'No' now may not be 'no' later

Where have you been for the past three weeks I hear you yell!!! Yes I have been a little MIA for the past month, but it was all for a very good reason.  I had a wonderful opportunity that came along so I of course threw myself into it and had to put some little things on hold for a little while.  I've had a chance to work with an agency I have admired for a looooong time, but I've got a little story to tell of how it all happened with a huge lesson in it that I'm finally ready to share with you after being utterly mortified.

I'd wanted to work with this agency for quite a while as I came across them while I was at university and was instantly drawn in by their talented artists and fun style.  Having put it off for a long time I eventually decided to go searching for agent representation, so I made a list of my top agencies (aim high right!) and drafted a simple introduction email just to enquire about their submission process and what they are looking for in artists.

After drafting it and sending it to the first three on my list (this agency being one of them!) I realised I hadn't changed the name of the agency in the email and had sent it to three wonderful companies.  I'd basically scuppered my chances in one fellow swoop.  I can laugh about it now but at the time there was absolutely no way to come back from it and I was convinced I was going to be put on all three of their blacklists, never to be considered.

The lesson would be check, double check and triple check your emails before you send them! For goodness sake don't do what I did!

Luckily for me the lovely gentleman from the agency I've just done some designs for found the funny side and was a little sympathetic.  Nothing happened at this point (which I kind of deserved) but I bided my time, kept designing and my work is now a million times better so I knew I was in a position to go for it again.  I also secretly hoped he had forgotten about my blunder the year before.

So I emailed again (quadruple checking this time) and had a very pleasant chat with this agent, he'd noticed my blog and everything I had been doing to promote myself and build my business and wanted to see my portfolio (Score!).

So I got there in the end :)

Lesson 1 - Check, check and check again before sending!
Lesson 2 - Just because it's no now doesn't mean it's no later!

Oh and nice to be back!