Book Cover Illustrations

If you’re in any business long enough you become aware of the various cycles things go through. Fads come and go, business is frantic for a few years and then it slows. Booms are followed by busts. That’s how business works, and publishing is no exception.

Recently publishing has taken a nose dive along with much of the world’s economy. And publishing has been hit doubly hard this go around due to the advent of ebooks (and the piracy digital media can bring) as well as the gradual decline in the percentage of the population that actually takes the time to read a book or magazine rather than graze through web articles.

One way presses cut back during economic slow downs is to buy less work from relative unknowns. That makes a downturn especially tough for those trying to break into publishing whether writer, editor, or illustrator.

Yet in good times and bad, people get their work published. Even relatively unknown artists and writers. And whether the economy is racing ahead or swirling down the toilet, the trick for breaking into print is pretty much the same: Just keep beating the bushes for a press that wants the work you do.

So that that brings me to the secret for getting into print, observed after a couple of decades in the publishing business. It is painfully obvious, yet I find those new to publishing do their best to ignore it: It isn’t how talented you are that gets you into print as much as it is how persistent you are. If you keep trying, that makes all the difference.

Sure, talent helps. Starting with modest work in smaller publications and working your way to the top is always wise. But there’s a point where talent falls off and persistence becomes the virtue you need. And for every talented writer or artist who gave up never to be published, I can show you bunches of less talented men and women who ignored one rejection letter after another, until finally they got into print.

These eventually successful folks send their portfolios and manuscripts to publishers and, when an editor or art director leaves a publishing house, these persistent writers and artists send the very same work (previously rejected) right back to the same publisher knowing new eyes will see it.

The folks that eventually get into print try all sorts of presses. They find out when a new publisher is starting out and looking for new material. No stone goes unturned.

And sooner or later, these persistent folks meet with success.

So if you want to get into print and you’ve taken the time to hone your talent, the system is simple. You just keep on keeping on until someone finally says, “Okay, we’ll print that.”

Want to get into print? Ignore all the no’s and keep trying until you hear a yes. Each rejection slip just takes you one step closer to that final press that will decide to print what you’ve submitted. All you have to do is find it.

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When not revealing the deep, dark secrets of publishing, Duncan Long is a freelance writer/illustrator who has created book cover illustrations for HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Solomon Press, Fort Ross, and many other publishers and self-publishing authors. See his book cover illustrations at: http://DuncanLong.com/art.html
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