When are you ready to make your first submission?
What do you need to have accomplished before you begin?
I submitted some of my artwork about a year ago before I knew anything about much of anything along the art licensing line, and my artwork was rejected. I feel that some of that rejection had to do with my preparation, some of it had to do with my presentation, and some of it had to do with what I hadn't yet accomplished. So, it occurs to me to put down in writing - and also to invite comment - on:
What do we need in order to get started? Here is my current checklist.
1) Polishing. I appreciated my artwork and loved it. But it needed a bit of polishing in order to look product-ready. I needed backgrounds for some of my work, and I needed color for some of my black-and-white work. I needed to look at work of successful licensing artists and compare - not harshly, but honestly - my own work's "look", to theirs. And while I continue to grow in artistic sophistication, I can now hold my work up proudly and without hesitancy. That means I'm ready to show my work. Polished and ready? Check!
2) Website! I had to have a website up. Does that mean it had to be perfect? Nope. But it did have to be representative. I've got that going on, so...check!
3) Protection. I have to protect myself. I have to know something about copyrighting so that I'm aware of that part of the business. I know a heck of a lot more now, thanks to my research, the friendly folks at the Copyright office, and my friends at the Art of Licensing Group on LinkedIn, and I have chosen some ways in which I feel that I can protect myself (image size, copyright watermark, etc. - see previous blogs). I have changed my online images and will continue to learn: Check!
4) Tracking Spreadsheet. Someone needs to keep track of who I contact, and I guess it's going to have to be me! So I made an Excel spreadsheet with many fields, some of which are: Company Name, Preferred Mode of Contact, Address, Phone, Email, Date of Submission, and Outcome. It's rudimentary, but it will do until I get going, and it will keep me out of trouble. Tracking: Check!
5) Research and a Zen Attitude. Finding those places that will probably like my artistic groove seems like the most enormous job on earth, until I realize that if I just let this be fun, exploratory, and interesting, it will unfold without my adding my totally useless and self-punishing stress and over-efforting. Research: Check! Zen Attitude: Growing!
6) Release. Call it release, or faith, or surrender, or just a oh-what-the-hell-you-gotta-jump-sometime attitude, there is a letting go that has to happen; a moment when you tell yourself, "I have everything I need; why don't I try?" This one seems to be the biggest of all because it is in a major sense not an outside job, but an inside job. It is a willingness, a shift - whatever you call it, it's something that has to be done within you. Here are a few thoughts that have proven useful to me, as I submit my first really prepared artwork today!
§ Licensees are always looking for new artists - so they could be looking for me; if not today, then tomorrow, or next week, or next month! The fact that I don't know when is actually a good thing; it means I can be pleasantly surprised.
§ I'm in it for both the long haul, and the short return: both!
§ This is supposed to be fun - so why not let it be? So my attitude to the licensees to come is:“Who wants to play? Will it be you? And you? Yippee!”
§ If I don't try, the answer is already "no". I wasn't given this kind of talent to use it in private.
The actor River Phoenix was discovered when he was an Extra in a movie! Who says you couldn't be similarly discovered. Let go, hold your nose if you have to, and jump!
Happy Jumping!
Lori
What do you need to have accomplished before you begin?
I submitted some of my artwork about a year ago before I knew anything about much of anything along the art licensing line, and my artwork was rejected. I feel that some of that rejection had to do with my preparation, some of it had to do with my presentation, and some of it had to do with what I hadn't yet accomplished. So, it occurs to me to put down in writing - and also to invite comment - on:
What do we need in order to get started? Here is my current checklist.
1) Polishing. I appreciated my artwork and loved it. But it needed a bit of polishing in order to look product-ready. I needed backgrounds for some of my work, and I needed color for some of my black-and-white work. I needed to look at work of successful licensing artists and compare - not harshly, but honestly - my own work's "look", to theirs. And while I continue to grow in artistic sophistication, I can now hold my work up proudly and without hesitancy. That means I'm ready to show my work. Polished and ready? Check!
2) Website! I had to have a website up. Does that mean it had to be perfect? Nope. But it did have to be representative. I've got that going on, so...check!
3) Protection. I have to protect myself. I have to know something about copyrighting so that I'm aware of that part of the business. I know a heck of a lot more now, thanks to my research, the friendly folks at the Copyright office, and my friends at the Art of Licensing Group on LinkedIn, and I have chosen some ways in which I feel that I can protect myself (image size, copyright watermark, etc. - see previous blogs). I have changed my online images and will continue to learn: Check!
4) Tracking Spreadsheet. Someone needs to keep track of who I contact, and I guess it's going to have to be me! So I made an Excel spreadsheet with many fields, some of which are: Company Name, Preferred Mode of Contact, Address, Phone, Email, Date of Submission, and Outcome. It's rudimentary, but it will do until I get going, and it will keep me out of trouble. Tracking: Check!
5) Research and a Zen Attitude. Finding those places that will probably like my artistic groove seems like the most enormous job on earth, until I realize that if I just let this be fun, exploratory, and interesting, it will unfold without my adding my totally useless and self-punishing stress and over-efforting. Research: Check! Zen Attitude: Growing!
6) Release. Call it release, or faith, or surrender, or just a oh-what-the-hell-you-gotta-jump-sometime attitude, there is a letting go that has to happen; a moment when you tell yourself, "I have everything I need; why don't I try?" This one seems to be the biggest of all because it is in a major sense not an outside job, but an inside job. It is a willingness, a shift - whatever you call it, it's something that has to be done within you. Here are a few thoughts that have proven useful to me, as I submit my first really prepared artwork today!
§ Licensees are always looking for new artists - so they could be looking for me; if not today, then tomorrow, or next week, or next month! The fact that I don't know when is actually a good thing; it means I can be pleasantly surprised.
§ I'm in it for both the long haul, and the short return: both!
§ This is supposed to be fun - so why not let it be? So my attitude to the licensees to come is:“Who wants to play? Will it be you? And you? Yippee!”
§ If I don't try, the answer is already "no". I wasn't given this kind of talent to use it in private.
The actor River Phoenix was discovered when he was an Extra in a movie! Who says you couldn't be similarly discovered. Let go, hold your nose if you have to, and jump!
Happy Jumping!
Lori
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