today has been another full day of mailers. with the help of the “artists & graphic designers market 2012″ book i have been able to find so far a total of 24 magazine publishers to send letters and samples to.

37th Annual Artist’s & Graphic Designer’s Market 2012

This book lightly goes over what you should be sending and is also where i had first found out about wordpress. Its a pretty helpful source as far as listings go. About two-thirds of the book is filled with names, addresses, and contact information on book publishers, magazine publishers, artist representatives, greeting card companies and more. Some of the listings go as far as including quotes from art directors and editors with tips on how to impress them. Of course, its not recommended that you just mail to every place listed. ive been taking the time to visit the company’s website to get a feel for their style and even researching previous artists they have worked with to get a glimpse of what the competition is like. in some cases, i also have to take the time to find out the names of the current art director or editor of the magazine since they’re not always listed (ummm. not so easy without the magazine in your hand.) This is the time-consuming part of marketing yourself and its only right that it is. I mean, think about it. You wouldn’t want to send a bunch of samples of irrelevant work with a letter addressed to “who this may concern” would you? One technique I heard about in my portfolio preparation and self-promotion class I took last semester, is to simply visit a book store or magazine stand and look at the masthead of the magazine you think you would be a fit for and boom… there are the names of everyone involved in sort of a most-important to least-important list.

So here are the sample sheets I assembled using Photoshop and Illustrator, which were sent in a 9x12in manilla envelope (100 pack for $8 at Staples) along with a query/cover letter, tearsheet (which apparently are only used to showcase previously published work…whoops) and also the postcards i just ordered. I don’t know how they will be received or if I will get any assignments from them, but after this introductory mailing, it’ll be safer to just send a postcard every 3-6 months. so yea, this is the hard part

Sample Sheet 1

Sample Sheet 2

And no these weren’t both sent together. The unicorn anatomy drawings were sent to animal-related magazines looking for realistic, accurate animal drawings. I hope this is useful information and feel free to correct me on any part that seems outlandish or disgustingly false. Or feel MORE free to ask questions about anything not mentioned