FREELANCER GUiDANCE - Handling Rejection

Rejection is a part of the creative lifestyle.
Nobody likes it, but handling it is a big part of whether or not you're even cut out for this.  The example I'm showing above is from Marvel Comics but this goes for any type of submission-- comics, novels, illustration-- you are going to send your work in and for some reason or another it's occasionally going to get rejected.  A few keys to remember:

1. It's NEVER personal.  They are rejecting your work, not you.  Learn how to separate yourself from your work and it'll be a lot easier to handle.  YOU are not your work, your WORK is not you.

2. Take constructive criticism.  The above letter is a form letter Marvel used to send out to slightly promising artists.  If your work showed more promise they might have hand written in some details as to what they thought needed work.

3. How much of a stomach do you have for this?  I myself got well over 200 rejection letters like the one above before I finally got hired.  TWO HUNDRED.  My routine was to send in a new sample packet every week so 200 means I did that for well over three years since sometimes I got more than one rejection letter at a time-- you see as I sent in samples I told the submissions editor I was wallpapering a wall in my studio with rejection letters so on occasion I'd get a stack of them.  My consistency with sending in samples (always new once I figured out what I was doing) showed them I wasn't going away.    It also showed that I could produce at least five pages a week working a full time job.

4. Keep at it or give up and find another career.   Some people prefer the life of a regular paycheck to the struggles of freelance.  Not everyone is cut out for this, but if you think you are then a little rejection isn't going to hurt you.

Next week:  I'll go over HOW to send in submission packets.

Andy Fish is a professional comic book artist and freelancer who's been doing this for a long time.  He also mentors and teaches other artists looking to make the jump to pro.  You can contact him (where he will answer not in the third person) at andy@andytfish.com

I Once Worked as a Butler... Well, Sorta...

Back around twenty years or so ago I was working as an art teacher at the Worcester Art Museum. If you’ve ever worked for a non-profit you know it’s not very lucrative. Part of my duties were to travel out to schools and do art classes for ones that didn’t have a budget for a regular art teacher. It wasn’t long before I did the math that the art museum was charging 3x what I was getting paid to provide this service, which in turn led me to cutting them out and charging it myself.

This lead to a parent contacting me in a fairly wealthy town to provide private art lessons to their pre-teen son. They felt he had a real burning desire to do art and wasn’t getting enough art education through his private school. I looked over his portfolio and thought he was pretty talented for a 12 year old so I agreed to take the gig. My memory isn’t all that great, I don’t remember having an interview with the parents, I don’t even remember the parents. I DO remember arriving at the address, taking the key out of the mailbox, disarming the alarm system and then working with this young man on his art when he came walking in about 10 minutes later after getting out of school.

This continued for a full season every Wednesday afternoon, and there would be a note on the kitchen counter for me which would usually have some kind of message like “we are concerned about his color theory ability” or “He’s not understanding Mid Century Modernism”— you know, normal suburban parent worries.

I liked the kid, he had talent, the trouble was he knew he did because he was constantly told that by teachers and family and he felt like at the ripe old age of 12 he had it all pretty much figured out. Start the acceptance letter for Pratt in Brooklyn.

This lead to some troubles because I would push him with an assignment, an assignment outside his comfort level which is truly the only way to grow, and he didn’t like being pushed beyond what he was really good atl. Those counter top notes would be my back and forth communications with mom, so in my response I would explain what I was asking him to do and why it was important for him to follow through.

At first, her replies were very positive, and she wanted him to get a real art education, but as we got further and further in he really began to fold and the notes would be excuses as to why he didn’t do an assignment. Then they got really strange. It started with a brief reference to whatever lesson we’d been doing and then include a casual “would you mind taking Rover out for a walk?” or “could you chop the vegetables and preheat the oven to 400 before you leave?” —??

I think I walked the dog, I like dogs and if they wanted to pay a dog walker $250/hour (that was what I was charging for private lessons) I was okay with that— but I stopped at chopping vegetables. My final note thanked her for the opportunity and a wish that the son would do well, but that if he didn’t learn how to push himself he could certainly fake his way through art school and come out with a degree, but that degree would be worthless because there would be no actual knowledge behind it.

I kept in touch with the young man and he reached out to me sophomore year at a lesser art school (his portfolio didn’t get him into the top schools) and he told me I was totally right and he wished he had seen it back then.

It was an interesting experience.