Whiplash from an agent

alexisartxox

Hello everyone,

It's been a while since I've posted anything here, but I really could use some outside perspective on this.

For the past two years, I've been looking at getting an agent and within the last few months, I thought I maybe finally got a yes. (I'll leave out the names of the companies). I found a job posting on LinkedIn about a third-party company helping publishers find illustrators to work with. I did my homework to make sure it wasn't a scam, and as far as I could see, they- and the agency were legit. They never asked for money or personal info other than my portfolio stuff. I applied, and within about a month they got back and said an agency was interested in working with me! The (third-party company) sent over the agency's contract for me to review and asked me to send illustration samples from my portfolio that they could put up on their website to start getting me work. The agency also asked before signing the contract that I give them a list of names of my current clients so it could be excluded from the contract with the agency. I currently do freelance on the side, and I resigned from the previous company I was working with back in October. (It was a small self-publishing company where I was a "work-for-hire"). It wasn't a good fit for multiple reasons as you can imagine and the only thing upon resigning was that I told them I would finish my current book project. I told the new agency I was only finishing this last book with the previous company, and gave them a list of my other clients.

Well, I didn't hear anything for a while since sending in my samples and my client list. I told the agency the contract looked great (I hadn't officially signed anything yet) and that I was excited to get started.
I figured with it being around the holiday season, they were probably busy and I'd get signed in after the new year.

Well, I did hear back this week. I'll quote the exact email I received from the third-party company below:

"Thank you very much for your patience while (AGENCY NAME) reviewed your work!
I'm afraid I have bad news.
The team reviewed your portfolio and has concluded that they are not ready to go ahead with the signing process. I'm sorry if this is disappointing news - they did like your work a lot, but they have to be very selective about the style of artwork that we take on, as the market is constantly changing and very competitive!
Thank you for taking the time to talk to us; we have your contact details now, so if a gap opens up for you, we will be in touch as styles and trends always change!

This is definitely not the end of the process, please read on!
I really want to get an agent – any advice?
Click here to start your journey!
We understand you may be wondering why you were not represented - we get that question a lot. So we launched the (third-party name) Learning platform - where we send free portfolio development resources, advice directly from top agents, and tutorial videos, to help you gain the insight you need to be a pro at what you enjoy.
If you are interested in coaching, please reach out to our learning liaison, ------ to apply to our coaching programs.
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I look forward to working with you in the future " -end quote.

Maybe I jumped to conclusions too fast? I thought when they said they were interested in working with me and by sending over the contract for me to review, I thought the company had already narrowed down their picks. I know it's good they have my contact and maybe I'll get something in the future, but I can't help but feel a bit of whiplash from this response. Please, if anyone has any advice let me know.

Here is a link to my portfolio as well. Maybe someone could give me any more insight about my art style that I may be missing.
https://alexiseastburn.com/

Sorry for this being so long, if you read to the end, thank you, and happy new year!

Alexis

#jakeparker #leewhite #willterry

alice2023

@alexisartxox @alexisartxox
Hey Alexis,

So…I’m no pro and pretty new here, so feel free to ignore me.

In my opinion it’s shady. I’m tempted to think no one reviewed your portfolio and it was all a ploy to get you to sign up for their “Learning platform” which undoubtedly after the “free resources” there would be a cost to you.

A big factor in this is how strong your portfolio is! I mean I really love it. So many amazing examples that agent and publishers will have confidence in your work.

One thing I noticed that might be helpful. Having a little stalk of your instagram (as I've heard that's where agents and publishers are looking these days) I would say your account is less focused on children's book illustration (assuming thats what you're wanting an agent for), aka its mixed in with vis dev, your art business and personal work. Your website has clear sections, but instagram is a tricky beast for that.

Maybe its fine, maybe I'm wrong. But my untested suggestion would be for a while to only post kid lit artwork, use the hashtags for that, and so when agents and publishers look at your account they can see clearly what you would do for them.

Hope that's helpful (food for thought)

Alice

NessIllustration

@alexisartxox This is actually quite common, and happened to me in the past too. I applied to agencies and heard back from Advocate Art. They sent me a contract and asked me to send all my work for a final review. I did but a couple weeks later, heard that I was not selected. This was... at least 7-8 years ago.

Many of these big agencies have a pre-selection process. Going through that first screening is step 1. They select promising candidates and send them the contract (which is actually a "welcome package") to make sure the artist is on board with the terms. That's step 2. But then step 3 is they have a meeting with agents and managers and select final artists to represent. From what I understand, because of the volume of applications they get, they CANNOT look at all the portfolios during those selection meetings or it would take them 2 weeks day and night. So that's why they have step 1 and 2, and even now have pre-screening agencies like ItsMe.

However, it seems they didn't do a great job of explaining to you that this wasn't a done deal and there was still more to go. When it happened to me with Advocate Art, I was super disappointed but at least I had KNOWN there was to be a final review meeting. If they didn't make this clear, that's really awful of them...

Also, you may not be "missing" anything in your portfolio. Reasons to decline an artist for representation can include things like:

They already have an artist with similar art style
They had 5 open spots and already selected them in the meeting from their pool of 20 candidates
You were equally as good as other candidates so they had to make a decision based on other factors (more experience, bigger social media following, etc)

It's getting incredibly competitive nowadays to get an agent. There are hundreds of thousands of people applying and only so many spots. I actually think now, it's become easier to find work by yourself than score an agent. Not that it isn't worth trying to get an agent, but don't put all your eggs in that basket!

alexisartxox

@NessIllustration
Thank you for taking the time to reply and offer advice. I truly appreciate it. I'll go back and re-read my old emails from them just in case, but I remember them saying they wanted my samples specifically to start putting on their website to start getting work.

At least now I know more about the process for next time.

Thank you very much.

MirkaH

You have beautiful work and here's my 2cents of advice, based on assumption you're looking for picture book illustration agents.

Add more illustrations relevant to picturebooks to your portfolio and social media. Make sure there some full page or spread illustrations with a few in a series that show that you can do backgrounds, and draw a character consistenly. Add those to your social media feeds too.
Your drawings are beautiful, but it is a style I see a lot of illustrators working in. Many agencies might already have several illustrators working in that style, so maybe think if there is a subject that you could specialize in, or if there is a way to tweak your style so its a bit more of your personality. While in animation this style is great, because a studio will have several animatos working on a big project and their styles need to be consistent w each other, in book illustration having your own style is really key to stand out from the rest.

Hope that's a bit helpful. If you happen to be a member of scbwi.org they have the handbook that has all agencies listed. When you want to apply to agents again, its an easy resource to use to look up all the agencies and agents, and see who is open to queries.