Art by Analise Black
Should I focus on my email list, portfolio, social media, or something else? Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry teach what to prioritize as you grow your art business.
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SHOW LINKS
SELF-PUBLISHING PRO
Samantha Cotterill on 3PP
Rebecca Green on 3PP
KEY TAKEAWAYS
There’s a hard way and an easy way to be consistent. Preparation makes consistency easy.
You’re capable of so much. Don’t use others’ successes as a reason to check out from your own dreams.
Ask yourself, “Where are my skills and where do they overlap with opportunity?”
Quality comes from quantity. Don’t put all the pressure on one piece to be a success. If you need ten good illustrations, make one hundred. Your ten will be in there somewhere.
QUESTIONS
Ryan asks, “I’ve been working on a comic and eventually want to sell it as a book. I’ve been building my Instagram following in the hope of finding 1,000 golden followers who will buy my book when it comes out. However, Jake also talks about building an email subscriber list that you have full control over. Should I still invest time and energy to post on social media, or should I direct my efforts to build my email list?”
The answer? Both. But it doesn’t have to be overwhelming! Building your social media following can help you grow your email list. Let us explain:
Good marketing is like a healthy relationship: it requires authenticity, communication, and consistency. If you put those principles into action in your Instagram posting, you’ll eventually grow a following that will support you. (Instagram doesn’t have to be ridiculously time-consuming; simply plan all of your posts, including images and hashtags, a month in advance; then all you have to do is post and reply to comments throughout the month. Don’t be afraid to reuse old art rather than scrambling to make something new for each post.)
As your following grows, you can begin to offer them a free taste of your book (the first chapter or a mini-comic in PDF form) in exchange for their email. In this way, both your Instagram support base and your email list grow.
When you’re building a business, you have to invest time, money, and hard work. You may be able to outsource one of these, but you’ll always need to apply at least two. There’s not a shortcut, so buckle down and do the work to get to your destination.
Alana asks, “My goal is to be an author-illustrator. How important to my goal is a social media following, and how do I get there? And, should I carve out more time for portfolio pieces?”
If you have a great style and agent, you can succeed in publishing without any social media presence. (Check out our interview with Samantha Cotterill for a real-life example.)
Whether you use social media or not, a solid portfolio should be your priority. Most author-illustrators are better in art and weaker in writing or vice versa, so lean into your strengths while you develop your less-skilled areas. For example, if you’re better at illustrating than writing, accept illustration gigs while you learn to tell good stories.
To develop your portfolio, find two or three artists you adore and copy their pieces as closely as you can. The goal is not to become just like them but to absorb their thinking. Learning how other people solve problems successfully saves you so much time! The things you learn from these studies will inform and improve the work you make in your style.
When you’re working on your portfolio, quality comes from quantity. Don’t put all the pressure on one piece to succeed; instead, determine to make fifty or a hundred illustrations and only keep the top five or ten. This way you’ll be less attached to the time spent on any one piece, less devastated if one fails, and more likely to produce a few really beautiful works.
LINKS
Jake Parker: mrjakeparker.com. Instagram: @jakeparker, Youtube: JakeParker44
Will Terry: willterry.com. Instagram: @willterryart, Youtube: WillTerryArt
Lee White: leewhiteillustration.com. Instagram: @leewhiteillo
Daniel Tu: danieltu.co.
Lily Camille Howell: lilycamille.com
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