I finished reading "Breaking into Freelance:  the guide for artist, designers and illustrators" by Holly DeWolf.  My initial thoughts were that it does contain some useful information that I have implemented into my work day to help keep my self organized and on track with my projects. Now comes the "but", the book itself seems more directed to the work from home mom than to the freelance illustrator.  It seemed more like a "How to become a Freelance artist for the stay at home mom" book. With frequent talks on how great it is to be at home with the kids and how to manage kids, work and household duties.  Which is fine, I'll be doing that as well but not the information I was looking for.  The book is a good book to keep you motivated with your decision to be a freelancer.  Its a nice little pep talk of a book without ever getting into the meat of what a freelancer needs to do in terms of managing expenses, contracts and agreements, marketing, looking for vendors and what to look for in those vendors, time keeping for billable hours, business status (becoming a corporation vs an LLC) which the book either briefly mentioned or completely overlooked.  If you want the meat and potatoes of what being a freelance really means and takes this is not really that book.  If you are knee deep in freelancing but down in the slumps and need a good motivational pep talk then this book can be useful in that sense.

The book I am now currently reading (I'm a little over halfway through it) "Starting Your Career As A Freelance Illustrator or Graphic Designer" By Michael Fleishman.   This book is very heavy on the meat and potatoes.  Delving into a lot of the financial aspect regarding taxes, expenses and the like. Also touching on lawyers and why one is needed to protect our interests as a designer or illustrator. Very detailed and informative really gets you thinking about everything that you need to keep track of and do to sustain a career as a freelancer.  Forms, contracts, artist agreements, invoices, estimates and all the necessary forms and paperwork that will be needed. Building a proper quality portfolio.  I'm still only half way through the book.  The next chapters are going to be:

Bringing in Clients, How Do You Get Noticed, What Goes In A Portfolio, The Magazine Market, Selling to Newspapers, Working With Advertising Agencies, Selling To Book Publishers, The Greeting Card Market (a market I hadn't thought of marketing to before), Working With Art And Design Studios, Selling to Small Businesses and Marketing to the Web.

Which I'm looking forward to some of these chapters and if they are as informative as the chapters I've already read I will be well on my way to kicking some serious tail in this freelance gig.

Michael Fleishman's book is very well written and lays everything out plainly and clearly with no sugar coating. Something I'm glad to have picked up and has been an invaluable resource of information.  Something I'd certainly recommend for anyone thinking about or is currently working as a freelance artist.  Though at points in the book its information is veered more to the Graphic Designer than it is to an Illustrator, but if you plan on doing both jobs then everything in the book would be pertinent.

Figured I'd share this review especially since I'm documenting my foray into freelancing full-time and the information in these books have certainly helped and influenced some of the decisions I've made so far.

Now for another page from my sketchbook