Help! First Client Phone call
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In an art group I'm in someone posted about looking for illustrator for a children's book project and no one had commented (I know, weird.) I commented and reached out to him through DM and we got to chatting. He liked my work and wanted to discuss doing a hybrid publishing project. He's writing a book about true Black History stories that have been forgotten, with the publishing date to be February 2024. It's a project that he is working on with a congressman. We're supposed to have a phone call today to discuss the project and see if it would be something I could help with. I'm really nervous. This is my first big client work (my last one fell through). What are some things I should have ready for this phone call this afternoon? I already asked timeline and more story details, but he hasn't finished writing the book. I know that's typical for non-fiction works. I don't know a lot about hybrid publishing.
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I'm sorry I don't know what "hybrid publishing" is.
But are there no additional questions you would like to ask?
F.e. you could ask who else is involved in the project, who is doing the typesetting and layouting? Is there an art director who will give you feedback on the sketches? (If so, you will need their contact data, won't you?)
Maybe just ask them what they EXPECT how the working with an illustrator will look like?Ask him at which times it is most convenient for him to be contacted by you (maybe he has some "office hours") and tell him about yours.
Ask him which way he wants wo exchange data: is there a dropbox, another file sharing system, should everything be handed via wetransfer, etc?
As soon as you got the contract:
Ask them at which times of the year they won't be available because of maybe being on vacation. I hate it when clients don't tell me about it and then they don't answer for 2 weeks and I can't hold the deadline because I would have needed their feedback.
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@MimiHecher Thanks so much!
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How did the call go?
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@MimiHecher It went well! He had no idea how the publishing world works. He works in film making and movies. He thought it would be a similar way of operating. We talked for a long time about his project and plans. We actually didn't iron out anything concrete yet. He is planning on writing multiple children's books for and behalf of famous people that he has connections with and then publish them under that person's name. After a lot of discussion, he said he did want me to be the illustrator for his projects and would send me emails with details soon. I'm kinda stunned. I kept waiting for him to say, well you know a lot about publishing, but you've clearly never illustrated a full project like this so I'll keep looking. Instead he kept telling me that the style in my portfolio was exactly what he wanted.
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@ksfabian Awesome!
I keep my fingers crossed he will have finished the first story very soon!
But as he doesn't know how the publishing world works, I hope you can provide enough information for him or he will look for it, as it's not enough to have a story and an illustrator... someone should also know about layouting and typesetting, about good and bad print, about color management and so on. So I hope that either you know about that stuff or he hires an additional specialist!
It really ruins a book if the typesetting is bad. -
@MimiHecher We did talk about that. Luckily for me I've done some querying of books and self publishing of books as well so I have a medium knowledge of the publishing industry.
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@ksfabian Great! Then you surely are the perfect fit for him in more than only the illustration regards!
