Up, Up and Away

I've done a few things in the past, from theatrical set designer and muralist  to Montessori teacher... but always in the background I pursued illustration. Not always as diligently I wanted to... but always trying to learn more and hone my skills.
Now that I have the ability to work at my craft full time, I'm trying to step up the promotional send outs to one every other month. Hopefully the persistence and crossed fingers pays off in the end! So that's what I've devoted this year to.... holding up my hand, waving my flag, Ill even dance if need be..... OK I have two left feet so that won't work!

This is the next one in the lineup! Up, up and away!

New Mailer for the Fall

I try to send out cards about every 3 or 4 months. It may be overkill but in the world of Advertising it usually takes 7 attempts to get noticed.   If we keep putting our names in front of the Art Directors with quality work, it will pay off.

This is the postcard I am sending out this month. I wanted to wait a bit so that the editors would be returning from vacations.  My theory on this one was to present a closeup image with some added interest on the back, and make sure that even without glasses an editor would see my name and website.   I have a space on the back of the card for my agent's email and phone which I put in before the cards were printed.

I have always used Overnight Prints, but may try VistaPrints at some point. Overnight gives me really good quality on a large card and this last order they gave me 50 extra cards.  

And then there is MOO.com  They will print 60 cards with a different image on the front of every card if you like.  The price is high for 60 cards, but you can also make as few as 20 cards all with different images for $20.00.  The postcards are regulation size suited for US postal conditions, but seem a bit smaller than the smallest VistaPrint or Overnight Prints cards.

They also make sticker books with as many as 90 different images.  (Yes, they can also be just the same image too.)  They are based in London so you need to use Pay Pal but credit cards do work.  I recently ordered a book of 90 stickers for our little grandson Trevor.  Some have his face; some have my illos, but all were beautifully printed! And they came in a cute little booklet.  Moo has lots of goodies, you may want to take a look.  They love to Print!

5.5" x 8.5" Postcard Mailer

I'm getting ready to do a large mailing to art directors and editors at publishing houses I'd like to work for, and I've created a few different options for the front of the 5.5" x 8.5" postcard. The back of the card shows a couple characters in multiple poses that would be interior black & white illustrations for a middle grade novel. Front 3 shows a sample middle grade cover using the same characters that I used on the back. I'll send Front 3 to those who don't work on picture books, but stictly publish chapter books/middle grade/YA.

My dilemma is what to send to those who publish both picture books and middle grade. Front 1 and Front 2 show my Peter Pan illustration and an illustration that will be in Highlights in the December issue. The Highlights illustration would work fine for picture book editors, and the back of the card shows middle grade illustrations, so both picture books and middle grade would be covered in one card. The other option is to send Front 3 to everyone who works on middle regardless of whether or not they do picture books too and just target middle grade right now. What do you think? Show both picture book and middle grade samples on one card or just focus on middle grade for this mailer?