Publishing Pals
Welcome to Publishing Pals Podcast, a podcast where two pals talk about publishing. For nearly a decade, we have tried, failed, and sometimes succeeded at being traditionally published. Come along with us as we share everything we've learned in this oddly gatekept, confusing, but incredibly fun and rewarding industry.
Publishing Pals
What to Put in Your Portfolio
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Hello!
In this episode we’re talking about what to put into your art portfolio!
Here are some of the authors, artists, and other things we brought up during the episode. Just a disclaimer - please do not take our word as fact. The publishing industry is always changing, and often we are talking about things we are remembering from a while ago or have heard from others. It’s always important to do your own research! If we realize after the fact that we have gotten anything wrong, we will do our best to correct it in the show notes.
Sally M. Kim, the agent from our agency deep dive: https://www.andreabrownlit.com/Team/sally-m.-kim
https://www.instagram.com/sallymkim
https://bsky.app/profile/sallymkim.bsky.social
Katie’s website: https://www.katiedwyerillustrations.com/
Maria’s Website: https://www.mariaoglesbyart.com/
I found my notebook! The art director’s name was Sasha Illingsworth:
https://www.sashaillingworthdesign.com/
Laekan Zea kemp’s website http://www.laekanzeakemp.com/about
Raissa’s website! https://rizzyfig.com/books
This is the printer that Maria orders from:
https://www.colorimages.com/
She likes their 120lb matte cougar paper for printing portfolio pages
Portfolio book website Maria mentioned: https://tinyurl.com/48bn45d9
Also, these wood ones on etsy look gorgeous: https://tinyurl.com/mrw9m7vb
Hello, I'm Maria. And I'm Katie. And welcome to Publishing Pals Podcast, a podcast where two pals talk about publishing. For nearly a decade, we have tried, failed, and sometimes succeeded at being traditionally published. Come along with us as we share everything we've learned in this oddly gatekeeped, confusing, but incredibly fun and rewarding industry. And today we are talking about portfolios. Um, so I guess depending on what you're creating for the publishing market, your portfolio is going to differ. And I know, Katie, you and I have very different aspects of the publishing market that we're interested in breaking into or participating in. So our portfolios are going to look different. So I have a few different tabs on my portfolio website. And I did buy my domain name. So mine is MariaOlesbyArt.com. It used to be Maria Oglesby Art.squarespace.com, but you can purchase the domain either through Squarespace or through a third party. Namesheep.com, I think, is where I originally bought my domain name. Um and that just gives you like the full website. And you have to be very careful about keeping it renewed because usually your domain isn't that expensive. But if you let it lapse and the company realizes, like, oh, people want this domain, then the price can rise dramatically. And so it's something you have to pay, you know, like every one to five years, depending on how you've purchased it. It's not a one-time purchase for your domain name. And if you let it lapse, it can be an issue. So make sure that you're paying attention to once you've purchased your domain, having it up. Um, I do think that once you're published or pre-published, it's more important. Or if you want to seem more professional, it's important. Like if you're actively getting freelance work in other places and you want a website to send people to. But I think starting out, you don't have to immediately buy your domain name. And I I've heard that it's fine to just have your portfolio on Instagram or there are some free portfolio hosting websites. Um, people used to do ArtStation, but that's become kind of notorious for being scraped by Midjourney for AI art. So I'd avoid it. Um, I know Behance used to be a portfolio hosting platform. And if you just want your portfolio displayed there, um, that's fine. You just need a website link to send to someone. But keep in mind, for example, if your portfolio is on Instagram, then you don't want to post like a ton of other stuff on Instagram. Um, whatever website you use for your portfolio should be a place where you have a curated collection of your best work, not just anything you're producing. Like, how do you decide whether or not something goes into your portfolio, Katie? And do you post the stuff that does not go into your portfolio elsewhere?
SPEAKER_00Um, if something does not go into my portfolio, I might just post it on social media or, you know, like Instagram or Substack or something like that. Um, just to show process or sketches. I used to have a sketchbook tab on my website, um, but I have since gotten rid of that. But that was just like black and white sketches, like doodles that I did just to put up so um art directors and editors and agents could see like my process. Um, but now I got rid of that and I just have my portfolio. And I only put my strongest work in my portfolio. And I I make sure that um I have some standalone pieces, but then I also have a lot of sequential art because when I was toward the beginning of my career, I got a lot of feedback when I would get critiques. You should have sequential art. You should have something that tells a story through like three or four different pieces. So I want to make sure that I can display that because that also shows character consistency and I can build a world that the characters live in.
SPEAKER_01Right. And this is important for anyone doing picture books or graphic novels, anything where throughout the story you need the characters to be consistent. Um, middle grade interior pages, it seems like maybe a little bit boring to draw the same character over and over, and maybe you want to showcase your range. But when you want jobs drawing a character consistently throughout a book, you have to show in your portfolio that you can already do that because the worry is that you'll be hired and then your characters will look different in each spread.
SPEAKER_00Right. And I have heard art directors say that's something that they really look for when they're looking at illustrators' portfolios is can they draw the care the same character over and over again? Because what happens if you get hired and you can't do that? And you're working with a publisher and they're like, hey, you can't draw the same character. This looks different, and you can't do it, you might potentially lose that job because of it. Yeah. That is showing your range, like that you can draw consistently.
SPEAKER_01And unfortunately, I think with the rise of AI, it also shows that your your work is most likely not AI because AI has trouble replicating the same character a bunch of times. So it it's some proof against that. But make sure to glaze your work. And when you upload things, just keep them 72 dpi. Don't make them high-resolution printables. Um, you should have high resolution printables available, but you shouldn't put them out on the internet. For my website, it the sizing can be a little bit weird. Um, so I go in Photoshop and I make everything eight inches wide and however tall it is proportionally. And then when I upload it, it's always the same width as you scroll down. So it feels more uniform. I like Squarespace. It has a template where you can just plug things in and drag things in. Um, and I know Wix is very customizable. If you want something a little more complex and if you want to change things around more, I know a lot of more pro author websites that look really good use Wix. But if you want something low effort that looks clean and professional, Squarespace works really well too.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I use Squarespace because I'm not tech savvy. So even that can be really challenging for me. But I figured it out. But their templates are relatively easy to use if you don't know what you're doing like me.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think the important part is just that you have different sections based on what you're trying to do. So for mine, and I've been debating taking out the watercolor section, but I love watercolor and I would love to get work in watercolor. It just doesn't look as kidlit or pub friendly. Um, but I have my watercolor section because I do a lot of custom pet portraits and I've done watercolor freelance in the past, and I just love working with it. Um and then I had a few of these in my portfolio, and this is driving me crazy because I was looking, I was like turning my house upside down before we logged on, trying to find this notebook. It's like a blue mole skin, and it's where I have all my conference notes for the past couple of years, and I can't find it. And there was this wonderful art director two years ago at the Carolinas retreat who uh she had like blonde hair. She was really nice. I want to say she worked for Little Brown, but she gave me a bunch of advice on my portfolio, and I cannot, for the life of me, find the notes that have her name on it. So if you are somehow listening, I'm so sorry I forgot your name. Your word stuck with me.
SPEAKER_00Oh, that's so funny. She was the one which conference was that the one.
SPEAKER_01It was the last Carolina's retreat.
SPEAKER_00Okay. So I was not at that one.
SPEAKER_01No, Chris was there. I could ask her if she remembers, but no, I feel so bad I forgot her name. She was great. Um, and she she'd done covers with Holly Black and like all these other cool uh authors. Um, she had a great lecture too. Hello, this is Future Maria. I found my notebook finally. Um, our director's name was Sasha Illingsworth. And uh I will put her website in the show notes. She was fantastic. But she was looking through my portfolio and uh I was asking her, like, what should I take out? Like, what should I have in? Um, and I do a lot of textiles for Spoonflower. Um, Spoonflower does these textile design competitions. You can upload a repeating pattern and they, you know, put it in a contest where a bunch of people see it. And then if you license it, people can buy fabric and wallpaper and wrapping paper with your textile on it, and you get a few dollars each time. And I get, you know, a few hundred dollars a year from it. And I've had a portfolio built up for the last few years, and some of them I really like. Um, but I wasn't sure if there was a place for them. Um, so she was looking through my stuff and she was like, Oh, you can put a few of these in your portfolio because sometimes it authors or sometimes publishers like to see if you can do patterns for end pages. And I was like, Oh, I'd like never thought about that. So I I put my textiles section up and I curated it a little bit more to where there's fewer in there. And I still think my portfolio has too many pieces in it. But I've got 12 textile designs on there out of the like 60 or something that I have. Um, and not all of those are available for purchase because they didn't turn out very well. But the ones that I like are on Spoonflower, and then the ones that I feel are best are on my website. And the ones that I like the best out of those, I'll print for my portfolio. So I feel like the more selective you are as you like narrow things down more and more to who's going to see them and what you're doing them for, the more beneficial it is. Because I've I've heard that if you have like, you know, a million things in your portfolio, it can, first of all, it can feel overwhelming. And second of all, people like to see that there are a few things that you're aiming for and that you can do them really well. And you don't want to have something in your portfolio because you liked one part of it if the entire thing isn't amazing. Like, I think most of all your portfolio should just be the stuff that you do absolutely best and that is in the fields that you want to be involved in and affects them in some way. So, like, I want to be in publishing and because of the end pages comment, I have some of my textiles on my portfolio. Um, I also have a section for graphic novels where I have, I think like five or six different projects that have at least six sequential pages each, and then a couple standalone pages just to show variety and character design and age range and stuff, but mostly sequential stuff that tells at least a small story. And I have a fantasy map section, which are penning fantasy maps. I would love to get work doing um fantasy maps on the inside of fantasy books. And I only have, again, I only have 10 of those on my portfolio, but I have maybe 50 I've done over the years just for DD games I run or for commissions I've done. Um, and then I have a section for middle grade and YA, which kind of runs the gamut between character design and cover art. And I'm working on curating that one more and I'm updating my portfolio in that area the most. That's kind of my goal for the year where I want to improve like this and next year. But all of those things I try and keep pretty curated. I try not to put more than 12 in each section, and I try and keep it geared towards stuff I want to get work in. Um, I used to have a sketchbook section. I used to have a picture book section from some, you know, commission work that I'd done a number of years ago. And I used to have a coloring book and line art section, but I did a whole portfolio rehaul. And I know it hurts to get rid of stuff that you still feel kind of proud of, but it just wasn't stuff that I really wanted work in right now. And like, of course, if someone handed me work for it, I'd be like, sure, I'll do it. But if I really sat down and thought about what I would be super excited about to get work in, it wasn't any of those things. So I deleted all my work from those sections. I deleted the sections entirely and curated it down to just the five. And I feel like maybe it should even be four. I just like haven't quite gotten there yet. I feel like my portfolio is always a work in progress, which maybe it should be, but um, that's my mentality with it. And then I also have an about shop and contact page. Um, your about page should have some information about you where if you were ever to speak at an event or guest on a podcast, um, it's something quick that describes what you're good at and your training that someone could read out. And then it should have a high-resolution photo of you. Shop just links to my Etsy, and then contact is just a generic contact form because you don't want every rando to have your email. Um, and then you can reply to them and they'll see your email address if you want. Um, and I think most hosting platforms have that. Um, and I think yours is organized kind of similarly, Katie, um, in in that you have different categories. Oh gosh, I want to search your name. And sorry, picture book studio popped up before your website did. It'll truly get into it.
SPEAKER_00Oh yay. Yeah, I was searching for something the other day and Picture Book Studio popped up. And I was like, oh my gosh, that's that's cool. Um, yeah, but I'd have I just have my picture book portfolio. That's um the only place that I showcase my artwork. Um, I think eventually maybe I'll have like a chapter book section, but I haven't delved into that yet. Um, but once I do, then I'll have a different section for that. So in my portfolio, I have about 30 pieces. Um, and I was just talking to an art director who said you should have at least 20. Um so I have 30 pieces, about 30 pieces in there that just showcase my work, sequential and standalone pieces. Um, then I have my book section, which are the books that um not that I've illustrated because my style has changed so much. So I actually took out the books that I've illustrated in the past. So it's just my current book deals. And then um, once those books actually come out, then I'll replace them because right now it's just the announcement. Um there's just on there. You have my brilliant resilient mind on there. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because that one is do I? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That one is more my style because I used to work digitally and then I switched to traditional work. And my style has changed so much over the years. I feel like my brilliant resilient mind still showcases how I work. So yeah, I have to be in there. And then I have my about section, my contact section. Um, I have a school and library visits section because um I would love to do school and library visits. I've done some school visits just for like my kids' school. Um, but once my books come out, I'm really gonna be marketing toward that and trying to promote my books there. Then I have an event section, which is blank because I got it all ready for when my books do come out. And I'll be able to add different events that I'm planning to do. And then I also have my Substack linked in there. So if you just click on Picture Book Studio, it immediately takes you to my Substack.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01What do you recommend for people who want to do like school and library visits and are showcasing, you know, like their illustration work, they're working as illustrators. What do you recommend they advertise for school and library visits?
SPEAKER_00So um, this has been an ongoing challenge for me to figure out how I'm going to do my visits and how to separate them and how much it costs and all that. So I did a lot of research looking at different authors, um, school visit sections on their websites just to kind of get a gauge. But I separate mine by age and then give different options. So um I can do like a K through fifth. That's how I have mine, and then I talk about what my sessions would include. Then I have session options where I could do just one session, which is you know, visiting one classroom or one assembly, or a half day, or a full day, or a virtual visit. Um, and then I list how much it costs and what it includes. Um, and then I also have a preschool visit section and a library visit. Um but if you're wanting to do school visits, then I would recommend planning out what you're going to do in them and what you um what you want to talk to the kids about. And you can get as detailed as you want, and you can do whatever you want. Maybe you're focusing on the artwork, maybe you're focusing on a specific book that you want to promote, or maybe you're just talking about literacy in general and getting kids excited about books. And you can tailor it according to each school, the grade, what they need, because what you're gonna be talking to kindergartners about is totally different than what you're gonna be talking to fifth graders about. And you can kind of outline what you want to talk about and then tailor it according to the age group. So you can have like a baseline. Um and um then just tailor it to the ages. So what you want to do with kindergartners, maybe you're like designing a character and you just want to get feedback like what should our character look like? What's its name? Um, and then maybe for fifth graders, you're talking about how you build a story with that character and you can get more detailed. And if you're wanting to do that, it's really good to like showcase what you want to do in your school visits so that way when the librarian or media specialist or whoever is booking you, they know what they're getting ahead of time and they know what they're paying for.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and it looks more professional too. And that's Katie Dwyer Illustrations.com. And we'll put the links in the show notes to both of our websites if you want to check them out and see what we're doing. Um, I guess just to clarify, school visits are just if you are doing like picture books generally and you're a picture book illustrator. If you're only doing cover art or if you're doing layout or graphic design, or if you're doing graphic novels, um, depending on the age range, school visits aren't as common. If you're doing graphic novels for young children, they might be, but I'd say it's like a grade school thing. And then once you get to middle school and high school becomes less common, and then college school visits aren't really a thing.
SPEAKER_00Um actually YA authors who have visited high schools and they do school visits pretty regularly. Um, and then also there's been like college visits where maybe they go talk to a classroom, you know, an English major or something, um, or an illustration major and they go talk to those classes. So I think that is a possibility. I think it's all about your marketing, who you're reaching out to and your demographic.
SPEAKER_01Right. I guess when I think of school visits, I think of like you are you have some sort of deal where either you're selling books or the school is buying your books, et cetera. Um, when I was in art college, we had several people come who I either were authors or who were professional illustrators and they kind of talked about what they did and how they did it, but their books were never for sale afterwards. And it could be the college I went to just didn't do things that way, and other colleges are are a little bit different. I think if it does, it it probably works very differently. Um, but I'm curious about the um the middle grade and YA authors, because I feel like that's I mean middle grade, I I've definitely heard, but I'm sure the other ones are organized a little bit differently. Do you know the um the names of those authors? Maybe we can shout them out and link them. Okay.
SPEAKER_00Lakin, I'm gonna say it wrong though. Lakin Z. Kemp. So she does picture books all the way through YA. I know, right? She has a really fun name. She does picture books all the way through YA, and she's done school visits for high school. She's also a high school teacher, um, but she's done elementary school visits and high school visits.
SPEAKER_01And I'll put her link in the show notes if you guys want to check out her website as well.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, Riza actually just um illustrated one of her books and it just came out. That's the one. That's the one that um got the is it like the little bird blue one that came out? The library guild. No, it was the one where the library guild or something ordered a bunch of copies.
SPEAKER_01Honeybird Blue is her newest title that came out, but she also had Rea's Rodeo. Um Raya's Rodeo is the one that Riza illustrated. Okay. Oh, yeah, I see her author name on there. And we'll put Raiza's name in the show notes and uh link her website. But if you want to learn a little bit more about her, she is one of the author illustrators that we've interviewed, and you can go back and listen to her episode.
SPEAKER_00Um yeah, I also know an author who's done um, I think it was a college school visit where she spoke to the class and then they bought copies of her book for her upcoming picture book for all the students in the class.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that's cool. Was that like one of those? Oh gosh, like it's not a picture book major or a kidlet major, but it's something like adjacent to that. I'm blinking on what it's called.
SPEAKER_00I can't remember what the class was specifically for, but she came and spoke to the students about her book and and they bought copies.
SPEAKER_01So that sounds so fun. I'd love to go to college again part-time for free. No, me too. I know, I miss classes.
SPEAKER_00Me too. I feel like I value each change more than I did when I was actually in college.
SPEAKER_01I feel like I valued it too much in college, and I didn't value networking or socializing enough because there was like so much pressure being put on me to get good grades. And like I wish I could do it again, but like just be relaxed about it and have more fun.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I I put too much emphasis on the socialization in college.
unknownI was the opposite.
SPEAKER_01So, you know, when you graduate, it's always people who get their friends jobs. It's like the party kids, like only one of them needs a job, and then they get everyone else a job. Like it's it's all about who you know.
SPEAKER_00I mean, I think that could definitely be the case if you were an art major. I wasn't an art major, so I was just friends with like a lot of people in the school with different majors.
SPEAKER_01Never hurts to be friends. Yeah. Networking's important. Anyway, I think so basically have like figure out what you want to do and what you'd like to get work in, what you'd be really excited to get work in, and then take everything out of your portfolio that does not involve that. And I know for people who don't have a huge portfolio, sometimes it'll be like, oh, that's only four or five pieces, though. I need other stuff. You don't need other stuff. You can continue creating work, but I think it's better to just have stuff in your field that you're interested in that you want jobs for that reflects what you're currently doing than it is to have a more fleshed out portfolio. And you're probably not going to be querying agents if you don't have a fleshed out portfolio anyway, um, or art directors, because you you're probably gonna have like dummies and you know other work before you get to that point. So if you don't have enough work and you're already putting together like a website or a portfolio, then you're ahead of the curb and you don't need to submit to people yet anyway. So it's not a big deal if it's not fully fleshed out. Um I know there are a lot of events at conferences and elsewhere where you can get a portfolio review, and that involves printing your portfolio. And I think for people who have a website or have a bunch of stuff posted on their Instagram or wherever, it can be kind of daunting. So I thought maybe we could go over, like, first of all, what to put your portfolio in, how to print it, etc. Um, I know you print at home, right? Right. I have a Canon PixmaPro printer.
SPEAKER_00What kind of paper do you use? Um, I just found paper on Amazon that's um thicker paper. And I don't know what brand it is. I can't remember what brand it is, but it's like some kind of like photography type paper, I want to say. I don't I honestly don't remember. I've had it for so long because I bought so much that I've just keeping it.
SPEAKER_01I know when I was at school, we had to print everything on Epson paper. And Epson comes in like one to five stars and it gets crazy expensive. And the three to five star paper is where it starts getting very fancy. Um, and they sell a bunch of different sizes too. So if you're printing at home, I know that brand is very good, especially if you get three, four, or five stars. Um, you want thicker paper for your portfolio just to make it look good, but obviously, if cost is an issue, it's not a huge deal. These art directors are looking at your work and the quality of the paper more than the weight is important. Um I prefer matte paper. I think it's easier to see the art. Um, you can do glossy. If you're printing at home, glossy paper can um smudge right after you take it off the printer. So just be careful. I like to print through Color Images, which is an indie printer from Burbank, California that I used to go to in person all the time. But now I live on the East Coast, and if you order stuff through their website, um, they'll ship it to you. And shipping can be kind of expensive, but I really like their printing work. Um you have to submit everything as like a single page PDF, but they'll do any custom size, and you can get up to, I think, 120-pound matte paper, and it's not crazy expensive. Um, my entire portfolio, which was like 25 pages or something, plus shipping was like 40 bucks, uh maybe 50, which I think is pretty good, especially since they do UPS, which and it's like, I feel like that shipping's so much more expensive. Um but what I do is I go through and I figure out what in my portfolio am I most excited about getting work on? What do I most want critique on? What am I most proud of, et cetera? And sometimes that can even help you figure out what to take out from your website. If there's something where you're like, I would never put this in a portfolio to show to an art director physically, maybe that doesn't need to be on your website. But one mistake that I made I with that same art director when I printed my portfolio was that I had a couple pages I just finished and I was really proud of and I wanted to show the detail. And so I printed it full size. And my portfolio is 11 by 14 inches. So it was an 11 by 14 inch print. And when she looked through it, she said, like, this is really pretty, but this looks like you're like printing this for an art show. But for publishing, we live in a 9x12 world max. And you should never have a portfolio piece that's bigger than 9 by 12 because it's not realistic to the format in which it's going to be printed or used. And so no one's going to want to look at it that size. Like they want to look at it like five and a half by eight and a half, or like, you know, something like that. And she's like, take this, take like all four of these really pretty pieces and shrink them down and put four of them on the page at once and have fewer pages in your portfolio. And she said you should have like 12 pages in your portfolio, but you can put a bunch of pieces on there. And so that completely changed how I thought about my portfolio. And I'd had several full spread maps and stuff like that. And I know if you're doing a full spread illustration, sometimes you want to take up two portfolio pages with it. So I shrunk a lot of those down and then I divided my portfolio into sections. I had like a bunch of my graphic novel pages where you can see like eight pages per, you love them by 14-inch page, and I just named the story at the top. Um, and then I had like a section for maps, a section for cover art, et cetera. And I feel like you get a better idea of the portfolio now, and you can also see a lot more. Um, I didn't add a lot of pieces. I think I took five or six pages out of my portfolio and then condensed a bunch of stuff. And there might have been a couple things that I added, but it's still not like a ton of extra pieces. It's not like I'm trying to jam-pack it. But I've been, I've tried to be very cognizant of not taking up whole pages that are that big. And I know they sell smaller portfolios that are like eight and a half by 11. So maybe that rule isn't as important then. Um, but I thought that was an interesting tidbit that I learned. I know you've had a lot more portfolio reviews than I have though, Katie. Are there any like tidbits for displaying or, you know, like formatting your portfolio or picking out your art that you'd recommend?
SPEAKER_00Um, yeah. So you want to make sure that you are looking at the guidelines. Like if you're bringing your portfolio, your physical portfolio to a conference or something, make sure you look at the guidelines because I know the one that we're about to go to in the fall for the SBWI conference, I think it says you can only have 10 pages or it's 10 pieces, one or the other. So you have to stay within those guidelines. So if you're only going to get 10 pieces, you got to pick your 10 strongest pieces and you want to pick things one that shows sequence, like we talked about two that are your very best pieces, and then put your strongest piece in the front and your second strongest piece at the end. I've heard that multiple times because you want to wow them at the beginning and you want the last piece that they see to also be really, really strong. So when they close it, they have that in their mind.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Which it can be tough if like it's sequential, the third sequential piece is really good or something. Um I do a similar thing with my uh portfolio students when they have their portfolio submissions for college because uh a lot of times they'll rush a couple pieces because they aren't quite finished in time. And so we try and pepper in like strong, less strong, strong, less strong. Right.
SPEAKER_00Um, but it's fun to remember that whatever is your least strong is kind of gonna be how the art director thinks about it. So if you have like five strong pieces and one really weak piece, they're gonna remember that weak piece. It's just how people's brains work. They fixate on that kind of stuff. They're like, that one piece, you know, the proportions were off, or something like that. Um you really do want your strongest pieces. And so I would say if you can have 10 pages, but you only have nine really strong pieces, don't try and fill on the 10th, just get the ninth.
SPEAKER_01Or do a bio page with like information in your social media handle or something like that. I always do like I add that onto mine too.
SPEAKER_00I put an about me page with like a QR code that you can scan to go to my website.
SPEAKER_01Yes, I do the same thing. I have a QR code for publishing PALs now, and then I have like my social media handles on the bottom and I have a title page with like a spot illustration, and then the bio is in the back. Um, but for a lot of these events, when people like when you're bringing your portfolio for uh critique, they'll have portfolio showcases where you just leave your portfolio out for people to look at and you can put your cards next to it for people to take or postcards. So having your social media on there is good because then people can be like, oh, I like this art. Let me follow them. And they're just fellow authors and illustrators, and you can grow your network, follow them back, get to know your community, etc.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00What do you put on your postcards? Oh, I actually have some with me. Let me pull them up. Okay.
SPEAKER_01So on the front, and I use Moo.com, and Moo.com is great because you can do like, I think up to 50 different art pieces on the fronts, and then just the same thing on the back. So you can kind of tailor, like you can put your full portfolio on there basically, and people can take or you can give whatever art piece you want.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, I've used Moo.com and I've used VistaPrint, and I've been happy with both.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, VistaPrint is good if you want something that's like mass printed that's not very expensive. And I feel like their quality is fine. I feel like sometimes their stuff comes damaged and they're not very careful about shipping it. And for cards and stuff, you have to fold them all yourself, et cetera. But they're very good about reshipping if there's an issue with something. You just have to allow a little bit of extra time if you're ordering this to print. And then I'd say moo, the paper quality is better. It's a lot more high quality and there's more customization involved, but it's much more expensive. So on the front, I do all of my art, and then on the back, I have four lines because if I do want to send physical postcard to art directors, I want to be able to do that. And then where the stamp goes, I have a QR code with my website. So I can either put a stamp on it or people can scan the QR code. And it has a little postmark next to it. So it I thought it was cute. It's supposed to look like a postcard. And then on the left, I have a little spot illustration. Um, I have my name, writerslash illustrator, my website, and then I have four different social media symbols. This was from this is an old postcard. I need to reorder them because I don't have Twitter anymore. I switched to Blue Sky, but it's got Etsy, TikTok, Instagram, and then I need to put Blue Sky on there and then my handle, which is the same for everything. It's Maria Oglesby everywhere. And yeah, that should, I mean, give someone like a piece of my art, how to find me, who I am, what I do. You can put your email on there. I've seen it before. I put my email on my business cards, but not my postcards. I don't ever put my phone number on there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I don't want people to call me or text me. It's weird.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, like I there are like a few people where it's like, this art director is amazing. Please take my phone number. But I don't, I think like generally, if I'm just leaving out cards, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm just like any random person can take your card.
SPEAKER_01You don't yeah, so like only put information on there if you would want anyone to be able to have it. So like my email, I don't necessarily want to give out. Um, that's why I give postcards to anyone, but my cards have my email on them. So if I I'd be like, oh, you seem cool, I wouldn't mind connecting with you. Here's my email. But yeah, and then you just bring them to conferences. I carry them around in my big bulky purse and I just pull them out as needed. I guess another aspect of like physically printing your portfolio is what to put it in. And I was just Googling this because it's been so long since I've had to buy it. My portfolio case I've had since college, and it's lasted great. It's a Pina Zangaro, P-I-N-A-Z-A-N-G-A-R-O screw post portfolio. So it's got like screws holding it together on the inside, and you can buy extra pages and you can unscrew it and add or remove pages as needed. And there are spiral versions of this where you have to undo the spiral to change the pages. And so this is just easier to change the pages. I feel like it's a little bit more secure. I love it. Um, the pages have lasted me great. I will put the link in the chat, but I know there are a lot of other options out there. Um, I was actually like looking for screw in cases before we started this episode, and there are some gorgeous ones made of wood on Etsy that you can get, like wood burned and laser engraved and stuff. That if I had to order my portfolio book again, I would probably get one of those. That is fancy. It looks very fancy. It looks very pretty. I love wood stuff. Oh and then yeah, there are a bunch where it just comes with like a preset number of pages and they're spiral bound and they have like a black cover, and it's a lot cheaper if you're um if you know that there's like, oh, my portfolio is always going to be 20 pieces, and you can just get a book that already has an X number of pages in. It's just less customizable.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, mine is one of those cheap ones that I just got on Amazon.
SPEAKER_01And I feel like generally people aren't going to be very judgmental. Um, I mean, I have the this fancy one because my college was kind of pretentious and our our um teachers made us buy this certain brand.
SPEAKER_00And it's just yours is great because even though it's a lot of money up front, it's lasted you so long.
SPEAKER_01It has. I did not know how long it would last me when I got it, but I love it. And 11 by 14 I really like as a size option, but I know eight and a half by 11 and 11 by 14 are both pretty standard sizes. I've seen a lot of other 11 by 14 portfolios at showcases. I haven't seen very many at all that are any bigger than that. I'd say going bigger than 11 by 14 feels like a lot.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, sometimes they have requirements saying that it can't be bigger than 11 by 14. Yeah, it seems like 11 by 14 is the standard like large size. Right. And also don't worry about the cover because your portfolio is going to be open on the table like the entire time.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah. Mine doesn't even have a space for a cover. It's just plain black. You have to open it to see what it is. Um, the standard sizes that are on this like specifically like art portfolio case website are 11 by 14, 11 by 17, and 8.5 by 11, and 11 by 8.5. And then it looks like they have A3 and A4, which I always forget what those paper sizes mean. Same. Yeah. I don't know. But I guess those are the standard if this website dedicated only to these portfolio book printers is, you know, those are the options. Um and, you know, they usually come in just black and white. I wouldn't worry about trying to get it customized or personalized, like Katie said. It's going to be open on the table. It's more about your art. Um, you want to make sure some of the cheaper ones uh kind of don't open fully. They don't lay flat as well. And if you're getting one of those, get heavier paper so that it can lay flat better. But aside from that, I wouldn't worry too much. Um, the main issue I've seen at other portfolio showcases is a really cheap portfolio case with like kind of plastic that wants to clamp together. And then they print it on really thin paper and it's hard to keep the portfolio open. But again, if your work is gorgeous, like it's not a big deal. It's just like maybe a little annoying for someone. And if someone wants to art direct you because they've fallen in love with your work, they're not going to care how you printed your portfolio as long as the color is good, the paper is good enough quality that you can see the art very clearly. I'd say where you don't want to skimp is printing on paper that's going to absorb or miscolor the ink because you really want your art to be as as bright and as true to how you made it as possible. I've also never seen anyone put originals in their portfolio. It's even if you work traditionally, it's always a print of your final.
SPEAKER_00You I don't think you should put originals in your portfolio. I agree. I think it would be a bad idea. Yeah. Something might happen to a wig, your portfolio for some reason might get lost. You just never know. And then it's gone. That's sad. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So invest in like either a good scanner or going somewhere to scan your work if it's traditional, and then making sure that like the quality of the print is good enough that it it reflects what you're doing. But apart from that, like there are there's a wide range of options. And if you want something to look nice, great. But if not, it's not a big deal.
SPEAKER_00And then I I scan my own artwork because I work traditionally, then I scan it in my own scanner and print it on my own printer. I'm completely self-sufficient. Congratulations. I order everything. I do have my own scanner. I wish I I could, because it's actually really annoying. I hate scanning things and I hate trying to print stuff.
SPEAKER_01I do have my own scanner and I do scan stuff, but I feel like more and more my work has been digital. I just have the pet portrait commissions that I'm doing traditionally now and like my sketchbook work, which I wouldn't put in my portfolio anyway. Right. But yeah, I'm trying to think of like if there's anything else that we should highlight about portfolios. I used to just like find a critique group, make sure you're like really working on your stuff, continuing to improve it, et cetera.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but I don't feel like that necessarily really goes with portfolio stuff. That's just kind of like an an industry tip type thing if you're trying to make it in the industry. That's just good advice. You get it for free. That's true.
SPEAKER_01All right. Well, I think we're good to move on to our agency deep dive. So today we're talking about Sally M. Kim, who's an associate agent at Andrea Brown Literary Agency. And Andrea Brown has been around for like forever, and they're they're a good agency. So when you see a brand new baby agent like Sally, Kim is at a new agency. Um, usually if an agent is at a really established agency, they have a mentor who has a lot of connections who can walk them through things. And if you have a really experienced agent at a new agency, they already have established connections and they can, you know, like already navigate that field even if they don't have other people at the agency that are as experienced as them. So where you want to watch out is a new agent at a lesser-known agency. And the more established the agency is, the more safe it is to go with a new agent. So she is a very new agent. And if you want to get in with Andrea Brown, who has some great connections and some great sales records, um, she's open the first and the 15th of every month to queries. She represents a wide range of children's book authors, illustrators, and author illustrators and is drawn to stories with distinct voice, unexpected wit, aggressive pacing, punchy and or emotionally resonant endings. And when it comes to illustration, she gravitates to versatile artists using traditional mediums as well as those with a unique take on color, texture, or unexpected details. She does not like rhyming picture books, horror, sports books, or time travel. But aside from that, she's pretty open. Um, it looks like she's just building her list so far. She's had three deals, all of them last year. She did a nonfiction picture book, an illustrated art book, and another nonfiction picture book. And we'll put links for her down in the show notes. And if you're interested in a really established reputable agency, but maybe going with a new agent that's more actively acquiring and has a higher like response or acceptance rate, it can sometimes be easier to get in the door with an agent who doesn't have a really full established client list because they're not only accepting that like singular unicorn that's an absolutely perfect fit for them. They're like actively building their list and looking for like a body of diverse illustrators and authors that they can send out on jobs. Um I think that's everything. So thanks so much for listening, and we will catch you next time. Bye.
SPEAKER_00Bye.