Sunday Mailbag: Pursuing Magazine Work?

Q: I would like to try and push getting some magazine work, but I have no clue of how to go about it. What do you suggest?

A: The first step is always “do work art directors will want to buy.” That sounds simple but you’d be surprised how many people show me portfolios where their work is just not of professional quality, but they want to know how to get work. It does little good to market work that is not going to appeal to art directors. So, all the advice here is predicated on the assumption the work being marketed is work that is professional and appealing.

The magazine illustration business is not what it used to be, mainly because there are far fewer magazines than there used to be, and the budgets of magazines are are also not what they used to be. That said, there are still a lot of publications out there that are targeted to specialty audiences, like various industries and interests, and illustration is still something they find room for in their budgets. The first step is to find magazines or publications that you feel your style of work would fit into.

I’m a big proponent of direct mail marketing. Go to a local bookstore that has a good sized magazine rack (these are increasingly hard to find) and look through the rack. Try and identify magazines that seem open to using a style of art that you do. For example, if you have a very cartoony style concentrate on kids magazines. If your work is more artsy or quirky, maybe some news or entertainment publications. Every magazine has a masthead listing the names of the staff, including art director, and the mailing address. Put together a mailing list and snail mail them fresh promo stuff every 3-4 months.

Snail mail, you say? Isn’t that a little old fashioned? Exactly. It’s so old fashioned that it’s new. Seriously. Art directors get a TON of emails from hopeful illustrators looking for work. They get glanced at (maybe) and put in some folder (if you are lucky) and probably forgotten. But guess what? Snail mail still gets delivered and put on the desks of art directors, and there are far less mailer promos these days than even a decade ago. That makes them more effective than they used to be. An eye-catching, colorful promo postcard gets looked at. Also, it’s easy and lazy to create an email campaign and click “send” to 1,000 different people. It shows effort and investment to print and mail out a physical piece of work. It might end up in the “round file” (aka the trashcan) but it also might get tacked up on the office cork board. Here are some tips:

1. Make your promo piece count- The best kind of promos are oversized postcards with a homerun illustration on the front and a short blurb and contact into/website on the back. No envelopes to open, no multiple page portfolio to have to turn though. One image that is hopefully an eye-catcher. Your goal is to get them to look at it and catch enough of their attention to turn it over and read the back.
2. Target the right audience- It’s pointless to send your sports caricature illustrations to a magazine about knitting, so identify magazines that your work would appeal to. You might have two or three different postcard promos to send to different types of magazines.
3. Keep at it- Don’t just do one mailing and then sit back waiting for the phone to ring. Keep that mailing list (and keep looking to add to it) and create a new promo every 3-4 months, and keep on sending them out. Not too often, every month would annoy an art director. Every three months is a good schedule, or every four. More than twice a year though.

Getting that first job from an art director is often a function of being in the right place at the right time. Your promo piece happens to be sitting on the AD’s desk when their editor hands them an article they think needs some art. Dumb luck? No. That’s smart luck. Dumb is never having a chance for that lucky break because you never sent that AD any promo stuff. You make your own luck.

Please don’t think this is some magic formula for getting work, and if you follow these suggestions your phone will be ringing off the hook. Far more of your postcards will end up in the round file than will net you a call. This is about getting your foot in the door, and the first step to that is knocking on as many doors as you can. Also, this is the 21st century, so along with any mailing you do you must have a strong online presence with a good website portfolio and social media marketing, especially Instragram.

Finally, getting the work is only the first step. Doing the work, being professional, being easy to work with and meeting deadlines is all a part of the second step.

Thanks to Jerry Shippee for the question. If you have a question you want answered for the mailbag about cartooning, illustration, MAD Magazine, caricature or similar, e-mail me and I’ll try and answer it here!