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Newspapers led Troy Cummings 鈥�96 into his career as a prolific children鈥檚 book author and illustrator.

Practically as soon as he could hold a pencil, he was copying the Peanuts comic strip and creating stories of his own. Later, he worked at The DePauw student newspaper to hone his illustration and graphic design skills.

In between, as a fifth grader, his school librarian handed him 鈥淭he Phantom Tollbooth.鈥� 鈥淚 loved the story and the illustrations and read it a million times,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 remember seeing those names on the cover鈥� and realizing he could aspire to a job involving writing and illustrating.

After graduation, he worked on the Chicago Tribune鈥檚 first website. 鈥淚 probably could have stayed in newspapers,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a really fun place to work.鈥�

Instead, he began taking on illustration and graphic design projects and soon was a full-time freelancer who continued to develop his ideas for children鈥檚 picture books. He sent out dozens of book proposals, acquiring a stack of rejection letters pointing to ways he could improve. Eventually, he landed an agent, and his first book was published: 鈥淭he Eensy Weensy Spider Freaks Out!鈥�

More than 50 books have followed. Cummings鈥檚 successes include his three Arfy books, starting with 鈥淐an I Be Your Dog?鈥� He is in talks with a publisher to do a series of young reader books about Arfy, who is based on his childhood pet. He also has written two series of illustrated chapter books: 鈥淭he Notebook of Doom鈥� and 鈥淭he Binder of Doom.鈥�

He typically spends around three to four months on a book. With picture books, he creates a dummy, including the full manuscript and digitally created illustrations. With chapter books, he starts with a title and an outline. He ships off a completed manuscript to his agent, who provides notes; Cummings revises it and his agent shops the book to potential publishers.

His characters typically 鈥渉ave a big problem, or they want something and it can be something small but it needs to feel like it鈥檚 really big, emotionally big to the character,鈥� he said. He likes to include surprises or mysteries for readers to solve or inspire them 鈥渢o go out and do stuff.鈥� At some of his public appearances, readers will show up with notebooks full of monsters they鈥檝e designed or dressed like his characters.

Because of the long production time 鈥� up to three years from pitch to publication 鈥� 聽鈥淚鈥檓 usually juggling multiple books at a time 鈥� doing some rough sketches for one book and final art for another book and then writing the text for a third book,鈥� he said.