Hi! Thanks! I am on SA, as Artemisia.

I graduated from art school a few years ago, with a major in illustration, so we got a pretty thorough education in self-promotion and other business aspects of the illustration world. However, it's not the kind of thing you have to go to school to learn about.

I research the names and addresses of the art directors at magazines and publishers that I think might be able to use my style of work. Some places will have this info right on their website. There are also books like this with listings of contact information: [link]

I'll send these people promotional mailings, which can either be post cards featuring my work, or packages with a few printed samples that I've chosen specifically to appeal to that publication. I do also find people specifically looking for artists on places like Craig's List, but those tend to be private individuals or smaller local businesses.

There are also large juried illustration annuals you can submit work to, like Society of Illustrators, American Illustration, and Spectrum where if you make it in, art directors are likely to find you. I haven't made it into one of those big ones yet, but I've been in a few smaller compilation books, and in most of those cases, the editors have actually come to me through my website or Deviant Art, so don't discount the benefit of putting your work up on a site like this.

I don't have a rep yet. When my workload increases enough that I think it would be beneficial to have someone dealing with the business end of things so that I don't have to, I'll start looking.

Whoah! If you get any better photos, I'd like to see.