Help! Agents say my work is beautiful but not what they are looking for.

[Mimi Simon]

I've been sending out queries to literary and illustration agents every so often over the past couple years since graduating art school while also taking classes and updating my portfolio. At first I got no responses but recently after adding the last couple of projects and reorganising my website I've gotten a lot of responses all saying roughly "your work is beautiful but not what I'm looking for"
I've tried writing some of them back asking what are you looking for but no response. So those of you who have agents, (or have any advice even if you don't) what are they looking for and what is wrong with my portfolio? I am continuing to work on things to add but I feel that even so it's not at a bad point right now (or maybe i'm just blind to my own failings)
Any advice is appreciated and don't worry about hurting my feelings if you have some hard truth to drop, I will welcome it XD

portfolio here: http://mimisimon.com/

[NessIllustration]

@Mimi-Simon It doesn't necessarily means you're doing anything "wrong". It could be your style is too similar to an artist they already have and they don't want you to compete with them for the same gigs. It could be your style isn't aligned with what their client list is looking for (which isn't the same as NO client looking for art like yours).

Looking at your portfolio, your work is very very skilled. But your style is very clean, polished digital which isn't the style most literary agents go for right now. Trends come and go, but right now agents love that textured, indie looking style that's a bit loose, a bit naive, quite sketchy. Your work might be described as "commercial" which is not necessarily a bad thing - it would fit very well with certain types of clients, you just have to apply to ones that fit.

For instance, you could do well in middle grade publishing, in more commercial type books like Disney books, and animation production (for example, in character design or location design)

[Griffin McPherson]

@Mimi-Simon my best guess is that it’s because your work looks more like it fits in with animation rather than children’s books. Though I could see your work fitting in well with middle grade books. You also don’t have much variety in the types of illustrations you have. They’re all full page illustrations. It might help to have a mix of spreads, vignettes, and spot illustrations. So my recommendation would be to find where you can overlap your style with what’s on the market to lend your style a bit more towards that while still maintaining what makes your art yours.

Something else that might help is making a 9x9 grid and put one of your illustrations in the center and the surrounding squares with the top illustrators in the market you want to get into. Analyze what aspects of your style fit in and what doesn’t and adjust accordingly.

[Griffin McPherson]

Forgot to mention in my first comment that your work is excellent and you shouldn’t be worried about that. Your skills are certainly not the issue. I think this has more to do with being marketable to whatever it is that publishers want right now

[Mimi Simon]

@NessIllustration this is really helpful, especially that they are looking for more rough textural kind of work! I knew they were probably looking for flatter work which I've been trying to do recently but my work is still pretty clean for sure. I'll definitely try to incorporate this into my next project.
I have done a little work in animation doing backgrounds thought the competition in that area is insane and most of the jobs require you to move to work on site in expensive cities with little guarantee of continued work after your show ends though I am open to pretty much anything at this point.
I would definitely be interested in doing those kind of licensed books or comics for Disney/other companies though I presume you need to have an agent for those as well.

[Melissa_Bailey]

@Mimi-Simon this is actually great news! And it could actually be a sign that you're not doing anything wrong in your portfolio, but that you may be submitting to agents who aren't looking for your type of style.

Like Ness said, agents are often looking for very specific things because they know the market and what they can sell. Have you tried laser-focusing your submissions? You may find more success if you submit to agents who are looking for middle grade & graphic novel artists. You may also consider cover illustration -- your Traditional portfolio has a style that would work very well for cozy mysteries and some YA or middle grade books.

You may also want to consider sending postcards and/or submitting to editors who work on licensed works -- the style in your main portfolio would fit right in with Disney, Marvel, and others. Many of the bestselling children's books are based on popular movies, and I've heard that the editors in these departments are always looking for artists who can work in that very specific Disney/Marvel/etc. style. Might be worth a shot.

Guess it all depends, too, on what type of illustration work you're looking for. That might help you determine where your focus should be in your portfolio and in the agents you approach for representation.

Your art is beautiful! Keep on keeping on -- we're looking forward to great things for you!

[NessIllustration]

@Mimi-Simon You don't have to change your whole style to fit an agency - rather you should apply for clients and agents that fit the style you're passionate about 

[Mia Clarke]

Your work really is beautiful, and I wouldn’t change it just to fit the current trend. I got about 50 rejections before getting 4 offers in one and the same week.

With your style I’d focus on literary agents repping graphic novels, or mg. If you’re not already using querytracker, I absolutely recommend doing so to help you find agents who suit your needs.

Don’t give up. With art as good as yours, it’s only a matter of finding someone who is excited about it for what it is, and I’m positive you’ll find that person.

[AngelinaKizz]

@Mimi-Simon your work is great! Don't change it. It does look like it would suit middle grade books! I would start by going to the book store and looking for books you want to create and then write down which publishers and who the illustrators are. Then you can look for the agents that are representing those illustrators. Keep sending out postcards, don't get discouraged. Your work is fantastic.

[kirsten-mcg]

@Mimi-Simon I agree with what everyone else is changing. Getting that response is actually encouraging! It means your work is great, just not what that specific agent is looking for. Try leaning into your strengths. Just like everyone is saying, I can definitely see your work on the covers of MG and YA novels. The first thing I would focus on if I were you is adding more book cover mockups to your portfolio, and some black and white interior style illustrations as well. I think you could do that without changing a thing about your current style. Then once your portfolio is more tailored to bringing in chapter book work, you could try playing around with the more textured work that is popular in Picture books right now, but only if you like that sort of thing!

[Mimi Simon]

@kirsten-mcg thanks, this is really good advice that gives me a clear direction. I was feeling really exhausted by all the rejections and unsure what do do next for my portfolio but ya'll are giving me a lot of ideas that seem doable.

[Mimi Simon]

@Mia-Clarke this is really encouraging to hear and gives me hope that I may be able to get represented without throwing out my whole portfolio and starting from scratch. Maybe I just need to be more methodical about querying and something will turn up eventually.

[Mimi Simon]

@Melissa_Bailey oh I'm surprised you looked at my traditional work, its pretty much old school assignments. I never considered there could be a market for that type of work. I no longer really have access to models or a good place to oil paint so I'm pretty much all digital now.

I cant say I know much about publishing so how do you find/submit/send post cards to these editors? (is sending post cards still a thing?) I've never seen editors names listed with books that I can remember. I kind of thought that's why you need an agent is because editors are inaccessible?

[Nyrryl Cadiz]

@Mimi-Simon Wow! Just wow!!! your work is so beautiful. This is definitely a professional portfolio. Everything is of high quality.

There's nothing wrong about your work. It's beautiful! however, now this is just purely my speculation please feel free to disregard, I believe your style is too similar to the one that's oversaturating the market right now. Why should agents hire you when they probably already have someone who makes the same work you do?

You need to stand out. it could be by changing the way your apply color, or the way you use texture, or the way you draw characters, etc. You need to distinguish yourself from the crowd.

I'm telling you this because I also had the same experience after I left my previous agent. After leaving said agent, I tried submitting to other agencies but I received the same reply: "we love your work but you're not what we're looking for right now". I didn't know what I was doing wrong. I followed other people's advice, I know I make good enough work, but I was still getting rejected left and right. It took me some months to realize that it was because my style looked generic, too similar to everybody else (most of them anyways). Why should they hire me when they already have artists making the same work as me?

So I tweaked my style and long story short, I landed my current agent. I literally just signed our contract a little while ago.

I may be right, I may be wrong too, but I wish someone had told me beforehand so that I could take it into consideration. I wish someone was this blunt to me before I spent months wallowing in self pity and confusion. but at the end of the day, it's up you if you take this advice or not. A word of caution tho, I've been wrong A LOT of times. lolz

I hope this was helpful. I hope I wasn't discouraging or offending. I sincerely wish you all the best. I can sense that you'll do great in the future. Again, I LOVE your work. Keep making art and submitting to them agents.

[Mimi Simon]

@Nyrryl-Cadiz I think you may be getting at something here but I think its not that my art looks the same as lots of other illustrators but that all my projects have slightly different styles. Thus together they all kinda blend and may start looking generic. I don't think i'm really at a point in my artistic journey where i have a fully formed style and I love so many different things (golden age illustration, anime, french comics, jrpgs, disney) that I end up trying something a little different for each project depending on what i think would fit the subject matter.(i think thats one of the joys of starting a new project) this is helpful for when I've worked for clients because i can match their style but its seems to be a big negative for trying to get into publishing.
My long term plan is to move over my older more animation style illustrations into a specific visdev section and fill out the illustration section with more publishing specific pieces which will be more in line stylistically with each other. However I still like many of those older pieces so I don't want to just dump them before I have something else to replace them with.

I took a look at your portfolio and and your work is great especially the middle grade section. Is that the older style or the newer style?

[NessIllustration]

@Nyrryl-Cadiz Wow Nyrryl, I hadn't see your new portfolio since your style change! What an amazing and unique style, it's gorgeous! Congrats on your new agent, it's SO well deserved!!

[Nyrryl Cadiz]

@NessIllustration Thank Ness. You have been a huge help in me chugging along despite setbacks. I love your classes.

[Nyrryl Cadiz]

@Mimi-Simon Hi Mimi! I'm sorry for only responding just now. I moved to a new city and things have been very hectic. lolz

Yes, from what I've seen, I think your portfolio looks too animation-y which is quite prevalent recently. It's not that it's bad (I actually love it myself) but almost everyone is doing it right now and when starting out, you need to do something different to stand out.

Also, yes, the work in my Middle Grade tab is my old work. I also couldn't bring myself to delete them because of all the hard work I spent creating them. Luckily tho, my current agent suggested that they would work perfectly for middle grade and even proposed that she market me as an illustrator who can do 2 styles.

Perhaps this could also be something you should consider. Your work already has a lot of older looking kids (6+ yo). I think you'll be a great fit for the middle grade and older markets.

Anyway, I hope this has been helpful. All the best!

[Mimi Simon]

Just wanted to post a little update on my progress here. A month ago, I received an interested reply from KT Literary saying they liked my work and would love to take me on in the future when they start expanding into representing illustrators as well as just authors and author illustrators. I haven't heard anything since but it could be something that comes to fruition in the future. Just this past week I got a reply from Nicole Geiger of Full Circle Literary saying she forwarded my query to her associate Taylor Martindale Kean because it could be a better fit. Full circle seems like a great agency so I really have my fingers crossed on that. Now for more waiting...

[mag]

@Mimi-Simon This sounds great!! Your art is amazing, be sure to pick the right agent and not just the first one who offers - and definitely keep us updated! Fingers crossed!