Introduce Yourself : Publisher offered to publish my book by Leya Kokoravec

Your art is incredible Leya Kokoravec! I could see it hanging in our home. Very nice! Congratulations on the book publishing and the placement in the short film contest! All great feats. Feel free to reach out to me at any point - j.mirch@stage32.com - I would be happy to help in whatever way I can to move your projects forward

Thank you Jason Mirch so much. I've never called myself a painter because my mother is a painter but I do enjoy making these illustrations and I'm really excited about getting the book published.

You think they would look nice as a picture hanging on a wall? I've been thinking from the start of making a video something book.

We really enjoyed making our short and basically the only thing that we always regret with these projects is that we never have much of a budget and because of that we never have enough time and we're always in a rush, so there are always compromises that in the end also have an impact on some aspects of quality.

Specifically with the short we entered here on Stage32 contest we scrapped up about 150 bucks for gas and food and shot everything in two short 12 hourish days. Which I think is an achievement all by itself. But as a result we only had one or two takes per shot and because of the pandemic the talent only met once face to face to go trough everything, so of course nothing was perfect.

Regardless we always hope that the amount of work put into something shows in one way or another to those who know what they're looking for.

With all this in mind with the feature comedy we're developing right now, we decided to go a different way and maybe try and get sponsors and some kind of funding and then produce it.

At the same time we're still torn between making the film first in Slovenia and then maybe trying to get someone in the US to make an English version or just writing it in English and try and sell it in the US since the concept is really nicely translatable into virtually any language.

So thank you again and I'll definitely take you up on your offer soon.

Congrats on your shot Leya!

Incredible work, Leya - best of luck with the opportunity!

Beautiful illustrations. Congratulations on your book.

Thank you guys! :)

I'm really excited about the book and I love doing these illustrations.

It's funny because I have so many creative fields that I enjoy working in, a few days I was really excited because I had a project to shoot and edit together.

Congratulations, Leya! Your work is beautiful!

Thank you Christian Nommay very much.

I'm interested what are you up to these days and of course everyone else? :)

Congratulations on the book! And congratulations for making the semi finals, too!

Thank you very much Amanda! I'm really excited about both. :)

Thank you Jeff. The thing is that I don't think that we even have literary agents here in Slovenia because most of the time the publishers act as some kind of agents. I know it's weird but the entertainment industry here is a little specific and most things don't work like in other places.

But thank you for your concern.

It's always good to be vigilant when dealing with these things.

It's the same in the Nordics. Authors tend to deal directly with publishers rather than an agent.

Thank you Melany Markham. Yeah that's how it seems to work here and it's the same with film, we don't seem to have agents, just a bunch of producers.

It's really funny when you think about it. Why some positions exist in some but not in other places.

The obvious answer is that in some places there is more money involved and that means more people are able to live of something.

What an amazing journey! Thanks for sharing!

Thank you so much Celest! :)

It's funny how when I was at school they kept telling me to focus, but in the last couple of years that I've broadened my horizons as far as creating goes, I've been able to focus more on different types of art and it's great! :)

Wow. That's so exciting!

Thank you Erik! It is yes. I never thought that my illustrations would get to be in a book. :)

Beautiful images Leya, congrats!

Julia I don't know why but a lot of people had a similar experience. It's funny because Vital used to live elsewhere abroad but only after returning he started having problems in school too and after going to University abroad again he realized that there was something wrong.

I guess our school system just wasn't very well equipped to deal with creative people who haven't found their interes or interests yet.

Thank you Joanna very much. :)

This is beautiful, delicate, powerful in colors and has the good feels!

Amazing! Beautiful work!

Thank you Cherelynn, Wally and Randy! :)

Such a lovely work! Welcome to this beautiful community, Leya.