Winter's Nest and New Year's

Wishing everyone a wonderful close to 2010 and light and laughter into 2011!

Winter's Nest is a personal piece that sprung from a vision of a nest high atop a tree overlooking a wintry landscape. But in the nest radiates a golden light, for a magical birth is taking place: a foretold golden owlet is hatching to snowy owl parents. To honor this occasion a wood fairy has come with a gift. =)

Apples, Pizza, and NetMail

A long day spent battling my website, it seems that even fairly minor updates, if they involve more than a few images or changes, are an ordeal. As a result, I have a rather splitting headache at the moment.

I did manage to finish the Ruby Apple image, which is now in my gallery as well as below. I expect to use it in a self-promotion postcard mailer campaign soon.

Which remains me, I just received my "sample" postcard from the post office today. The US Postal Service has an online mailing service known as NetPost, from which one can create, upload, have printed, and have mailed various sorts of letters, brochures, and postcards. But, I must admit I am rather disappointed in the print quality. Which is a shame because this is such an easy way to do small mailings and so much more convenient than having to do all of that stuff manually. *Sigh*

Well, I'm off to Sarah's for an evening with The Fam: pizza, movies and such. Should be fun.

Self-Promotion for Illustrators

No, I'm not dead, I've just been busy. At the moment I'm working on a Middle Eastern Sci-Fi book cover. I'm also working on a couple of my own children's book illustrations, which is kind of an odd combo if I think about it.

Apart from the art, I've been recently thinking a bit more about self-promotion as an illustrator and various promotional strategies. I basically need to come up with a schedule/method of promotion that is effective and, a big one, sustainable (and by that I mean I can afford to do it multiple times a year). I understand that what is sustainable to me as a beginning illustrator may be a fraction of what I can do in a few years, but I've gotta start somewhere. What good is a 500 post card mailing when I can only afford to do it once a year? Exactly.

So chatting with Val (from IotF) via, e-mail has caused me to think about this whole promo thing in a different light, one that I'm rather shocked I didn't see before. See, I'd been thinking about promotional mailings (postcards, to be exact) in terms of quantity, how many publishers, etc, I could find that listed fantasy, science-fiction, or children's books as a genre they handle.

I realize it may be far more effective to think in terms of quality, or who is best suited to using work like mine (and who I most would like to do work for). In line with this, I've been trying to come up with a very short list (half-dozen) of publishers who would be a perfect match. I then want to work hard to get their Art Directors' attentions. At the moment, I'm thinking that a monthly or bi-monthly postcard mailing (a different related image each time) would be a good start. Here, I'm thinking about future submissions of a manuscript + book dummy, and that it would be much more likely to be looked at if they already "knew my name," so to speak.

I still mean to do some sort of mass promotion. At the moment e-mailings seem to be the most attractive option, as they don't cost anything (above finding or otherwise acquiring the e-mail addresses).

We shall see what comes of it all...

Business Developments

Some business developments today. :) First I met with a councilor at JMU's Small Business Development Center at 10:00. The meeting lasted for around an hour and was much more helpful than I had anticipated. Most of the discussion was about accounting software, tax considerations and start-up business stuff (like trade names, DBA, and local ordinances). Enough to make my head swim. I've got a long to-do list now.

Second, my postcard order came from Overnight Prints. It actually looks pretty decent! That means I need to go ahead and purchase that list from Agency Access that I made some time back and get some blank slicker label pages.

Third, I purchased the domain names: laura-diehl.com, ldiehl-illustration.com, and lauradiehl-illustration.com ...all to be parked to my main ldiehl.com domain name. I feel for $10 a piece this is a worthy investment.

On the Business of Illustration

Where to begin? Well, I've been diverting a lot of effort into business endeavors. The method(s) by which I want to do my first postcard mailing is still up in the air. The design for it is mostly done (I need to add a few more contact details). I'm awaiting more samples from about 7 or 8 online places. So-far, 4by6 looks really nice.

Spurred on by the need to include a business phone number on said postcards, I decided to actually get one. After a bit of research, I opted for the $15 Unlimited calling in the US and Canada from Skype and one of those nifty little Polycom Communicators, as I hate headsets and handsets. I just hope Amazon isn't too slow getting it here.

The Google Adword campaigns continues. At the moment, I've yet to get a single print order or illustration quote request that I can trace back to them. I'll give them a couple more weeks and see if I get any nibbles.

In art news, I'm working on a cover for another small press, which is quite enjoyable.

Oh yeah, I also made a slight (*cough* slight = it only took hours of headache) update to my website, making it more in line with my postcard "look."

Also, I must provide a link to a very well written article that is spot on. On what, you ask? Read for yourself:

Seeking an artist/designer/illustrator? LOOK RIGHT HERE!!!