Freelance Cartooning
(Page 5 of 6)
January/February 1970
By the Mother Earth News editors
As I mentioned earlier, subscribe to the cartoonists' tip sheets. They'll keep you advised of buying action in the middle and minor magazines. So will Writer's Digest and Author and Journalist. They all list cartoon markets and, if you submit to the magazines listed, you should gradually build up a list of editors that will regularly buy your work, assuming it is of professional quality.
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These little magazines are actually pretty easy to work with and, if your gag sense is sharp and you can slant ideas to the readers of a particular publication, your art work can actually be a little rough.
One word of caution: STICK TO THE FIELDS YOU KNOW. Since I lived on a farm when I was doing my heavy cartoon work, I drew mostly farm and dairy cartoons and had no trouble selling them to the smaller farm publications. I was also hung up on aviation and developed a secondary market around that interest.
No matter what magazine you decide to submit to, give the editor what he wants for his readers. Not what you want them to have. This is called slanting your work. You send farm cartoons to farm magazines, girly cartoons to girly publications and supermarket cartoons to magazines for supermarket managers.
If you run across a new market and you don't know exactly what kind of cartoons it uses, get a copy of the magazine and study it. If you can't find a copy, write the editor, tell him you're a cartoonist, offer your services and ask for samples of his publication. If he's interested, he'll send you a few copies. If he's not interested . . . it's better to find out right in front.
Most editors are honest and hard working, but you'll find a few that won't return drawings or who use your stuff and never pay for it. Forget them . . . they don't last very long, anyway. There are more good markets than you can cover. Concentrate on the good ones.
SUBMITTING CARTOONS TO MAGAZINES
After you've drawn up a good batch of 10 or 12 cartoons (or 5 or 6 for a very specialized market), address a 9 X 12 manila envelope to yourself and a 9 1/2 X 12 1/2 envelope to the editor. Stamp both envelopes with sufficient postage, put the cartoons into the smaller one and put it into the big envelope. A cardboard stiffener is also a good idea. Seal the large envelope and mail. It's now becoming increasingly popular to make a very light fold across the center of the batch of drawings and use half-size envelopes. They seem to stand up a lot better in the mail.
You can seal cartoons, according to the post office regulations, and send them third class as long as you don't include a written note. If your local post office gives you a hard time on this, write to the Postmaster General in Washington, D.C.
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