Astound Agency wants to represent me?
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@peteolczyk Yes, it's an art teaching job! It's steady work and good pay, although teaching has never been a "passion" for me, which is the main issue. Well, I'll just have to think very hard on this.
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Congrats. My advice would be to take the full time job. Teach and build your client base over the next two years and then quit the teaching job. Having an agent is great, but having an agent vs. getting income from having an agent are two different things. Once you get an agent it can take a year (or more) to start to build income from that relationship. Build it slowly and steadily and then bail on the full time gig once you know what your financial picture looks like at that time.
SVS Faculty Instructor
www.leewhiteillustration.com -
@Lee-White
Thank you for taking the time out to respond to this! That's the advice I've been getting from everyone else, so hearing you say that confirms what I should do. I feel much more confident now -
Congratulations!!!
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@Perrij Wouhou congrats! I'm with Astound and so far really like their way of working and my assigned agent, Aurora. Whether you decide to take it or not at this time, they liked your work which is awesome!
But I completely agree with @Lee-White it takes time to get steady work from an agent. I've only had one job from them so far since I've been with them. I wouldn't be able to make a living from that alone if I didn't have my own work from my own network which I've built while working a full-time job at a mobile games studio. That being said, since it will take time for them to start sending you occasional work let alone regular work, why not take both the teaching position and accept the agent's offer? -
Woohooo!!!! Congrats!!!
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@Perrij That's awesome! Congrats! I'm in the same boat of sending out mass emails, too. Must be a nice warm fuzzy feeling to land one
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Congratulations!!
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@Perrij i’m so happy for you
️ This is what I’ve been talking about. We should not be afraid to send out emails. We never know, we might get our lucky break. Again, congratulations! -
@Braden-Hallett You're building up such a great portfolio, it'll happen for you soon!
@Nyrryl-Cadiz No kidding! I didn't expect to get any responses, so I'm definitely a case for plugging along whether you believe in yourself or not
@NessIllustration Hey Ness! I was hoping you'd put in your two cents!! Yeah that's what I'm gonna do. I'm glad to hear that they've only sent one job your way, honestly I was terrified that I might be trying to juggle two jobs. Sounds like I can get through this year of teaching without having to worry about being overloaded with illustration
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@NessIllustration Errr Ness that came out wrong, I'm not glad they've sent only one job your way! THEY NEED TO SEND MORE JOBS YOUR WAY.
But i only want them to send one job my way -
@Perrij Congrats, so happy for You, but would also go for the Full time Job...I was at children's book fair this last week and lot of illustrators said to me it needs about 1-3 years to get started...
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@Perrij Bwahaha!
No worries hun, but that was funny haha!
But yeah definitely take both! Plus, even if they start sending you more work than you can handle, you don't have to take them. You'll have to give your agent your availability each season and if they send you a job that you don't have time for (or even if you're just not feeling it) you just tell them you'll pass on that one, while still remaining with that agent -
@MichaelaH One to three years, I can do that! :0 Thanks for bringing in some wisdom from the book fair. Did it go well for you?
@NessIllustration Hehe. Thanks, I appreciate the insight. This is all very new to me and I confess (though I'm sure it's obvious) that I'm a bit on the unprepared side of things. Quick question, if you don't mind..I believe that the agency takes something like 30-35% of the profits. Some of my friends and family seemed to think that was a bit high, but...they, of course, have no experience with the business. So is that an average percentage? What's your opinion?
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Awesome congratulations! Lee whites advice is spot on, but what Ness was saying could be a good approach, take both opportunities.
Well done, so nice to hear and I hear Astound is a great agency.
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@Perrij It is not easy, standing in lines for the illustrators, where you can talk to publisher's editors and show them your portfolio. I have hotten new contact this year again. So I can send them my digital portfolio.
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@Perrij Congrats your Portfolio is really lovely ,can you not take the teaching job and still be signed with an agent ?
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@Perrij Forget my last question Isee you are going to take both jobs Good Luck!!
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Congratulations! Thank you so much for sharing the information and starting this thread. I learned so much by hearing other people's experience.
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@Perrij 35% is about the norm for agencies, as I understand it. I believe Advocate Art and Bright (as well as many others) collect 35% as well. My old agency Beehive collected only 25%, but they didn't do as much legwork as Astound does (monthly blog features, working with the artist to update and improve the portfolio, etc). While 35% may seem high from an outside perspective, agencies have contacts in the industry that allow them to get you much higher level contracts, and much better paid. 65% of a 20k dollars contract is still a lot more interesting than 100% of a 1k dollars contract. Of course, they'll probably start you off with smaller contracts not 20k right off the bat. Still, they're contracts that you will not have spent time hunting down yourself, and time is money
