Would you like to be a cartoonist?
Are you one of those people whose cubicle is full of cartoons? Do you love making people laugh? Do you dream of one day escaping from your cubic and making a living as a cartoonist? This article won’t teach you how to do it (sorry), but it will show you how you can get started and make a name for yourself while making enough money to pay a bill or two.
Cartoons on the Internet
There are nearly a million ways to get your cartoons published online, but not all of them will make you money, so be careful how you approach publishing on this medium. One thing you should Whatever you do, whether it makes you money or not, is start a blog. Most successful cartoonists have found them to be an important part of their business, so what does that tell you? The great thing about blogging is that it is possible to earn money from them by creating blog ads. There are a lot of people who make a pretty good living through marketing blogging alone, but the problem is that you need to generate pretty good traffic before you can hope to make money this way. However, if you set up your cartoon internet presence correctly, you may never have to worry about any of the following publishing possibilities. If you find that it is taking a while to get the money flowing, then you may find that the greeting card industry is a good place for you as a newbie to start.
Cartoon Greeting Cards
Greeting card companies have been a traditional money maker for beginning writers and artists for many years. This is a great way to earn a little extra money and start building your posting credentials. To start publishing, simply do a Greeting Card Publishers search or request a book with artist market information (or writer’s market information) and read each company’s submission requirements to find out how you should submit your work. If this is something you think you could really get into, then you could even start your own greeting card business and publish yourself (just be sure to do your research before starting down this path). However, if the idea of creating another birthday cartoon bores you to tears, you might find some great cartoon possibilities in your backyard with the advertising industry.
Cartoon ads
If you’re like most people these days, you’re constantly bombarded with ads. Business owners simply have to advertise to get business (unless they are extremely lucky) and that creates a great opportunity for you. Keep your eyes open while you go about your daily activities. For example, let’s say you drop off your dry cleaner at a dry cleaner and see that they have an uninteresting or poorly drawn logo … offer to draw a better one for them (for a fee, of course, or maybe even make a trade-in). Then the next day maybe when you take your child to the dentist they give you a brochure to teach your children how to take care of their teeth and the brochure is so poorly done that it could bore a patent examiner. Then you can offer to help them create a cartoon that the kids are interested in. The possibilities are practically endless in this field and if you get good enough your income can skyrocket. However, if you really don’t like commercial stuff, another great niche to consider is the market for book and magazine illustrations.
Cartoon magazines and books illustrations
The best category in book and magazine illustrations is naturally the children’s market, but there are some other categories (like politics) that often make use of cartoons. When approaching this market be sure to put your creativity to good use as working for large publishers can be very competitive. To get a foot in the door, look for smaller publishers, and Internet ezine publishers can also be a great place to start. Yet another place you might want to consider looking is desktop publishing companies, it’s really amazing how many people are getting into desktop publishing and never before in history have so many words been published, but most of the people who publish all draw those words to save your life. These markets are just starting to grow and I have even seen one or two suppliers of low-quality cartoon stock (something like stock photography) looking to serve these types of markets. Now is the time to jump in before they start to get too saturated (as are the stock photo markets). If you decided to start a stock cartoon business, you may not even need to know how to create cartoons yourself, all you need is the ability to judge what kind of cartoon your customers would like and then find cartoonists who can. provide them.
Cartoon dreams
Where there is a will, there is a way, but with all the opportunities that are available in the world today, “the way” shouldn’t be too difficult. A good sense of humor and a desire to draw cartoons are really all the requirements you need to get started. You don’t even need to know how to draw that well as great drawing skills have never been a really important requirement for the cartoonist (just look at some of the most famous cartoonists). There are also many great tools available to help you learn to draw. If you are one of those with artistic challenges, check out my cartoon book and software. [http://www.computer-graphics-haven.com/GraphicsHelpTopics/GraphicsResources/Beginning_Cartooning/BeginnerCartoonist.html] reviews to find some of the best resources to help you get started.
