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Does anyone have an experience with doing book covers...like how to get some work doing them? I'm dying to do some. I heard young adults/kids books were in demand these days (I'll stick to young adults but would rather do....FULL adult...). I want an art rep so bad. People tell me to use my non-existent wife : But that don't work very well. I should have gone to the Jon Foster thing at CA.org huh.
Now I'm going to go play smash brothers.
Fear 
research what your favorite artists have done and follow in their footsteps. ask them what they did, where they went, and how they got to where they are today. shoot them an email and you'd be surprised at the responses (if any).
also do what James Jean did, create a little book like his XOXO Postcard book. once you have these things out there, companies can then hold your art in their hands as well as the fans. there are many book creating sites that will only require you to pay for the first book at low prices to see their quality. and all you have to do is upload your images to them.
i'll leave you with a link to an inspirational artist that has been keeping me motivated through all my endeavors: [link]
good luck and i do hope to see your art more everywhere.
"FALCO PUNCHH!" ;]
& "happy holidays"
Anyways, I things I think would help:
-go to the bookstore and write down publishers whos artwork you can match in terms of quality.
-email them or better yet, email the art director if you can.
-make your portfolio show scenes with more than one person interacting.
-be fearless in your endeavors.
-keep writing until you get a response but make sure you have new stuff in your portfolio. I had to write to FFG about a half dozen times before talking to someone there.
good luck
If your folio is not in that vein, redo some covers that you like of publishers you want to work for.
Dont be afraid.
Graphic Artists Guild Handbook : Pricing & Ethical Guidelines (Graphic Artists Guild Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines, wateverthatsthenewestedition)
another thing you could do is go see the art directors in person at Illuxcon (which is a convention with all the famous fantasy/sci fi illustrators devoted specifically to illustration), go to society of illustrator gallery receptions (has everything from editorial to ads to books), or pay a visit to new york and somehow get the art directors to see your stuff since that's where publishing is all at.
also... email any professionals and ask them for advice/crits/how they landed their gig! sounds scary, but usually they are very nice and reply back, according to my friend, illustrators are supposed to be some of the nicest people in the industry. go ahead and try emailing jon foster. it won't hurt
i got no clue, i sometimes do album covers, books are not my field, more of a poster guy really.
but i do thin that if you want to make book covers you need to show some things that are different then your usual style in your gallery something more colorful and pleasant to show your diversity. i think it's important that the costumer will see that you can create several different styles.
I'd suggest doing up a promo booklet and send it to small publishing houses where it's more likely to get noticed (and they're more likely to do eclectic, cool stuff that would match your style).
And above all else, if they pick you, be accommodating to the art director and editor's wishes. We've had problems with one illustrator this year b/c she refused to send us roughs, took liberties with the finals and then got mad when we asked her to change them to fit the book (she figured it would be easier to change the poem. Which is funny 'cause I'm sure we hired her to illustrate the poem, instead of hiring a poet to write a story to go with her art). Another did the cover in a comic style after we pointed to a painted piece in his portfolio and asked him to do it that way. When we asked him to change it, he informed us that comic was his "only" style and that's how it was. Neither of these illustrators will get used again after these books are done, which is unfortunate, b/c the first illustrator is brilliantly talented, and the second illustrator was quite young and just starting out.
Long story short, there's enough wannabe illustrators out there that if you make a bad impression, you will definitely not get hired again, and the publishing industry is pretty incestuous, so good impressions mean a lot. But on the same coin if you're easy to work with, they won't want to let you go!
I know a comic illustrator (newspaper strip stuff) who blew a bunch of lucrative deals when he was younger just because he couldn't let his ego go. He said it even came back to bite him fifteen years down the line when an art director remembered him when he was in his early twenties and what a punk he was. He had changed completely, but that bridge had already been burned.
[link]
- Do some collaborations.
- Network in the real world (Maybe you can leave that fictional wife for a flesh and blood chick.)
- Do some free work every once in a while.
- Introduce yourself as an artist.
- Cold call publishing house.
- Use the contacts at your school.
- Stop reading this and start doing it.