Cold Call

A lot of this probably seems obvious, but you'd be surprised how many people don't have a very good idea of how to approach clients.

A few tips from me.

I'm not an editor nor am I a publisher. Approaching a freelancer for work is not going to do you much good. I'm not hiring - well, more precisely, I can go years without hiring, and if I hire, it’s usually only an assistant hire on some technical job.

Which means I’m not going to publish your book.

When I was self publishing, sometimes I got a foot high stack of submissions a day. It was completely bonkers, and a waste of these people's postage money (ah, those crazy pre-internet days).

Seek editors, not other creators.

RESEARCH the people you're approaching. If you are looking to get hired, pay attention to the company and the people doing the hiring. What is it they do? Are you a good fit there? 

When I was self publishing getting that foot high stack of submissions a day, I'd get superhero samples and - I got a lot of these - the same type of story submission from many people depicting a barmaid in a, you know, bar. She gets grabbed by skeevy dudes. We get a closeup of a hand grabbing her bra or panties. Then a big dude crashes through a window to save her.

I don't know why people thought I wanted to see or publish that, but more importantly, I never figured out why the hero just couldn't go through the door like everyone else. 

I sometimes got this same story idea from four different creators every month.

Why are you sending this stuff to someone who was self publishing A DISTANT SOIL? Your submission told me you hadn't done any footwork. And have never heard of me. I was just a box you were ticking off.

NEVER send your unsolicited samples to other creators on the net. Not via email. Not via social media. EVER. We will delete them immediately and avoid you after. We can't take the risk of being accused of stealing your ideas.

If you have to send art samples, PLEASE, low res jpgs only. Back in the days of dial up, I'd get huge megabyte files of art in my email every single week. It would freeze my system. Even today, my email can only handle files so large. Yet someone always tries to email me huge files.

Do not approach people with yuckster comments like, "You have never seen art until you've seen mine!" and "I'm about to make you a millionaire!"

If I had a dollar for everyone who said they were going to make me a millionaire, I’d be a millionaire by now.

Do not follow up your submission (which will often be followed by polite silence) with insults.

You'd be surprised how often this happens.

Rejection hurts, but after all these years, I've probably had to deal with more rejection than everyone reading this post combined. I have pretty thick skin. Freaking out at someone who didn't hire you is not going to get you anywhere.

No one is responsible for making your dreams come true.

If that person didn't hire you, there's always someone else. They are not a bad person if they didn't hire you. Try not to demonize people whose tastes differ from yours. People don't like my work all the time. That's the way it is. It's something you just have to get used to. 

I have run into people who claim I said they weren't an artist or that they can't draw comics. I have never said that to anyone in my life. What I have said to people is they weren't a PRO artist based on what I saw in their portfolio - and frankly, if you’re not making a living at it, you’re not a pro.

A professional is making money. Some really talented amateurs make some money, but it’s one thing to make occasional money and another to make the creative life a full time occupation. It’s not a knock to anyone who doesn’t, it’s an acknowledgment that doing art for yourself is different than managing art for a living.

I’ve also said that others shouldn't draw FROM COMICS when learning to draw, they should also draw from life. They swore this was me saying they shouldn’t draw comics.

No. That’s not what that means, Grasshopper.

People hear what they fear. What was actually said to you? What is the message being conveyed? 

If your response is to be threatened to Your Core Understanding of You As An Artist, you need to work that out yourself.

You are going to run into legions of people telling you you suck when you turn pro, way more than you’ll ever hear as a fan, and if you wig out that someone tells you you need to stop copying Todd McFarlane, you're going to have serious problems when you are published.

I understand that people get upset. It's hard not to take these things personally.

I'll let you in on a little secret: some editors are so afraid of confrontation that they will completely avoid contact with any creator if they have to deliver bad news. That includes creators they have worked with for years. I could be here all day telling you stories of editors who were so afraid to lay the hammer down that they had other freelancers spread the bad news for them. I could hear the tremor in an editor’s voice when a cover of mine got rejected, and her relief when I shrugged and said, “No big deal, shit happens".

If the editor thinks you're going to be the kind of person who blows up, a lot of them are simply not going to work with you.

Grow up, take it on the chin, and either find someone who does want your work, or get better at your work.