At last! Here is real practical help for budding freelance illustrators. This book helps you avoid the pitfalls that can ruin a career, with advice on crucial first impressions, how to create a portfolio and approach clients, how to negotiate contracts, and how to handle, deliver and bill the first job. It discusses setting up a studio, maintaining a steady flow of work and managing time and money, and also provides information on successful self-promotion, self-publishing, and the pros and cons of agents. Packed with useful tips gleaned from the authors own career and his work as an agent handling major artists in the US and UK, the book includes interviews with 9 big-name illustrators. The reader benefits from their experience of starting out; what they learnt or noticed during the metamorphosis from student to professional; what their expectations and experiences have been. In addition, art directors and commissioners describe how they like being approached and what they really dislike.