81 – 5 Tips for Getting Your Artwork Published with Janine Vangool

Laura

0:06
Hi, this is Laura Lee Griffin.

Nikki

0:08
And this is Nikki May with the Startist Society, inspiring you to stop getting in your own way and start building an art biz and life that you love.

Laura

0:17
We are artists who believe strongly in the power of community, accountability, following your intuition, taking small actionable steps and breaking down the barriers of fear and procrastination that keep you stuck.

Nikki

0:30
Follow along with us on our creative business journey as we encourage you on yours.

Laura

0:39
Last week, we introduced you to Janine Vangool, designer and publisher of Uppercase Magazine. She shared her Startist story with us and all about launching and publishing her gorgeous magazine.

Nikki

0:53
If you haven’t heard our interview with Janine, be sure to go back and listen. Today she’s back to share with us her five best tips for getting your work published in magazines, maybe even in hers.

Laura

1:04

Janine

, thanks for coming back.

Janine

1:06
Thanks, Laura and Nikki, I’m happy to be here.

Laura

1:09
So what’s your first tip for us?

Janine

1:11
Well, since I do publish a magazine, these are all written, or all my pitches are from my own perspective, but I think they can be applicable to lots of other publications. But my first tip is that you have to know the publication that you want to be published in. So you have to be familiar with the kinds of content that they typically publish, the quality, the mood, and to do your research about the magazine or the company that you want to be working with. So that’s my first recommendation.

Nikki

1:45
We can absolutely support that one because we get pitches for people to be on the podcast that they clearly haven’t listened to a single episode and don’t know what we’re talking about. So we second that one for sure.

Janine

2:00
Yeah, it seems like we shouldn’t have to say that, but when you do get these, like off the wall, things that are completely irrelevant, you’re like, okay, well, they went through the effort of sending that message. But the first step is to do the research.

Nikki

2:13
Right, definitely. Okay, what’s your next tip for us?

Janine

2:16
Before you submit something, evaluate your work honestly, and just really look at it from an objective standpoint, not an emotional one, and just think, is it ready yet? Is this good enough quality? Does it meet the brief? Is it what the publication might want to include?

Nikki

2:35
That’s a tough one for people.

Janine

2:38
Yeah, it is. But I think that’s a skill that you just learn through practice, right? And if you’re feeling a little bit of fear about submitting or not super confident, that’s different than evaluating the quality of the work that you’re about to submit. So you could have amazing work, but still feel not a lot of confidence in it. But if you’re looking at something more objectively, you can say, Oh, this is really good, I should get over my fear and just submit. So it takes some introspection, I think.

Laura

3:12
Yeah, that’s a good distinction to it’s between the fear, and then just really looking inward and being able to objectively look at your work.

Janine

3:20
I’ve had submissions, where it’s not the right quality, right, that it’s not, you know, ready for publication. And then I have to, you know, have to reject people. And sometimes people have written back and said, You know, I knew it wasn’t ready for publication, but I just wanted to go through this first step of like breaking the ice and submitting something. And I totally respect that, and that’s fine. Because that response back was totally appropriate, right. But it also I think, you just have to, if you know that it’s not the kind of quality that you’re ready to present to the world then just keep refining.

Laura

3:58
Yeah, give yourself a little more time.

Janine

4:00
Yeah. My third tip is to read and understand the details of where you’re submitting. So for example, for Uppercase, I have very specific guidelines on my participate page. And then I’ll have even more specifics when I have an open call about a particular topic or theme that I’m looking for. And I have pretty good reasons why I put all the details in there about the size and the resolution, and the intentions of what the work should be. Because as the editor, I have both like physical requirements to reproduce the work but also I have an editorial idea of what I have in mind. And so I need people to basically follow the directions. But that’s also, I think, something that’s very basic, but a lot of people just in some sort of excitement or something they just submit and then I can’t use it because like it’s super low resolution for example, right.

Nikki

5:01
Do you respond to every submission that you get?

Janine

5:05
Um, no. I get all the submissions, I look at absolutely every single one. But at certain points, I’m so busy, I cannot reply to someone, you say, hey, look, you didn’t follow the instructions and this isn’t high enough resolution for print. Like, I’m very specific. So if they read that, what can I do? I just have to put decline on that one.

Nikki

5:29
Do you ever see though? Do you ever see some work that they maybe not high enough resolution, but you’re like, oh, my god, that’s amazing work. Let me ask them if they have a higher resolution?

Janine

5:39
I have, I have.

Nikki

5:41
I mean, I’m sure that’s not the norm.

Janine

5:42
It’s not the norm. No, I have done that. And then sometimes people will submit the wrong kind of file. And I have, like, oh, it’s really good. But they can just send me a new file or something. So I have done that. But it’s, you know, I’ve got a lot of work to do.

Nikki

5:56
Yes, you do.

Janine

5:57
So having to do that extra stuff was a factor in deciding the easy route or the hard route. And so if it’s too difficult, I’m just going to reject it.

Nikki

6:05
Right.

Laura

6:06
Well, it makes sense. So what is your fourth tip?

Janine

6:09
My fourth tip is to remember that you’re providing a service. So from my perspective, as a publisher, and I have a magazine, I have a particular brief or some problem that I’m trying to solve through submissions that I might receive, right? So my primary concern isn’t that you get published. I have some problems that I need to solve with the submissions that are coming my way, right? So I think sometimes people only think about that they want to be published, but not how that can actually benefit where they’re sending it. And if that makes sense. Like it’s mutually beneficial when we publish the work, but it’s also they’re, they’re providing a service to me by presenting their work.

Nikki

7:00
That makes sense.

Janine

7:01
Yeah, it’s, it’s a different, a little bit of a mind shift to remember that when you’re submitting to a magazine, or if you want to have like a quilt fabric collection, for example, that your creative work is a service to that other company, they’re not publishing it, because they want you to have your first collection, they’re publishing because they want to have a collection that’s going to sell in their market.

Nikki

7:25
It’s your responsibility when you’re pitching to make sure that your words and your images, your work explain what the benefit is to you as the publisher and to your readers.

Janine

7:38
Exactly.

Nikki

7:38
Yeah. Yeah. So that’s really good advice. And so what’s your fifth tip for us today?

Janine

7:44
My fifth one is to be professional and polite with rejection, and don’t take it personally. Easier said than done?

Nikki

7:54
Yeah. But it’s great advice.

Janine

7:56
It is. And I have, I have been on the receiving end of the unprofessional and the impolite people who’ve been rejected. And it’s, it’s not nice, and it’s done them a disservice. Like I remember who might have, you know, emailed back in anger that they weren’t selected. Well, that person is never gonna get published in my magazine now, right?

Nikki

8:22
Right. Yeah, you don’t want to you don’t want to burn any bridges, because you know, this piece you submitted might not be right, but you might have another one that is, so you want to keep things civil. For sure.

Janine

8:35
Yeah. And I don’t like having to send rejections but that’s just,

Nikki

8:42
That’s part of it.

Janine

8:43
That’s how it is, right. And so for example, with my current issue, it’s got a gardening theme. And I had an open call for seed packet designs where people could design their own or illustrate their own seed packet. And I had 216 submissions, which is an amazing amount.

Nikki

8:59
Yeah.

Janine

9:00
But I only could fit 80 in the magazine. So I had to make choices. And the choices aren’t always based on what’s so called the best art, right? I want to have a representation of all sorts of different kinds of art, different people at different like levels in their career, different kinds of plants, right? I can’t have all carrots and I can’t have all cosmos, it had to be variety, right? Like a variety of gardens, right? So there was all sorts of factors that go into what I selected. So when I send out the decline letter I have crafted over the years, it’s trying to be as nice as possible. And I was very specifically saying there, it’s not about the quality of the work that you submitted that there’s all sorts of other factors that go into this and to keep trying. So yeah, don’t take it personally.

Laura

9:51
And what’s nice about that as you’re actually responding, you know, because a lot of people don’t respond. So even just getting a response even if it’s a sorry, not now is a kind thing that they’re receiving a response from you.

Janine

10:04
I think it’s part of my duty as the editor of the magazine that people who’ve taken the time to submit something, I really appreciate that. I know, it’s a lot of work. And you know, it wasn’t an instantaneous thing. So I really appreciate that. And they’re my readers, and I also really appreciate that. So I do try, everyone will get a response one way or another. And I just, I wish I had more pages, but it’s limited.

Nikki

10:32
But each issue cannot be as thick as your encyclopedias.

Janine

10:36
That’s true. But that’s a good point. So people might submit to one thing, but that doesn’t mean that if they were rejected it for that doesn’t mean that I haven’t put them in my idea list for something else altogether. And so people I’ve gotten to know their work through one open call. It wasn’t the right fit, but it’s perfect for something down the line that I’m working on, or the encyclopedia or something. So really, I do, I save everything.

Nikki

10:59
Nice, all organized in Notion.

Janine

11:02
Yes I do, and I just built the submission form so it goes directly into Notion. So that saves me some time.

Nikki

11:08
I actually just noticed that today. Well, thank you so much for coming back and sharing all these tips with us.

Janine

11:20
My pleasure. I look forward to seeing your submissions.

Nikki

11:23
You’ll be seeing them.

Laura

11:24
To get a downloadable PDF with

Janine

‘s tips and tricks, visit startistsociety.com/publicationtips.

Nikki

11:33
Thanks for listening. We’ll see you next week.