You know the client who wants your time, your words, your art, sweat and tears…then sprinkles a few nuts on your lawn as payment. She may look pretty, she may smell lovely, but we all know this freakadilly plays dirty and if you have even an ounce of experience under your belt, remember don’t lose your head, back out slowly, turn and run away.
If you’re so new you still have your tags on, you may be tempted to suck it up and court her with roses ’til your fingers bleed. Believe me, we have all been there, but don’t do it! Value your time, use it to hone your craft and join an artist/writers community. Illustration Mundo and Agent Query Connect are two good ones. Take the time you need to build your skills and confidence, eventually it will pay off and you’ll respect yourself more for it in the morning.
Freakadilly {freak-a-dil-ly}: my lame attempt to keep this blog clean.
illustrationjunky.wordpress.com 
But, how do we do this? I have been networking for years and on the net since 1992. Building my skills for decades. Getting nowhere as a photographer, painter and sometimes writer. Much about me you can find on Facebook.
Hi Richard, thanks for stopping by. Your black and white Merry Christmas photo is gorgeous. There is never really any clear cut answer to how you turn what you love to do into what you love to do plus make money doing it. All you can do is keep plugging away, learning and maybe try to look at new ways to market your work.
There is a printing company named http://us.moo.com/ that seem to have a lot of photographers and artists using them and finding new innovative ways to market their work and make their portfolios stand out from the slush pile. I haven’t personally used them yet, but I am looking into them. If anyone else has any suggestions…please join in.
Wait… what kind of nuts are we talking here?
Lol, oh Derrick! I told you it was a lame attempt.
Great advice. There is nothing worse than working for someone who doesn’t value your work.
Glad you agree, Carrie and thanks for stopping by.
Love your work… and “freakadilly” is an awesome word. 🙂
Thank you for the reminder that there are those predators in all walks of life! VERY relevant for all of us. Thank you Kerie…(freakadilly – matches my explodations! :-))
Hi, Dorine from the comment challenge. This is great advice for illustrators that are out there. I hope many listen to your words.
Thanks Dorine and welcome!
Thanks for the great advice! I’m so new I’ve only had a couple of jobs.