Preparing for a portfolio review with Hachette

It's today!

Before I begin this week’s newsletter, I wanted to say a massive thank you to those who have reached out to me through DMs to tell me that they’re enjoying reading my newsletters. I really appreciate it, and even more so because I don’t consider myself a writer, and these usually take me quite a long time to put together. Thank you so much! Your encouragement means loads.

Now to this week’s newsletter! Lots going on but the biggest at the moment is that I’ve got an in person portfolio review with Art Directors at Hachette today, Friday 1st March! It’s a huge deal for me because I’ve not had face-to-face time with publishers since Pathways. This is how it all came about:

Agents for Change

I follow an account on Instagram called ‘Agents for Change’. On their bio they describe themselves as ‘An assembly of illustration agencies working together towards a more diverse industry.’ You can check out the agencies involved here. They’ve been organising portfolio reviews with publishers and agencies. I only picked up on this in January when they advertised a portfolio review with Harper Collins. The idea is that as long as you meet certain criteria, you can apply and they select people at random. I wasn’t selected for Harper Collins but I had another go when the opportunity to meet with Hachette came up, and this time I got it! I received an email from Agents for Change on the evening of Friday 21 February to say I was booked in for a 20 minute slot with Hachette. I was so pumped!

Please do give them a follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/agentsforchange_/

64 auditions

I came across the Actress and Director Bryce Dallas Howard sharing something, which I found really inspiring. She said that she was told by her Grandmother that an actor will go on about 64 auditions on average before they’re likely to book a job. She went on about 48 auditions before she booked a job.

When I thought about my situation, I realised that I’m no where near that 48 number let alone 64, and that these opportunities that come up now and then are almost like auditions that actors go on, and in the meantime, the best I can do is keep working on my craft and develop my skills and be happy with the work I create.

Preparing my portfolio

The last few days and nights are a bit of a blur because Sophie’s been so unwell that I’ve been preparing my portfolio whenever I’ve had quiet moments. I had a couple of days last week to go through my illustration work to date and see what I want to show Hachette but there was work that I wanted to finish off, too.

The advice from Agents for Change was to take a physical portfolio and I’ve never done this before, I’ve always had a portfolio as a pdf, and so I had to look up somewhere local where I could get my work printed, and luckily Kall Kwik in Farnham was helpful and reasonably priced.

This is one of the works I completed to include in my portfolio review:

I feel like there’s tons more I could have done to prepare, but I’ve got all the best examples of my work (I hope!), I’ve got copies of other printed work that’s gone out into the world and so the plan is to go along and enjoy the session and action any advice they have for me, which is the purpose of the review - to get feedback.

Next week, my newsletter will focus on how the portfolio review went!

Until then, take care X