Monthly Update - September (Patreon)

Hey everyone!
It's a new month and with a new month comes new hope and good news! Thank you all so much again for your massive support in August, as things are looking much more positive again!

We got financial support approved by the government! It will cover roughly half our costs and with both our current commissions plus patreon, we should be able to get by now. Last month was a DOOZY because of all the additional bills we got, but with everything paid off, the car works again now and we refueled it too before gas prices went up again 👀🤞
Given the current times we're living in of both the pandemic and now the massive inflation due to the war in Ukraine, the Job Center advisers were actually surprised how late we arrived at their place compared to thousands of other freelancers, shop keepers and artists who had to come to them for help. We'll get support for half a year for now, but of course both me and my mom are determined to make a living of our own again and now we can pursue our plans without having to live in constant fear and anxiety! Mom can plan her next exhibition and I can finish my commissions and then prepare my book pitch to move to another publisher! We're incredibly grateful for how well everything went, thanks to your help and the many other kind people we encountered during the month of August. Thank you all so much for supporting us through this time! 🥰💖💕💖🧡💛💚💙💜✨

Now what's next? Plans for this month:

- Finding a new Publisher

As you all know, as of June this Summer I ended my contract with my publishing house. I did no longer fit into their program and there were simply no possibilities for my book series to expand there, but I left my publisher on good terms and he agreed that this was the best move for me and my books.

I have an update now, as I received an e-mail from an editor I contacted. She works for a big publishing house for children's books, that I wanted to apply for first because of the convenient location (It's very close to me in Hamburg). She wrote me a very insightful and helpful reply of how she thinks my books would fit better into the program of two other big publishers, as they offer a variety of Garden/Biology- and Gift books, next to their program for children. One of the publishers she mentions was next on my list, so I'll be preparing an exposé for them next, based on some tips she gave me for how I can present my books to them.

With that in mind, I am planning on going to the Frankfurter Buchmesse, (19-23th of October, 2022) one of the biggest international bookfairs of Europe, in Germany.
I haven't decided yet on which days I'll visit, but probably around Friday the 21th of October. I'll be contacting the next publishing house on my list this week and ask if I can get an appointment with them on the bookfair. Depending on if I can make an appointment in advance, I can book my trip and I'll be preparing a portfolio to present on the bookfair, Posters, merch, exposés, manuscripts and my Gardendragon videos as well. Updating the Exposés will probably take the most time, otherwise I just need to print a few more illustrations, maybe finish a character sheet too for Fio & Tika. 

- Convention Update
Some may remember that I wanted to apply for a small Convention in Hamburg for this October. Despite their website stating they are planning on hosting one for October the first, they have not been posting any updates or application forms for their Convention and all of my e-mails have stayed unanswered. I do not know what is going on over there, but for now I have cancelled my plans for going there on such short notice and will focus on my book pitch for the Frankfurter Buchmesse instead.

- Finishing Commissions
I have 1 last illustration to finish of a big commission for 3 Gardendragon illustrations. I'll be finishing it this month so I can take on smaller commissions again and also to invest a bit more time again into the comic Dub

- Comic Dub
Progress has been slow, as you all know, but I hope to further move forward with the final episode, step by step. My biggest mistake was to go ALL OUT on the animation to make visuals more interesting (and to avoid animating text which somehow felt wORSE), which automatically meant I now have to keep up that level of quality for consistency-sake... Once I finish my current commission, I can make a bit more time for the Dub again.

- ???? ART
Yeah IDK I just have a lot of illustrations I want to finish and you might randomly get some wips or early access to finished illustrations during the month, we'll see!

Otherwise I am doing okay, my body is still recovering from the amount of stress I experienced last month and I have a dentist appointment this week and am going to physio therapy to do something against my tense muscles now. But mentally I'm back on track, I'm no longer scared, but times are surely strange. Everything is in contsant motion and with the chance of a new publishing house, big changes seem to form on the horizon! I'm excited to see what these next two months have to offer.

That's it for now, if there should be any more news, you'll probably hear of it first on my Discord first!

discord.gg/FbWeqvFBrr (Server Link)

As always, thank you so much for your incredible support on this journey and thank you for reading! 😄 I'll see you with a new post soon! 💖
~Eleanor 😊💕