My goals for April 2010.

[grantw]

My cartooning goals for April are:

1] Draw up the best ideas from my ideas book. Come up with new ideas for this book.
2] Create enough new cartoons for an entirely new submission.
3] Create rough ideas for strip cartoon [character sketches, scenarios etc].

[Simon Lake]

Have you got an intended publication/ company/ site for your submissions, Grant? As you probably know, it's always best to research a market first so that they will be appropriate to your desired audience. No more than 7 or so cartoons are necessary for any single submission. The same applies to a strip (yes, go for it!) unless you are intending on targeting Nationals or syndicates, although with them you are looking at submitting about 25 samples.

[grantw]

I've changed tack a bit from the regionals here in Scotland and had a look at magazines I felt that may like my humour. I made a submission subsequently to the Fortean Times with a mixture of surrealism etc. I am a regular reader so I see the type of cartoons they take [witches of MacBeth etc!] and it is quite easy to tailor gags to fit. Haven't come across many similar publications but I will do a search to unearth more. Yes, about 7 cartoons Is what I usually send and I am being more specific with aiming to left field publications.

[cartunes-r-us]

Don't end up like me, Grant; I.ve done hundreds of comic strips for no payment, simply because I became addicted ! To be fair, I've been mostly working full-time over the past few years, and drawing has helped keep me sane [I hope!] during soul-destroying, boring jobs.

You definately need goals in this world, and being an artist means you can still be an individual.

I used to send in pencil roughs every week to the Spectator, but only one gag was accepted over this time and I stopped dong it; I discovered later that some cartoonists can submit weekly to a mag for a year before acceptance, and then it starts becoming 'permanent', so do stick to it.

[Simon Lake]

I'm exactly the same Rob. I've been at it for about 10 years and haven't sold a thing. But there has always been that vision and it's gotten me through some very dark times. The fact remains that we are still here and we've stuck at it. "The times they are a changing ", I say. I'm fed up with all this cynical negativity that has become part of the Cartoonists psyche. Sure, the old markets have dried up and there are less publications on the shelves that appear to be taking on cartoons....but never before has there been so much opportunity with the advent of the internet. We live in an exciting time and we should embrace it and take the "bull by the horns" as it where. Take a look around at some of the stuff posted on this forum already. We are not much more than a month old and already with our combined efforts, there are some very positive things starting to emerge. This is Millenium shit.

[Leah-Admin]

I have been at it a few short months and have had a few commissions but they were small jobs, largest fee for a single project was £80 and that was a 5 pic comic strip. But I am happy with doing small commissions. They don't take long to do and I really really enjoy doing them and that is everything to me.

Like all of you I have done jobs I didn't enjoy doing all my life so I'd love to earn all my income this way and a few caricatues, gifts and maybe the odd business cartoon is enough to sustain me.

Meanwhile the reason I have been able to sell toons so early on is a combination of:

Luck, not what you know but who you know and around 20+ years of busines marketing experience! My feedback from clients also shows they do like my art and that of course drives me forward as does seeing my art improve with practice.

There is plenty of scope for new and undiscovered markets for us all.

I wish you all great luck and fortune!

And I am practicing a lot as we all do.

[cartunes-r-us]

It's obvious you have business and marketing skills, Leah!

I have started my goal recently by getting my strips organized [I'm just off to the library to get another 20 strips copied] and posted off to the US at last.....there is a lot of cynicism and bleak outlook in this business to be sure, but we never know what's around the corner....my own research has shown me that in my own field of pursuing comic strips, those who struck it lucky usually spent a few years honing their skills before success came.....so, fingers crossed!

[Leah-Admin]

Very exciting times then Rob! I wish you the greatest of success.

[grantw]

Best of luck Rob!

[cartunes-r-us]

I think it takes 10 weeks to get a reply [ with one exception, they only accept surface mail, even today] and there are 5 or 6 syndicates to try, so we are talking at least a year here!

But thanks for your encouragement, folks!