Postcards: Overcoming a creative dry spell with a little promotion

I try to work on something related to children’s book illustration/writing everyday — when I am feeling creatively stuck, I turn to promoting my work. That way I accomplish something everyday, even during a creative slump. Recently, I finished my first mailing of postcards and here’s what I learned along the way. 

What should go on a postcard?

Limit the artwork to one or two pieces of your best work with a strong narrative and characters. The purpose of the postcard is to pique the interest of your viewer and bring them to your website. 

Include your name, contact info and website. 

Include your website/name on any side with artwork. That way if your postcard gets pinned up on a bulletin board (either side facing out), the art director, editor, etc. doesn’t have to take it down to find you.

I have collected a lot of postcards at SCBWI conferences over the years, and here are some that I find most effective.

Check out others’ postcards at conferences. Which ones stand out to you?

Create YOUR mailing list.

This is the fun part. Go to a bookstore or local library and start researching books you love! 

I keep an ever-growing excel sheet of the names of art directors, editors, and agents who have worked on my favorite illustrated books. Figuring out the names of art directors, editors, and agents requires a little detective work, but it’s exciting, especially when you start discovering trends of the same people working on many of your favorite books! Check book interiors, sometimes they include the names of editors, agents, and art directors. Search google and Publishers Marketplace and you can usually uncover this information.  You can then verify names and publishing houses and look up addresses in SCBWI’s most recent version of the THE BOOK: The Essential Guide to Publishing for Children the Children’s Writers and Illustrators Market. I use the online/ digital versions because it is easy to search by name or publishing house, etc. Publishing people change positions and houses often so its important to make sure your using the most up-to-date sources, and updating each time you send a new mailing.  Ideally you want to send mailings 4 times a year — a mailing at the beginning of February, April, July and November. 

Where to get postcards printed?

I usually search for the best deal online. I printed my last two batches of postcards with Vistaprint — they often run promotions.  There are many other companies that print postcards.  I love the quality of Moo cards, but they are too expensive for my budget. Always print extra postcards. Your list will continue to grow. Carry extra postcards in your bag, bring them to SCBWI events.  Next time when someone asks you about your work, hand them a postcard! 

Send them out into the world, and get back to work.

It was satisfying to put a big stack of postcards into the mailbox. Even better, after this process of looking through postcards of my peers’ work, researching illustrators, and art directors and editors whose work I admire, I felt really inspired to run back to the drawing table. So if you’re feeling creatively stuck, maybe try a little promotion.

Below are links to several other blogs on promotional postcards I found helpful:

Promotional Postcards to Publishers for Children's Books by Kristi Valiant

Self-Promotion Part 1: What to include? by Jen Betton

The Route to Publishing as an Author/Illustrator by Eliza Wheeler

Postcard and Business Card Printers by Sylvia Liu

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Sara Gavryck-Ji is an illustrator living in Berkeley, CA. 

Follow her work at www.SaraGavryck-Ji.com or on Instagram.

The Route to Publishing as an Author/Illustrator

So you have an incredible, cohesive, honed-in portfolio. 

Your artistic voice is loud and clear.
You also have brilliant, heart-felt, kid-friendly stories just waiting to be published.
You even have a book dummy sketched out for one of these stories with a couple finished color samples.
You’ve sent this dummy to a few editors and had some nice feedback, but all rejections (or worse, no response at all!).

Q: Why is this taking so long?!

A: Try a different plan of attack.

There’s nothing wrong with submitting your own stories to editors (continue to do so), but author/illustrators who are ready to be published should consider this:
Make it known to art directors and editors that you’re available to illustrate manuscripts that are under contract by other authors. 

 An editor might see and like your story, but oftentimes are hesitant to offer a book contract because they want to know how it is to work with you first.

It can be hard to take a risk on a completely unknown writer/illustrator, and they often like to pair unknown illustrators with known writers (and vice versa) who already have a built-in audience. That way, they hope to guarantee at least a certain amount of sales from the fans of the known writer or illustrator.

Q: How do I let publishers know I’m available to illustrate for them?

A: Promote your art to them!

Send mailings to as many art directors/editors as you want. 

You can send your promotion to everyone within a publishing house (where-as with a manuscript it is NOT acceptable to submit to more than one editor in the same house at a time). This gives illustrators the advantage of having wide exposure to their work. 

Promote to book designers and editorial assistants too: they might share your work with the editor or art director. At the recent SCBWI Summer Conference, I heard Melissa Manlove, editor at Chronicle Books, explain that the designers there have a chief role in seeking out illustrators. 

Create your promo postcard and mail it to this list 3 times a year.
- Always use a new piece of artwork
- Include your name and website address.
- Make sure to keep your online portfolio up-to-date and easy to browse. An art director who takes the time to go to your web-site won’t be impressed if your work is out-dated, and it’s your online portfolio that’s the key for an art director’s decision in choosing your work. The postcard is just a pointer to your work online!

Q: How should I know who to send my promotional postcards to?

A: Research.

  

Compile a mailing list with necessary info. This does take some time, but start by researching publishers that might fit your genre of artwork by:

- looking at the books currently in bookstores, making note of the publisher
- searching through the newest “Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Market” and the SCBWI “Market Survey” in The Book, available to their members.
- making sure all the information is current – check on each publisher’s website for their submission policies and preferred format (digital or snail-mail, or both).
- keeping this list up-to-date; publishing folks change positions and publishing houses frequently.

Q: Oh my gosh, they hired me! 

A: Yay! You've been hired to illustrate a book.

Be creative, gracious, communicative, easy to work with, and hit your deadline.

You can see how you like working with this editor or art director, and they can see how they like working with you. If it goes well, they will often invite you to submit your own stories to them. And luckily, you’ve got that brilliant, heart-felt, kid-friendly dummy book ready to go.

In my experience working with multiple publishers, it hasn’t been until after a project was over that they told my agent, “If Eliza’s got anything of her own, we’d love to see it!”

Though, I’m still working out the brilliant, heart-felt, kid-friendly story part . . .

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Eliza Wheeler illustrates and writes for children's picturebooks and middle grade novels. Author/Illustrator of MISS MAPLE'S SEEDS (Penguin), and more . . . visit www.wheelerstudio.com, @WheelerStudio, www.facebook.com/eliza.wheeler

What gets an kidlit art postcard tossed IMMEDIATELY? Advice from Victoria Jamieson

I recently joined Pixel Shavings, a small group of children's illustrators and writers, and we're about to do out a postcard mailing. I've never done a mailing before so I'm excited and curious about the process.

As I started doing some research, I came across a wonderful post by Victoria Jamieson in the #kidlitart archives about what made her immediately discard artist postcards when she worked for children's book publishers. Her reasons for immediate rejection were basically:

1) too editorial

2) too mass market

3) too sci-fi

4) too weird

5) not telling a narrative story

Read Victoria's full post here: Get 'er done.