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In publishing, as in flirting, a smooth pickup line won't work if you don't have the goods. But all things being equal, a creative come-on doesn't hurt.
The come-hither approach paid off big for Carmela and Steven D'Amico, whose debut picture-book, "Ella the Elegant Elephant," is one of 10 recently announced winners of this year's Washington State Book Awards.
"Ella," released last fall, stars an elephant child whose red, floppy hat helps her win friends and influence a bully at her new school in the Elephant Islands. A sequel, "Ella Takes the Cake" (Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic, $16.99) hit stores last month.
Over lunch the other day, the West Seattle couple revealed the unusual strategy that brought them to publishers' attention and snagged them a deal in the low six figures.
It started with a single premise:
"We weren't interested in working separately," said writer Carmela D'Amico, 34, nestling into a snug, wooden booth at Circa's, a neighborhood eatery near Southwest Admiral Way and California Avenue Southwest.
Across the table sat Steve, the illustrator, 43, and their 5-year-old daughter, Olivia, who busily drew an elephant (what else?) while her parents chatted.
The cafe was jumping with the lunchtime crowd, generating a lively cacophany of voices, laughter and clattering silverware.
To grasp the cleverness of their marketing strategy, you have to understand what the D'Amicos already knew -- that picture-book writers usually don't get to choose their illustrators.
Publishers like to reserve that right for themselves, and they often pick an artist who's a complete stranger to the writer.
The D'Amicos didn't want that.
So they did an end run. Instead of sending off Carmela's manuscript and humbly requesting that Steve be allowed to illustrate it, they completed the book together before contacting anyone.
Even then, they sent no manuscript. Instead, they mailed query letters that featured an eye-catching icon of Ella and a Web link to a flash version of their completed package.
"It's like a virtual book," Steve said, between bites of hamburger, medium-well-done.
In their letter, they invited publishers to check out the link if they were interested in knowing more.
"We sent them out in the mail on Saturday," said Steve, "and by Wednesday we had three or four phone calls. What brought us to their attention was that little icon on the front page. They said they'd never seen a submission done that way."
Without intending to, the D'Amicos had broken another publishing rule as well: They'd created a 56-page picture-book, when the industry standard is 32 pages, a convention based on printing-press configurations.
"The thing that bothered us about the 32-page rule," said Carmela, who recalls reading longer books when she was growing up, "is it seemed so arbitrary."
They said Knopf, one of the publishers that answered their query, did, in fact, want them to shorten the story. They went with Scholastic partly because editor Arthur A. Levine told them, "I will publish it at this length." (The sequel is 48 pages.)
With the help of a hastily procured agent, the D'Amicos ended up with a two-book deal, later renewed for another two titles. Already, a third "Ella" book is in the works.
The books have an eye-catching charm thanks to Steve's colorful, retro-style illustrations, which have been likened to H.A. Rey's "Curious George," Ludwig Bemelmans' "Madeline" and Jean de Brunhoff's "Babar."
Steve, a former Bon Marché window designer who creates online kids' entertainment at Seattle-based Smashing Ideas, said the real inspiration was World-War-II-era French poster art.
Besides the newly announced state book awards, "Ella" last year won a Pacific Northwest Booksellers award and was named one of the year's best by Child magazine -- yet more proof that it pays to flirt with success.
"It made what happened all the more sweet," Carmela said, "because we really didn't expect it."
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