The Parable of The Puzzle Maker
As the publishing landscape started to change, Diego Jourdan Pereira weighed his options. Here, he discusses how we went from two decades of freelancing to writing and illustrating puzzle-making books for all ages.
“What shall I do since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.” (Luke 16:3-4 ESV)
For every would-be author out there, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of “how-to” books, articles, and workshops devoted to storming through the gates of the “Forbidden City” (i.e., traditional publishing). Some are truly invaluable—read on!—but many still lean on the trite “follow your dream” formula. Not unlike the title character of Jesus’ delightful parable, “The Crooked Manager,” I resorted to sobering self-assessment, a cold study of the marketplace, and the formulation of a sound plan instead.
Back in 2017, after 20 years as a freelance comic-book artist, it became apparent that the magazine well was drying up along its casual supermarket readership. When the U.K. publishing company that hired me began to shut down publications which had been my bread and butter since 2010 (WWE Kids, Danger Mouse, Thunderbirds, etc.), and smaller clients labored to find excuses to sever my services, I started to weigh my options.
I had grown weary enough of comics, magazine, and newspaper publishing to fall prey to it again, so if I were to own the fruits of my labor, the next logical professional stage for me had to be books. As a nonfiction writer, I had briefly dipped my toes in small-time Latin American publishing, and knew the pundits currently serving as gatekeepers would make it impossible for me to break in. Advances? Forget about it. America, on the other hand, had seen me illustrate adult coloring books during the 2014-2016 craze, and that was “career capital” I could mine (read Cal Newport’s So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion In The Quest For Work You Love, Grand Central Publishing, 2012).
Taking a few steps back to evaluate the American market, and find a category that matched my existing skill set (design and illustration rather than, say, writing prose), or at least one which offered the best chance to quickly and affordably acquire those abilities I lacked—very important that—I realized adult coloring fell into the broader “activity books” category, so it stood to reason I had to learn how to make puzzles (riddles, crosswords, sudoku, mazes, etc.).
While waiting tables every night—it actually paid great tips, so no violin music please—I purchased every puzzle-making book I could find (such as the long out-of-print How to Make and Sell Original Crosswords and Other Puzzles by William Sunners, Sterling Publishing, 1981). To my surprise, I noticed most professional constructors seemed too caught up in the newspaper submissions sand trap to mind the book market, and decided it was time to risk it all.
With the invaluable aid of Jody Rein and Michael Larsen’s splendid How to Write a Book Proposal (Writer’s Digest Books, 2017), I developed a killer pitch I could directly email my coloring books editor who, alas, turned it down. Fortunately, the proposal and samples were solid enough he remembered my name when a distributor asked him to produce a Jumbo-sized preschool activity book like those everybody scribbled with crayons in the 1980s. It would take me a whole year to finish my 450-page Giant Book of Games and Puzzles for Smart Kids. By the time I turned it in, I had successfully pitched The Big Book of Brain-Boosting Puzzles, its sequel, The Big Book of Brain-Boosting Pix-Cross Puzzles, and a 600-page trivia book, Astonishing Bathroom Reader, in the wake of a new wave of brain-health books for seniors appearing on the shelves.
Four years, 14 books, and one sales-boosting pandemic later, I find myself diversifying into writing and illustrating children’s books, while I keep the puzzle flame alive via The World Almanac. It’s been a wild ride, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Diego Jourdan Pereira writes, illustrates and packages trade books for general audiences—including storybooks for young readers, adult coloring books and puzzle books for seniors—while also translating Spanish language classics into English.
