More Publishing Mysteries -

After this post on author-illustrator relations, Vickie asked: This is interesting to hear. I never knew it worked that way if you were the author. So now I'm curious to hear the other side, how did you and other illustrators come to be working with publishers. What route do you or did you go to get on there list of artists? It's always so interesting to hear about these things because for those of us not in the field it seems like some mysterious process.

The mysterious, once known, becomes mundane I'm afraid - so if you want to preserve that sense of magic and intrigue, stop reading now! :-) Since publishers are the powers-that-be who select the illustrators for their projects, the more you can make your work visible to them, the better. Here is a bit of my artistic-life-journey and some different ways that I have personally used to get my work in front of those who buy art.

Back in college we were required to take a class on business practices. Self marketing and promotion were a large part of that. This was 20 years ago - you know, the dark ages before the internet?- and back then one of the best ways for a starving young artist to be seen was to send out physical samples of your work.

I can't tell you how many hand-made cards, pamphlets and envelopes (including a 'response card') I assembled in these ventures. I did this quite regularly - at least once a quarter - keeping meticulous records of where these went and what the response was. I had two young children at the time, so initially I targeted small jobs, mainly magazine work. The Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market was my best friend for contact information.

After I started getting magazine jobs, I would use 'tear sheets' (copies of printed illustration) in promotional mailings. This would show 1.) that I had actually *been* published and 2.) how my work translated in print. This process kept me quite happily busy in the magazine realm until my children started getting a bit older. Using this same technique, I tentatively began to target a very few book publishers with samples of my work. I began a dialog with one of them, and mentioned that I had a book dummy of an old Christmas carol, and would they like to see it? They did, and decided they wanted to publish it (looking back on this now, I can't believe how lucky and unusual that was. Friends of mine have gorgeous book dummies that they have been shopping around for years...)

I had published my first book, but it about killed me - it is so difficult to work on large projects when your children are still young - so I decided to hold off on books or *any* big project until they were older. I did however, want to continue illustrating in more manageable scenarios and find ways to continue growing as an artist.

I did continue to send out mailings to smaller venues. I attended SCBWI conferences, showed my portfolio and networked. I took art classes when I could. I also taught them. I got work in other markets - I created signage for zoos, designed scrapbook papers, stencils, rubber stamps, fabric, book marks, greeting cards, product labels, company logos and many other assorted items. Anything I could think of. And I created promotional materials specific to whatever market I was targeting at the time (fold out samples made for a SciFi/Fantasy convention I attended shown above).

By the time my kids were both teenagers, I had more experience and a little more time to dedicate to illustration. Of course by now the internet is a huge thing. I design a website for myself. I decided to see if I could get an agent so that I could have more targeted exposure. Wendy Lynn & Co. agreed to represent me. (A big part of their job as agents is to promote their clients, so now all those mailings I used to do? They do it for me. This can be very helpful - the art directors for most publishers get hundreds of mailers like I used to send a week. It's very easy to get lost in the pile as a single individual.) Through them, I also take out ad space in Picturebook or Blackbook every year. I have a portfolio page on ChildrensIllustrators. I try to network through various other online venues - this blog, LinkedIn, Facebook and Jacketflap for instance. I use the books I have just published as promotions for more opportunities.

With all of these efforts in place, sometimes it is a bit mysterious why you are chosen for a particular project, actually. Sometimes the art director can tell you exactly where and what piece they saw that lead them to you, sometimes you don't ever find out. Maybe the stars aligned and your promotional piece ended up on someones desk the very day they needed someone to do a job that looked just like *that*.

The more places you can be seen, the greater your odds of *being* seen.

All that said, I still send out 'real' Christmas cards, but that's the only physical promotion that I do anymore. Everything else is through the agent or online.

OK - never start a blog post at 2 am... They get awfully wordy and disjointed! (sorry Vickie). I may have to delete this all tomorrow, but for now, I'm going to bed!

(This is studio kitteh, and she approves this mailing)