Becoming Children's book illustrator!

Becoming Children's Book illustrator : What I've learned so far..

     want to become Children's book illustrator? If your answer is yes, then we're on the same road! My dream is to be able to earn a living with what I love to do, which is illustrating children's book.

I just got to illustrate my first children's book with a self-published author, and also just finished a set of 4 books with a publisher in my home country, Thailand, which I got to both write and illustrate. Now I'm writing + illustrating another book for a new publisher which is in Thailand as well.

I'm now enjoying every hours of work, even I haven't gone so far, but I'd like to share my experiences and some lessons I've learned..with you who might have the same dreams...

#1   Tell everyone you can about what you do. 

It's unbelievable that many opportunities I ever came across came form my friends, friends of friends and new people I met that I never thought they'd had something to do with children's book industry. So, this could be the first and easiest way to get start!

#2 Start small.

I'm not trying to limit your dreams, but walking up the stairs step be step is easier than trying to jump to the top at once. Breaking into children's book big market is not easy. So, if you have a smaller market you could find, that might be a better choice at the start. Try sending portfolio to a smaller publisher in you local market.    If you can get publish, even with a self-published author, it will help you to step up closer to the big market you dream of!

#3 Social media makes a different.

If you're not on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Blogger or flicker. You might want to start one now, because it DOES make a different! I don't think you need to have all those. I only have Facebook Fanpage, Instagram and Blogger. I can keep posting and updating better with three.

Start putting works you proud of on these media, and you never know what opportunities can come to you though these networks. Also, you can have friends who are enjoying the same thing, to share, encourage, critic and help each other improve. Last but not least, if you contact the publisher, the link to these social media can be another thing you can send to the publishers. They can hear your voice through these medias.

here are the links to my Facebook page. Feel free to contact me and help encourage each other to our goals! :)

https://www.facebook.com/minnie.illustration
Instagram : minniesakuntala