The process of submitting art to blogs & how to submit to Spiffy.

Hi! Spiffy editor Kate here with some information for artists, crafters and designers who might want their work featured on Spiffy.

Two things this week made me think about this, so let me explain. First and foremost, I am a self-employed artist. I run two etsy shops - flapperdoodle.etsy.com and kategabrielle.etsy.com - and spend most of my time figuring out how to make them successful. If you're a self-employed artist reading this, you know that this kind of work often requires e-mailing bloggers to ask them to feature your work. I *hate* this part of my job.

I recently e-mailed another blog, spending well over 30 minutes constructing a two paragraph proposal.. trying to sound confident but not egotistical, going in depth without going on too long. Asking someone to feature you on their blog is, at least for me, the most nerve-wracking part of trying to have a successful online art career. And, as embarresing as this is to admit, I've never been featured on a blog that I e-mailed. While it doesn't exactly make me super-confident about my art, I don't actually think my art is to blame for my constant rejection. I think it means I stink at sending emails, and most of the well-known bloggers seem to require a well-written e-mail as a prerequisite for getting on their blog.

The other catalyst for this post was something I just saw on twitter -- a post by the blogger behind Scoutie Girl. You can read it here. Tara explained that she likes e-mails that are sassy and confident and feels bad for the people who sound self-depracating (something I always feel the urge to do when talking about my own artwork, but usually resist). She went on to say that she also loves to discover new artists when they leave interesting, insightful comments on her blog.

All of this got me to thinking... me and my co-editors are in the same position as many other design blog editors in that we decide what content we will feature on our site, oftentimes picking it ourselves by searching the internet, sometimes at the suggestion of an artist or designer.

Well, for OUR blog I want the process to be easier for artists. Since I know what it's like to sit at the computer with butterflies in your stomach writing and re-writing a blog request, I don't want anyone to feel that way when approaching us. All you have to do is send a link to your art. Maybe a "hey, maybe you can check this out?" but nothing else is needed.

You don't have to be a professional email writer to get featured here, you just have to have a nice product. And so that is the only thing we will judge you on.

If you are interested in being featured, just drop us a line at spiffydesignblog@yahoo.com. And if anyone out there wants to feature my art, I'd be forever grateful if you'd do a post without me having to send the obligatory awkward e-mail request ;-)

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By the way, what do YOU prefer -- an email saying "thank you, we'll let you know if we want to feature your artwork" (which, in my case at least, usually means "I'm being very polite about telling you you will never be featured here.") or just no reply at all? I personally prefer no reply if they're not going to use me, the soft letdown usually hurts more.