Contacting Publishers

Yesterday I updated my website with recent work, I have found two publishers that accept portfolios and want to make sure my site is showcasing my work as well as possible. My website now contains a range of work from character designs, development work and finished spreads from picture books. I have contacted two publishers, the first was Barrington Stoke that just ask for a link to an online portfolio or website and the second is The Bright Agency that that ask for a PDF of at least 10 illustrations. I put together a PDF including some recent character designs as well as pages from the books I've been working on recently. The publishers say that it can take them 2 months to look at portfolios and that they don't reply with feedback unless they are interested in your work. The odds of hearing back I would think are slim but this is an opportunity to get my work seen by publishers an I shouldn't let a lack of response put me off trying again. In my one to one tutorial yesterday it was suggested to me to send portfolios at regular intervals, maybe every 6 moths to demonstrate the progression of my work, work rate and enthusiasm. I found a number of publishers that accept unsolicited manuscripts but the books I have made at the moment are entered into competition briefs. once the competitions are over I can send the manuscripts to a range of publishers so I need to keep a list of publisher that I think my work would appeal to. So far the list is

- Anderson Press
- Templar Publishing
- Mogzilla
- Flying Eye
- Imagine That

Walker books don't accept submission but they do advertise jobs on their website. They are currently looking for a design assistant. It would be worth keeping an eye on their site to see if any positions come up that i would be interested in.