way. Go for the joy, inspiration, and serendipitous meetings. Don’t expect career magic immediately—just soak up the atmosphere, celebrate the diversity of illustration, and build on your experience year by year.

Final note:
Keep an eye out for the Good Ship stand in Hall 25, print your lanyard, and don’t be shy—shout “Ahoy!” if you spot a fellow shipper!

“Ciao!” – Helen (31:39)

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Transcript

[Katie]

Hello. Are you going to Bologna Book Fair? Because we are. We've got a stand this year. The Good Ship are exhibiting in Hall 25. Come and say hello. We would love to see you. We're going to be planning daily meetups.

[Helen]

So if you click in the show

[Katie]

notes, we've got a link where you can go to get all of the updates. We've got a printable Good Ship lanyard if you want to be able to spot fellow good shippers. Lots of fun stuff coming. Make sure you're getting our emails and you'll hear all about it. And yeah, enjoy this replay of our Bologna survival guide. It's got everything you could possibly ever want to know about going to Bologna, especially if it's your first time. But yeah, have fun with your packing and we'll see you there.

[Helen]

So we're going to have a chat about the Bologna Children's Book Fair. So if you're into making picture books, you might have heard of the fair already. Anyway, we've gathered together all of our tips and advice.

[Katie]

Yeah. Should we start with the first?

[Helen]

Let's get going. Yeah.

[Katie]

Okay. So what is. Helen, what is the Bologna Book Fair?

[Helen]

So the Bologna Book Fair is the. The world's largest children's book fair. It's a massive event and all of the publishers from all over the world arrive there once a year. And the purpose of the fair is to sell co editions to other countries. So they're going to try and sell all of their picture books to other countries and they buy co editions from other publishers. So they're all there to do business. But it's not just for publishers. There's loads of stuff going on for illustrators now. And I remember when I went the first time I ever went, you know, I have no idea how long ago it was. Maybe 2004, something like that. And there was the illustrators exhibition and a few things for illustrators, but not like it is now. The survivors corner wasn't Illustrators for Survival corner wasn't there. I'm not sure if the Illustrator's Cafe was there. So it's just got the illustrators aspect has got bigger and bigger and bigger over the years. So it's well worth a visit.

[Tanya]

There's lots of illustrators representation, isn't there? I mean, some of the. I think Cambridge Illustration Course will be there.

[Helen]

Yeah, they've had stands before. I don't know if they're going to do that again. But they usually have a stand to exhibit all of the work.

[Katie]

Scooby, have one as well, don't they? Wbbi, whatever Letters.

[Helen]

And our friends at Orange Beak Studio, they were doing folio reviews for people. One year. Maybe they'll be there again. So that's good. On the last fair, There were about 1,500 exhibitors from 100 countries and regions of the world. Got that website.

[Katie]

Oh, when I was on the website, I noticed there's something like 28,000 people visit.

[Helen]

Wow. Yeah, it's massive. It's massive. You couldn't see it all in a day. It's huge.

[Tanya]

It's across three days, isn't it?

[Helen]

Four days.

[Tanya]

Four days.

[Helen]

Four days, yeah. Yeah.

[Katie]

So, yeah, the next thing is. Yeah, you might be hearing this and being like, do I need to go? Should I be there? So that's the next thing. Should I go? Shall I go?

[Helen]

Well, I. If you. If you have the means to go, I would go and have a look. Because it's just so incredibly inspiring, isn't it?

[Tanya]

Yeah, it's life changing. And even if you're not a children's book illustrator, which, you know, I didn't view myself as that, but it just makes you think, I think I will be a children's book illustrator.

[Helen]

It's so inspiring. You get a massive world view of the publishing industry, but at the same time, you don't have to go. Because I was published for maybe five or six years before I ever went. You don't need to go. It's not a way into publishing. I mean, it might be, but you don't need to go. It's just a fun thing to do. And it's so inspiring because I. I'd been in. I'd been published for five or six years before I decided to go. And I felt in those five or six years that my work had been kind of shaped into, like, publishers kind of shaped my work into what the British market want. And when I went to Bologna, I was just blown away. I was like, wow, look at all the different stuff they do all over the world. So it doesn't. If your work doesn't fit into whatever market you live in, there's all. You're always gonna find a publisher somewhere who is gonna love your work. It's just. The variety is huge. It's amazing.

[Katie]

That was definitely my big takeaway was like, there has to be room for my work in the world, because there's so much. So many genres and places out there. And I remember we were walking around and there was even bits where you'd point at things and be like, that's disgusting. And you were like, but somebody's getting

[Helen]

paid to do it.

[Katie]

It's amazing. So it's like just. Yeah, you can either be overwhelmed or really inspired. I think it's like trying to shuffle yourself towards being inspired.

[Tanya]

It's the most amazing industry overview. And I think, you know, quite often people come to picture book making and they don't really have a full picture of, you know, what the world could publish. And you just want to say, go there, look at that, and you'll see anything is possible. And it's a big, sophisticated and complex world. And also the inspiring side, it's a bit like going to 50 galleries all at once, because the work is so beautiful.

[Helen]

Yeah. You just come home feeling like everything's possible. I mean, you're exhausted. You just have to lie down for a week.

[Katie]

I've booked a week off after our visit this year. I need a week to recover.

[Helen]

Good idea.

[Katie]

Yeah. But that leads nicely onto the next bit. So the benefits of visiting the book fair, like what? What's the point? Why would you go?

[Helen]

Well, networking. That's. I hate that word. You meet nice people, you make new friends. Yeah, that's really lovely. You get really inspired by all the incredible artwork there. You realize there's probably a space in the industry for you, even if you don't see your work published in your country. Somewhere is publishing. Get the big world view on publishing. I'm going through my list. What had I written? Oh, there are some incredible talks and workshops go on there. Oh, they're incredible. So there's the illustrators Survival corner. Is that what it's called? I think Survival corner. I have written in the document, can't remember. And they're just back to back talks by industry professionals and agents and other illustrators. How to survive, how to get your work published. They do folio reviews there as well. I went to the New York Times talks. I think it was a whole morning of talks back. They were incredible. Really, really interesting people who had like a huge panel of the most successful publishers in the world and, you know, getting really in depth about how this book had been picked up and how they decided to publish it. Yeah, brilliant. You can get a folio review. Publishers will do folio reviews. Sometimes they just open their doors and you can join a big queue and have a folio review. Or sometimes if you're just wandering past a publisher and you like what they're doing, you could give them a postcard and say, as you hand them the image, say, would you like to see my folio and hopefully they'll love your postcard and say yes. And then there's Bologna itself.

[Katie]

Yes. Italy, Italian food, sunshine even in March, April, it's warm and sunny.

[Helen]

And the food as well, isn't that good? And the bookshops.

[Katie]

Yes, there's an amazing bookshop. You've written the name of it in this document somewhere.

[Helen]

Yes. So there's one in. What's the main square called? Piazza Maggiore. There's a bookshop in that main square. I can't remember what it's called. And there's another one in the university district called Inuit, which is an incredible bookshop.

[Katie]

Yeah. Because you can turn it into a holiday a wee bit as well, can't you? Yeah.

[Tanya]

And also there's the. The exhibition, the Illustrators competition, is it?

[Helen]

Oh, the illustrators exhibition.

[Tanya]

Just for that alone, to see the competition. So much work.

[Helen]

The amazing wall, the illustrators wall.

[Katie]

4 million postcards stuck to it.

[Helen]

So on the first day you arrive, that wall is completely bare. If you get there early enough on the first morning, and then hour or two, it's absolutely covered in artwork. So you can take along samples. I mean, you can take whatever you like. You could take a huge poster, but you're fighting for space with all the other illustrators and I think you might not be very popular if you did that. So everybody takes like a biggest. Is like a postcard or a tiny poster and. Yeah, by the end of the first morning, it's just full of stuff. You could take a little box and fill it with business cards and fasten it to the wall. Brilliant. You can take biscuits, Katie.

[Tanya]

There's a kind of bribe to take the business cards.

[Helen]

Yeah. So, yeah, you should definitely take some biscuits. Cards, maybe. Biscuits and maybe some postcards, little posters. Stick them on the illustrator's wall, hand them out to anybody whose hand you can find stuff in their hand.

[Katie]

I remember when we were there, there was somebody with a ginormous hat with their illustrations on it and it was like sea creatures and things. And I'm sure I found her on Instagram years later and was like, it's you from Bologna. So, yeah, you can be. Really use your creative energy into that sort of thing.

[Tanya]

Just a big sandwich board and change the big. The big print every hour and keep walking.

[Katie]

The next thing is accommodation, isn't it? Is it?

[Helen]

Oh, yeah. You need to get your accommodation booked nice and early. I mean, you don't have to. My partner, Jerry went a few years ago, he got selected for the Illustrators exhibition, which was very exciting. So he went off by himself one year, but he didn't book his accommodation to the last minute. So he was in like a tiny Tupperware box sized room with no windows. But he didn't mind because he was at the book fair all day. But it's handy if you book a bit early because the whole of Bologna just gets filled with the publishing industry, so you're going to miss the good rooms. Maybe three months early is a kind of good target.

[Tanya]

Yeah, I think so. I'm sure. I get the feeling that all the publishing people, they, they book it the moment they come back from.

[Katie]

Probably organized ones.

[Helen]

Yeah.

[Katie]

Cheaper as well.

[Tanya]

Probably it's work for them and we're eager beavers. We'd put up with anything. Didn't you say there's a campsite?

[Helen]

Yeah. When? The first year I went years and years and years ago. Lots of my friends went camping apparently. I mean back then there was a campsite really near the book fair.

[Katie]

We should have camped.

[Helen]

I don't know where it is. I wish I could tell you the name of it, but maybe you can ask around or do a Google search. But yeah, lots of my camped on that first year I went.

[Tanya]

We stayed in student halls, didn't we? Was really good.

[Helen]

It was brilliant, wasn't it? It was like a huge youth hostel, wasn't it?

[Tanya]

Only 20 minutes to by bus to get there.

[Helen]

But yeah, yeah, it was walkable as well. We walked the first morning.

[Tanya]

Yeah.

[Helen]

Which is madness. And with all the walking you're going to do when you get to the fair. I don't know why we did that.

[Katie]

Definitely need comfy shoes and blister plasters.

[Helen]

Oh, you really do.

[Tanya]

Oh, that's a good one. Blister plasters as well. Because it's inevitable, isn't it? It's like going on a big hike.

[Helen]

Yeah.

[Katie]

Because I made the same mistake. I was about 20 minutes away that time we visited, walked there and then got there and was like, oh, no. Because the whole day is walking like football pitches.

[Helen]

Yeah, yeah. As well as booking your hotel, it's a good idea to book your tickets for the book fair as well, which you can book online on the website.

[Katie]

You got the early bird discount this year.

[Helen]

Well, I did, but I still missed out on the illustrators discount. You got a cheap ticket. We don't know how you did it.

[Tanya]

It said illustrators register here.

[Helen]

I missed that.

[Tanya]

Yeah. Discount for translators and illustrators. So you do that, you get a code, then you go back in, you book your ticket, use the code and it's €22.

[Katie]

Me and Helen were too impatient.

[Helen]

Yeah, I'm too impatient. I was just like, book a ticket and then spend too much money on it. But the good thing about buying your ticket early is that you don't need to join the queues when you get there.

[Katie]

Yes. You just print out your thingy at home in your lanyard. And sailing. Also.

[Helen]

Talking of lanyards, we're gonna. At the bottom of this talk, in the course, wherever we're gonna stick this talk beside it, we're gonna have a printable so you can print out the little good ship picture and stick it in the back of your lanyard so that we can spot you when we're there.

[Katie]

We can spot you. And also you can spot other good ship people. Yeah, yeah.

[Tanya]

I think if you spot someone wearing one, shout, ahoy, ship.

[Katie]

Yes, Ahoy.

[Tanya]

And wave at them. Yeah. Make a big scene. Yeah, that's a good idea. We can link up like that.

[Helen]

I'm going to take the good ship flags.

[Tanya]

I'm going to look at telescopic flagpoles on Amazon today.

[Helen]

Oh, good idea, because I don't want to take a big stick on a flight. I don't think they'd let me on.

[Tanya]

Or through an international conference with your giant stick.

[Katie]

Helen couldn't be here because her stick was confiscated.

[Tanya]

She was arrested.

[Helen]

So should we talk about what to prepare, what you might need with you?

[Katie]

Yes. And this is good. I think you should talk about managing expectations as well, because when. Yeah, I know me and Tanya both mentioned, you know, you go there and you're like, I'm going to speak to publishers and get a big deal.

[Helen]

Tanya mentioned the words military operation and I thought, no, no, no, no, no. I think it's very tempting to think you're going to go there and you're going to get a meeting with as many people as possible and there's nothing wrong with doing that. Yes, definitely. You could make that a plan. But I would say that the whole thing is so overwhelming and it's so full of people and the publishers are not there to see you, they're there to sell CO editions to other publishers. It's. They're absolute busiest time of year. They're frantically busy and have been for the. Since Christmas until the fair. It's all they think about. So when you're at the fair, trying to get a whole list of meetings and get your work in front of their eyes is really hard. So I'm not saying don't try, but don't be Disappointed if it doesn't work out.

[Katie]

It's almost like worth setting goals that you can really control. And they're really. The bar is really low, isn't it?

[Helen]

The goal is eat nice food, be inspired.

[Tanya]

Yes.

[Helen]

Have a nice time, chat to some

[Katie]

other people and if anything else happens, it's a bonus.

[Helen]

Yes, exactly. I've never gone to show my folio, ever, because to me, that just seems unthinkably overwhelming. I don't know how I would do it. And if I set myself the goal and I didn't do it, and there's

[Tanya]

all those cues, aren't there people trying to show their work at the open portfolio reviews. And you see they're standing there for an hour, really frustrated because they could be looking at other things and then they're going to get six minutes with someone who'll probably make some quick judgments that could be. Perhaps be a bit.

[Helen]

You do hear really mixed feedback from people about those folio reviews. Because everybody's so busy and so, like, you had one and they said, too much brown.

[Tanya]

Yeah.

[Katie]

Because it was. It was literally five minutes. And they looked at my work and they're like, he used too much brown. Next, I was like, okay, but, like, I don't understand it now.

[Tanya]

Looking brown was your key, key colour, wasn't it?

[Katie]

Brown, brown, yellow, Mustardy yellow. Like poopy, poopy yellow.

[Helen]

That is a thing in publishing. That is a thing that people say.

[Katie]

And they told me that, I think

[Tanya]

I'd read, probably mistakenly, that you should go and try and see people. So three months before I launched my military operation, how did it go? Well, it was quite a good exercise in trying to find out, oh, you like this publisher. What's the name of the art director? So all the LinkedIn detective work, find the name, then you write to them and say, have you got a spare slot to see me? I wouldn't do that again now because I think I'd kind of been misled into thinking that's what you should do. Like, you're saying, manage expectations. But also, we had rights to sell on another book. It was a bit like, we will only see these people from other countries, just the ones. But I wouldn't do it again because it stops you thinking and enjoying what's around you.

[Helen]

You can. I think it's. If you get there really early on a morning before it gets busy, it might be a nice idea to wander around with a whole load of samples in your hand, approach a stand. And if you get. If you. If you do happen to get chatting to somebody and it's nice. Just say, oh, here's my sample. Would you like to take it? Or. Or would you have five minutes to look at my folio and just hand the sample and they can look at the image and hopefully they love it and they go, go on then. Five minutes. And those. I think those kind of interactions are nice, but going there with that attitude

[Katie]

of being open to exciting things like that happening but not being like, it has to happen or else.

[Tanya]

Or else my whole trip has been a failure.

[Helen]

Yeah.

[Tanya]

Would you say take it out, take your tablet and a PDF portfolio as a just in case for opportunities.

[Katie]

I just heard, take your tablets.

[Tanya]

Take your tablets. Oh, yeah, Definitely on the things to prepare for. My God. Pack your vitamins.

[Helen]

I haven't written that on our list. We should definitely put that in there.

[Tanya]

Yeah. Barocca. Anything that gives you energy to face another day, because after the second day and you think your feet have been ground down to stumps, you really need something to get you back in there because you want to keep. Keep looking. There's so much to see.

[Helen]

Yeah. So your folio. Yeah. I would say to either take your iPad or your laptop or something and have your folio on there as a PDF. Publishers really like to see sketchbooks, so if you've got a couple of tiny sketchbooks that you can carry and they're not heavy, you could stick those in your pocket. You definitely want some samples to stick on the illustrator's wall. Maybe a business card, maybe postcards, maybe a small poster folded up. Anything interesting, really. Like if you could get something made in a nice shape or screen, print some things. Anything that people are going to love so much that they want to take it home and stick it on their wall and they won't forget you because they're going to meet someone. So many people. Your samples need to stand out.

[Katie]

They'll be handed so many rectangle things on rectangle postcards, rectangle business cards, and then they'll just get slid into the recycle bin.

[Helen]

When Jerry went, Gerry took some prints of Wales onto newsprints so that the paper was really light and it would fold up very small. And he gave a few people those things and that was good. He did get contacted after the book fair. So, yeah, if you can think of something unusual that's not heavy for the publisher to take home and they might stick on their wall.

[Tanya]

Even badges. We're doing badges, aren't we?

[Helen]

We are. Anybody who sees us, come and see us, because we're having hundreds of salty badges made at the moment, aren't we?

[Katie]

Yes. And we do have boring postcards as well. You can have one of them.

[Helen]

You're making them boring on purpose.

[Katie]

Yeah, they're black and white.

[Helen]

Brown. Yes, brown. So your next bit on the document says, what sample should I take? I think we've just talked about that.

[Tanya]

Some people were printing out kind of a four stuff, weren't they? So if you haven't had got. If you haven't got postcards printed, even if at the last minute you print, you know, 20 things out on a four, rip them in half a five size, you'll get them on the illustrator's wall. So that would be something to leave behind if you, you know, if you

[Helen]

haven't prepared, you could take dummy books. So if you've got a book idea, you could make that idea into a little dummy book, you know, just out of paper and sell it, stick it together to make a little dummy book. If you do have a really lovely meeting with somebody and they want to get in touch with you when you get home and they're excited, give them your dummy book. I mean, I wouldn't hand it out everywhere and I wouldn't stick it on the illustrator's wall, obviously. But if you have a very fruitful, lovely meeting, it'd be a nice idea to hand over a little dummy book.

[Tanya]

I think the sketchbooks and the dummy books are where it's at. You know, the real artist thing, the handmade thing, I think those feel special to art directors or art editors and they, you know, they're much closer to you than the regular humdrum examples of an illustrator's.

[Katie]

And those things are going to really stand out against polished postcards and business cards, aren't they? Well, that's really. They've really worked on that.

[Tanya]

And wear a beret and put some onions around your neck and then wave your sketchbook in the air.

[Katie]

Actually, a bike would be really handy.

[Helen]

I was going to mention the Bologna Book Fair Illustrators exhibition. That's amazing, isn't it?

[Katie]

Yes.

[Helen]

So it's the. These huge long tables. There's maybe six or seven of these huge long tables with the artwork laid out on them and then glass over the top. And everybody's browsing up and down these tables and it works.

[Katie]

Incredible. Oh, it's so good.

[Helen]

So, people, you can enter your work into this exhibition. And I've written down figures here. So in 2023, there were 17,000 submission submissions by 3,500 people from 81 countries. And out of all of that, the long list was 344. And the people who made the show were 79.

[Tanya]

What?

[Helen]

Yeah.

[Katie]

So it really is the creme de la. Creme de la.

[Helen]

Creme de la creme. And when I first went, there was never a British illustrator on there, ever. And as the years have gone by, you see a few. One or two, and then a few more and a few more. And I think the Cambridge Art School, Massachusetts, in illustrating for children has made a big difference. You see lots of those people there. My Jerry got in one time. I was very proud of him. And. And we've got people from. Who've done our good ship courses are

[Katie]

in there, very excited and we're gonna be squealing.

[Tanya]

They made the final pick.

[Helen]

Yes. And some of the. Oh, I think so, maybe.

[Katie]

Yes, yes, definitely the long list, but I'm not sure.

[Helen]

Yeah, yeah, Some people made the long list. Some people have got into the show. So. Yeah.

[Tanya]

Oh, that's brilliant.

[Helen]

Isn't that amazing?

[Katie]

Congratulations to those.

[Helen]

Yes. So you could enter. I have written down, if you want to enter the exhibition yourself, you've got to do it between July and October in the year previous to the fair. It's worth. It's a. It's a long shot, but it's worth it.

[Katie]

Gotta be in it to win it.

[Helen]

Exactly. Yeah.

[Tanya]

We always push that. The call for entries, you know, out on the Facebook pages and things.

[Helen]

I mean, you're guaranteed to get your work in front of the right eyes. If you get in the exhibition, all the publishers are there. The exhibition then tours for. I think it's for a whole year. It tours after.

[Tanya]

And there's a printed annual as well. If you don't get to see it, you can buy the annual.

[Helen]

Yeah, the annual is amazing. Yeah. And then there's the Illustrator Survival corner.

[Tanya]

Yes.

[Helen]

That's where all the workshops and stuff are.

[Katie]

We'll be there one day.

[Helen]

We did get invited once, do you remember? But they invited us about three weeks before the actual thing, and we hadn't

[Katie]

booked flights, so we need to email them this year three weeks before and be like, yes, again.

[Helen]

Yeah, we could. We could. Yeah. So I've put a head in on the document here saying, feeling overwhelmed.

[Katie]

Yes. This was my experience because I got so excited about going there. Went the first day, spoke to people all day, like just other illustrators in the queues and stuff. Had a brilliant time, spoke to everybody, got home, and then the next day I was like, I can't go back. Too busy too much. So I did just like, give myself a day off. But then I felt really guilty about needing time off afterwards. And I think I just didn't expect. Everyone told me it was going to be overwhelming, but I didn't expect it to be overwhelming.

[Helen]

Yeah.

[Tanya]

So, yeah, it's like being at a big mad party, isn't it? And you're just having the wildest time and when you have a sleep, you think, right, that's quite enough of that.

[Helen]

Your adrenaline is surgeon.

[Tanya]

And the adrenaline surge is exhausting, isn't it? It's just so exciting and you feel like anything could happen.

[Helen]

There's also that thing, what do you call it? Comparitus.

[Katie]

Yes.

[Helen]

That's a big danger.

[Katie]

All these published people, competition winners, incredible other people's artwork. Everyone's work's amazing. Why am I so terrible like that? That can crop up a little bit as well.

[Tanya]

Yeah. Put. Put the gates up against that in your mind. There's kind of no point doing it

[Katie]

again, I think nudging yourself over into it, being inspired and like, why do you love that work? What is it that they're doing? It gets you really excited, not just like beating yourself up.

[Helen]

Yeah, yeah. Carry on. Sailing your own ship with your own work. Yeah. So I think the best thing to do is just go and soak it all up, come back feeling inspired, meet some people. Do you know what I really like to do is if I go to an interesting talk, I like to wait for everybody else to leave the room and then go and talk to the person who's just given the talk. That's a really nice way to get to speak to somebody. And they're kind of buzzing because they've just done the talk.

[Katie]

They'll appreciate it as well. The quiet one to one talking to

[Tanya]

everybody need a bit of feedback. And those talks are so good because they're about things that are happening in the industry right now, aren't they, how things are changing? It's not trend based as such, but what's happening in. In children's picture books. So they're really good.

[Helen]

Yeah, they're brilliant.

[Katie]

I think the way we're doing it this year, because we're only going really for one full day, I'm really excited about doing that because I feel like I know I can't do everything.

[Helen]

Yeah.

[Katie]

And I know that I'll be with you two. So we can just show up and be like, we are here. This is great. And then we can go home and I won't be like, I haven't done everything. Oh, my goodness. And you go, see, there's a whole hole that I haven't even looked at. What's in that hole? What about those other people they message on Instagram? Like, there'll be none of that. It'll just be relaxed, do what you

[Tanya]

can, only do what you can do. I remember when we looked at all the books and we'd been to those great sections like the Korean sections where the guys that publish Chris Horton's books and then you suddenly stumble into the Chilean publishers and like, wow, publishing in Chile is really forward and progressive and interesting. And then over the other side you see that's the whole licensing section. Like, well, maybe there's something for me in licensing, but it is just so overwhelming. And feeling like you have to use every single day of the four days I think will burn you.

[Helen]

Right. I was just going to say that that made me think when I first, when I used to go years ago, there were barely any American publishers because they weren't really interested in selling or buying co editions because they're such a huge country themselves, they can publish without needed that. But as the years have gone by, I've noticed more and more American publishers.

[Katie]

It's huge now, isn't it?

[Tanya]

The American section was the different characteristics of each geographic area is really pronounced.

[Helen]

Amazing. It's really interesting seeing other parts of the world. So I've written a big long list of tips here and Tanya added one right at the last minute. I think we should start with it because it was so good. So, granny, here it is. Tissues for the toilets.

[Tanya]

Because you know those places, those conference centers that you go in there, there's no toilet paper.

[Helen]

Yeah.

[Tanya]

As a good ex Hong Kong, I know that you always carry a couple of packets of tissues in your bag.

[Helen]

I love that. Yeah.

[Tanya]

What else have we got there? What else do we need?

[Helen]

Comfy shoes.

[Tanya]

Oh, yeah.

[Helen]

Top of the list, water and snacks. Because those cafe queues are really, really long. And it's pretty expensive as well, isn't it?

[Katie]

Yeah.

[Tanya]

Are you gonna take a picnic?

[Helen]

Yes, definitely.

[Katie]

Because you can go to all the delicious Italian places outside of the conference in the evening.

[Helen]

Yeah.

[Tanya]

You don't want to waste any of that viewing time in the cafes, they say, so take your packed lunch, charge

[Helen]

your phone because you're going to take all of the pictures of absolutely everything you can see. Tanya said spare battery.

[Tanya]

Oh yeah. Get a spare battery. Battery anxiety.

[Helen]

Yeah.

[Tanya]

And make sure you've got the right cords for them as well.

[Helen]

Yeah, yeah.

[Katie]

Print out your good ship lanyard so you can spot Fellow good ship people. And we can see, did we say?

[Tanya]

And shout ahoy at them.

[Helen]

Oh, yeah. Ahoy. Yeah.

[Tanya]

Ahoy, shippers. Ahoy there.

[Helen]

Maybe we could get a. Like a megaphone and just shout ahoy and see who gathers around.

[Katie]

Like, who are these women? What's going on?

[Helen]

Don't forget to take your samples. Business cards, postcards, posters, weirdy unusual things that people might want to take back and pin on their wall.

[Katie]

Yeah. You need tape things for sticking your stuff to the wall.

[Helen]

Yeah. The illustrators wall. Some people put. I've already said this. Some people put their business cards in little boxes and pin the box to the wall. So you could take a little box.

[Tanya]

Yeah.

[Helen]

I don't know if they're pins or tape. I don't know.

[Katie]

Then you've got options in case one thing doesn't work.

[Helen]

Yeah. A ladder, a drill, scaffolding.

[Katie]

Your portfolio is a PDF. That's a good one.

[Helen]

Yep. Don't forget to explore the city. Tanya booked us a restaurant before we'd even booked the flights. Tanya booked us a restaurant. How good is that?

[Katie]

I think the conversation went, shall we go to Bologna? Yes. And then Tanya, I've booked a table. Okay.

[Tanya]

I just remember watching all of the late publishing ladies sitting in the finest cafes with big plates full of meats and cheeses, and I thought we blew it. They booked those years ago. We're gonna starve tonight. So this was a priority.

[Helen]

The bookshops are so incredible that this year I'm only gonna take like one change of pants. And the rest of the suitcase is gonna be empty so I can stuff it with books.

[Katie]

Pants are not toothbrushed. Yeah,

[Helen]

Yeah. We are all sharing a flat. Maybe I should take some soap or something.

[Tanya]

Doesn't Jules. She takes a wheelie trolley. Well, she takes her husband and makes him take.

[Helen]

What a good idea.

[Tanya]

The little carry on wheelie trolley. That is if you're buying books or you're taking books around the samples. You'd need one of those.

[Katie]

Jewel's husband.

[Tanya]

Yeah.

[Helen]

Oh, yeah. Last day of the fair. The last day is really good because by the afternoon everybody is so exhausted, everybody has gone home and it's kind of empty. And all the publishers are nice and relaxed and ready for a chat because everything's finished and they're all off duty. So that's a really good time to go and chat to them and give them your postcard. And at the end of the day, they sell off all their books. They don't want to take them home so you can get some Brilliant. Rare, Mexican, Korean, amazing books that you wouldn't get in any other way.

[Tanya]

And if you came up to them with a glass of barocca.

[Helen]

Yeah.

[Tanya]

You know, that would really, really soften them up a bit. And you could probably have a good chat and then say, do you want to have a look at my PDF portfolio? I know you're tired.

[Helen]

What else? Oh, yeah, Katie, you wrote Relax, Lie down. Remember all the inspiring books, people, illustrations you saw?

[Katie]

Yeah, definitely. I think that was the nice bit for me. Like, after I got over feeling guilty about not filling every single day with walking around the fair, just like walking around Bologna and being like, this is really nice. I met so many lovely people.

[Tanya]

There's some really good museums. There's the Giorgio Morandi museum, there's the Museum of the University that I can't remember what it's called, but we met and sat outside it.

[Helen]

Yes.

[Tanya]

There's always good Italian shops as well.

[Helen]

There's the fantastic gelato shop with the big queues outside. The famous ice cream shop. I can't remember where it is or what it's called, but I remember everybody telling me I had to go and I had to go and join a. Well, it wasn't a queue because it's Italy. Everybody was just kind of crowded. But, yeah, that was amazing. What's that?

[Katie]

Is it cannoli or cannolo? The, like, round, sweet snack. I ate a few of them.

[Helen]

Yeah.

[Katie]

Yeah.

[Tanya]

But we can write you permission slips if you need it, that say, I don't have to be at the fair every single day.

[Helen]

And then once you get home, once you've gathered your breath, then it's a good idea to follow up all the contacts you've made. So if you've swapped business cards with people, you could email them, you could post them some goodies. So any connections you've made, follow them up.

[Katie]

The fortune is in the follow up. Most people don't follow up as well, so. So by doing that, you'll be top of the pile.

[Helen]

Yeah. Don't wait for people to get in touch with you because they might have lost your business card or maybe they just want you to send a nice friendly, oh, it was so good to meet you. That was so nice. And keep in touch.

[Katie]

And, yeah, the worst thing that happened that could possibly happen is that they ignore you and that's nothing.

[Helen]

Yeah, it doesn't matter.

[Katie]

It doesn't matter.

[Tanya]

Also, you could add it to your hundred rejections as well. It counts as a quota.

[Katie]

Yeah, ghosting counts.

[Helen]

So if you go tag us in your photos. We want to see how much fun everybody had, what they saw. If you're in the exhibition, let us

[Tanya]

know about that and we might meet you as well.

[Katie]

Yeah, we're gonna do a little meetup. We will email about that and everything, so all the details will be written down.

[Helen]

Put your picture in your lanyard so we know who you are.

[Tanya]

And put your stuff up on the illustrator's notice board and take a photo.

[Helen]

Yeah, Brilliant.

[Katie]

We can download the PDF. It's all written down in a PDF form.

[Tanya]

Yeah. Have a good time. Enjoy.

[Helen]

Ciao.