Break into Children’s Publishing (Starter Kit)
Illustrator Dispatch Directory
I’ve put together 3 Starter Kits, to help you navigate the Ten Minute Artist Vault, and I’ve broken them down into three broad categories, depending on where you are at currently.
🫰If you are a writer on Substack and have been enjoying these Field Notes, please consider recommending Ten Minute Artist to help grow this amazing community of readers! Thank You!
About this Starter Kit
In this starter kit …
How I came to document my creative journey.
Thoughts on Style, Portfolio and Networking a Directory.
What benefits paid subscribers of TenMinuteArtist get, and how to get the most value depending on your learning style.
On Break into Children’s Publishing
I’m proud to have been a featured publication on substack in 2021, I have this O.G badge from back then.
Back then I wrote daily about a very exciting time in my life. After years of trial and error I was finally ‘Breaking into Children’s Publishing”. I got offered to illustrate a book and I had just gotten representation from my agency.
I was getting doing conference calls with my editor in California, Designer in New York and agent in London. And me in my little studio in Malaysia.
Sure the logistics are tough, but I’m living the dream.
It was a dream 30 years in the making, and I wrote about that too.
Many have guided me and shown me what has worked for them.
As I share what has worked for me, I can confidently say I’ve helped others break into the industry too.
This section aims to share the ‘best’ of that writing about ‘Breaking-In’.
And continuing in this industry.
It’s instructive for people aiming at being illustrators in Childrens Publishing, but I’m hoping the ideas are valuable to people in any creative pursuit. These ideas are not just good for breaking in, they also often are instructive for staying in work, or what to do when you are ‘in’.
Really it’s about ‘becoming a successful illustrator with a moving target, but that’s not near and catchy and urgent as ‘breaking into the industry’.
A Directory
In this podcast episode, I talked with Tom Froese about my journey which he titled, “How to be a successful illustrator at 40”
For an overview of my Journey to become a picturebook illustrator, I drew a map and listed the steps.
Some thoughts on Style: It’s a set of rules, It’s positioning, It’s a commitment
Here’s how I created my ‘portfolio’ , and here’s how I’m updating it
In Notes from a Third World Country , I write about how to be industry insider without moving to NY or London.
In How to make a Living as an artist, I expand on the 1000 true fans concept.
Here I write about how I got my first book deal
As you work through the directory you will find shorter daily insights and longer guides as I worked through different formats and cadences through the years.
The current format is called:
Illustrator Field Notes
Subscribe to get the next one (Take the annual it’s much cheaper)
Subscribe to get’s you All The Things! Such as:
💌 Illustrator Field Notes
📼 Recordings of Roundtable Conversations about all things Illustration
🗄️ Archives (800+ Posts, 20+ hours of video)
But really what you’re getting is:
A Daily Practice
Keys to the Industry
Community, Support and Motivation to help you Keep Going!
About the price
🎟️ The reason it’s $20 a month if you subscribe monthly, is that, anyone could come in and binge on 3 years worth of content, and that’s worth the price of the ticket. (For binge lovers)
🛳️ If you plan to stay longer, the annual subscription is $100, which works out to $8.33 a month (for cruisers)