Note: Only 5 weeks until the pitch opens for agents and editors. GN creators, load your pitches as early as 8 a.m. EDT on Oct. 3 until 11:59 p.m. on Oct. 7. See our How to Load a Pitch page for details.
And a big thank you to literary agent and Kids Comics Unite founder Janna Morishima for this insightful article. Many of Janna’s tips here also apply to choosing your art for the KidLitGN pitch event. A good companion post to read is our article showcasing examples of art files requested by editors and agents in past KidLitGN pitch events. And scroll to the end for info on the free master class Janna is offering this Thursday.
If you’re preparing a graphic novel pitch, your sample art has a big job to do.
It needs to show agents and editors not only what your book looks like, but what it feels like to read it. It should give them confidence in your visual storytelling, help them understand the tone and pacing of the story, and – ideally – leave them wanting to read more!
KidlitGN told me that one of the questions they hear every year around their pitch event is: How should I choose and format the art samples I attach to my pitch?
This is a great question. Although creators often jump straight to “How many pages should I include?”, that actually isn’t the first decision I think you should make.
In this article, I’ll cover three things:
- What sample art to include
- How much to include
- How to format it so it’s easy (and compelling) for agents and editors to read
What to Include
The question I hear most often from creators is:
“How many pages should I include in my pitch?”
But I’m not starting with that question, because that is not the first thing you should be asking!
The FIRST question you should be asking yourself is:
“What do I want agents/editors to experience when they read my sample art?”
What you want them to experience is whatever emotional tone is dominant in your story. Your sample pages should unmistakably communicate this.
If your story is funny, you want editors to laugh out loud while they’re reading it.
A sample spread from the pitch for Andi Watson’s graphic novel series Punycorn.
If your story is fraught and tense or heart-stopping and emotional, pick the scene that evokes those feelings the strongest.
A sample spread from the pitch for Joe Latham’s graphic novel series Haru.
If some parts of the book are really funny, but other parts go into more serious themes, it might be ideal to include some sequences from a few different scenes.
In other words, what you’re trying to do with the sample art is convey to the agent or editor: “This gives an accurate sense of what the whole book will feel like.”
In general, I recommend picking a scene from the story that you feel is the most dynamic and compelling sample of what the book will feel like.
A sample spread from the pitch for Lindsey Leigh’s nonfiction book The Deep.
This might not necessarily be the beginning of the story. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t choose the beginning of your story for the sample art; I’ve seen plenty of effective pitches that show the first chapter or so of the book. But if the first chapter isn’t the strongest representation of the whole book, you might want to choose a different section to show for your sample art.
One final note is that if your book will have unique features like a map, cutaway, crowd scene, dramatic establishing shots, etc., it can be good to include a few examples of these “showstopper” elements. You can add these after the main sequential sample pages that you’re including.
In other words, first choose a strong uninterrupted sequence that demonstrates storytelling; then consider adding a few standout pages from elsewhere in the story.
A sample spread from the pitch for Rivkah LaFille’s graphic novel Five Wishes (coming out in 2028). This is a “showstopper” double-page spread from later in the book than the rest of the sequential pages she shared in her pitch.
How Many Pages to Include
After you’ve decided which chapter or scene you’re going to include in your pitch, now you can think about how many pages it should be.
There isn’t a “right” or “wrong” number of sample pages for a pitch. I know it would be easier if agents and editors all agreed that “18 pages is exactly what we need,” but that is not the case.
In deciding how many pages to include, you want to balance between a) giving editors enough material so they get a really clear sense of the story and tone and your abilities as a visual storyteller; but b) not doing so much that it takes you forever to finish.
Try to put yourself in the agent’s or editor’s shoes — someone who might not know your work at all — and ask yourself, “how much art would I need to see in order to be convinced that this will be a great book?”
If you’re a debut creator with no track record yet, you probably want to err on the side of more sample art rather than less, because you need to persuade people that you have great visual narrative skills and you’re able to complete the art in a reasonable amount of time.
If you’ve already published graphic novels before, you don’t need to include as many sample pages, because people can see how you handled a full-length story and know you can finish.
If you twisted my arm and forced me to recommend a specific number of pages, I’d say anywhere from 10 to 30 pages (or more) would be good. (How’s that for an amorphous answer?)
Maple Lam included 39 pages of sample art in the pitch for her graphic novel series Monkey King and the World of Myths. About half the pages were finished color art; and half the pages were inks-only.
While Maple Lam included a whopping 39 pages of sample art in her pitch, please do not take that as an instruction to make almost 40 pages of your book! She told me that since this was her first graphic novel project, she really wanted to prove herself. But I have successfully sold many projects to publishers with pitches that included as few as 10-15 pages or so.
How to Format Your Sample Pages
Of course, if an agent, publisher, or pitch event gives you specific file requirements, follow those first. Beyond that, though, here are my tips:
Make it easy to open and read
I would definitely recommend sending your sample art as a single pdf with a compressed file size. Do not email a folder with your sample pages exported as individual jpgs (no, no, no!)
Usually, the only time when you’d be sharing your sample art as jpgs or pngs is when you’re submitting your pages for an online competition like KidLitGN or KCU Pitchfest.
When sharing your sample art via email or through a portal like QueryTracker, you want to make it as easy as possible for industry pros to access and view. A single pdf that’s less than 20 MB is easy to download and read.
Show sample art as spreads
I generally advise that you format your pitch in horizontal format, so you can show your sample art as spreads, not as individual pages. This is extremely important!
The page turn is a key storytelling element in graphic novels, and the only way people will know which of your pages are left-side pages, and which are right-side, is if you show them as spreads.
Do not include rough thumbs or pencils
Sometimes it’s OK to include a mixture of fully colored final art with inked art, as long as you include at least a handful of “final-final” art that shows exactly what the ultimate pages of the book will look like.
To put it another way, include enough fully finished art that there is no question what the final book will look like.
After that, depending on the project and your track record, it can sometimes be fine for additional sequential pages to be at the inked stage.
Label your sample art with the page numbers
You want to make crystal-clear whether you’re starting from page 1 of the story, or dropping readers into the story at page 52 or something like that.
It is especially critical to append your art with page numbers or a label if you are including more than one scene from different parts of the book. You don’t want people to be reading from one scene to a completely different one, and not realize that they should not be read as sequential.
Also, it’s OK if the page numbers you list are approximate, or if you just list something like “Chapter Two, Scene One.” There’s no rule about how to label them; the key is just to make it very clear to the reader what part of the story they’re reading.
Other tips
Here are a few more important formatting tips:
- Always proofread your work! It makes a bad impression when there are typos or unintentional mistakes in your lettering.
- If you’re including your sample pages in a single proposal pdf together with your synopsis, author bio, comp titles, etc, put your sample pages toward the beginning of the pdf. This is because your sample pages are the most important part of your pitch!
- Feel free to design your pitch in a visually appealing way that reinforces the tone of your book.
A sample spread from the pitch for Philip Cheaney’s graphic novel Fresh Kills (coming out in 2028). He created a distinctive design for his pitch packet that looked beautiful and was easy to read.
I also want to mention a couple issues I’ve noticed in some pitches that you want to avoid.
When you’re laying out your pages, be careful about adding too many rows of panels.
Middle grade graphic novels published in the US typically have three rows of panels. Since graphic novels usually have a smaller trim size than comic books (or European-style comic albums), pages with too many rows of panels can get a little hard to read because they’re compressed.
If your pages are significantly denser than the books currently being published for the same age category and trim size, that can signal to an editor that the visual approach isn’t quite aligned with the market.
The best way to make sure you don’t inadvertently design pages that aren’t a fit for your demographic is to look at lots of comp titles in the same genre and aimed at the same age level as your story. This is critical – you definitely want to have a good sense of what’s “standard” in current publishing.
A sample spread from the pitch for Debbie Fong’s graphic novel series The Faraway Forest. It’s aimed at early readers, so you can see she uses very simple, spare paneling and lettering.
Finally, avoid creating fake book packaging. Do not include “placeholder” copyright or title pages with made-up quotations or faux publisher information. It’s better to present art samples/dummy pages in a simple and straightforward way rather than as a simulated commercial package.
One Last Thing
A great graphic novel pitch doesn’t need to show everything your book can do. It needs to show just enough that an agent or editor can imagine the rest.
Use the “action verb test.” Do your sample pages make the reader laugh/worry/wonder/gasp? Or whatever reaction you most want to elicit?
Show them that you understand how to tell a story sequentially. And make the presentation so clear and easy to read that nothing gets between them and the story.
That’s ultimately what great sample art is for: not just to show that you can draw the book, but to make someone want to read the WHOLE book you’re going to draw.
Want to get better at making the pages for your pitch?
If reading this makes you think, Okay, but how do I actually make my sequential storytelling stronger?—that’s exactly what we’ll be doing in the upcoming KCU Graphic Novel Bootcamp.
Over 13 weeks, instructor Ira Marcks and teaching assistant Cheyenne Smith will guide you through story, character, pacing, page design, and the process of taking an idea all the way to a finished short comic, with regular live critique along the way.
Because before you can assemble a great pitch, you need pages that make people want to keep reading.
→ Learn more about the KCU Graphic Novel Bootcamp
→ RSVP for the free “From Script to Comic” masterclass with Ira Marcks on Thursday, Sep. 3
Valuable insights. Thanks!