Hallmarks and Milestones
I've reached a milestone in my career—I am on Amazon!
Hearts & Kisses, the book I illustrated for Simon & Schuster, is available for pre-order. It's a charming book written by Michelle Knudsen and will make a lovely gift for all the little ones on your Valentine's Day list!
I network with a lot of illustrators, and one of the things that we all seem to do is to set these hallmarks of legitimacy for ourselves. "When I accomplish X, then I'll be successful." Of course, as soon as we reach X, we raise the bar again. "Ok, as soon as I do Y, then I'll be successful."
For me, they become the litmus test of being a "real" artist. I don't know why I still question this, but occasionally, I still feel a bit of a fraud. As I reach each new self-imposed "real artist" marker, the doubt, gratefully, comes less and less often.
I am a real artist, and now when I doubt myself, I can go search my name on Amazon to prove it. :-)
Woohoo! Congratulations, Janee! I've pre-ordered my copy and can't wait for you to sign it. You're a real artist and I'm a real fan!
Posted by: patrice | April 10, 2005 at 10:01 AM
Congratulations! That's wonderful news!!
:-) Anastasia
Posted by: Anastasia | April 10, 2005 at 01:55 PM
Yay!!! It looks so adorable, I can't wait til it comes out.
Posted by: roz | April 10, 2005 at 06:35 PM
Congrats Janee--that cover is just delicious to look at!
Posted by: Paige Keiser | April 10, 2005 at 07:48 PM
Congratulations. It looks like a great book.
Posted by: wynlen | April 11, 2005 at 07:15 AM
Congratulations! Now what until Valentine's Day rolls around and you're spending your time checking your stats on Amazon! Welcome to the next hurdle!
Posted by: Snowbear | April 11, 2005 at 03:52 PM
Congrats, Janee!!!!!!!!! This one will soone be followed by many many more, I'm sure!
Posted by: *jenny | April 11, 2005 at 05:20 PM
Congrats, honey! Whoo-hoo!!! I gots my pre-order in!! Can't wait!
Posted by: patricia | April 13, 2005 at 07:55 AM
Contrats, and many more sucesses to you!
Posted by: Nancy | April 13, 2005 at 12:59 PM
Thanks y'all. You're all so sweet!
When those of you who ordered books actually get them come January (according to Amazon), please let me know so I can send you a heart sticker with a little love note to put on your book. :-)
Posted by: janee | April 13, 2005 at 03:30 PM
I know the feeling because it has just happened to me! My first authored/illustrated books come out in July and are on Amazon.co.uk. It's been really nice to send my friends the links so they can see I'm finally in print (in something they can read rather than the trade mags most of my work appears in!)
Weirdly though, Amazon have a glitch in the system and the name "mike hatt" is on the listings. They say this will be sorted in 5 days so here's hoping!
(The books are "Living With Him" and "Living With Her" - "Everything You Need to Know")
Posted by: Alex Hallatt | April 13, 2005 at 04:19 PM
Awesome! Congratulations, Janee, that's very exciting!
Posted by: Einar | April 13, 2005 at 06:18 PM
very very exciting, big congratulatons !
Posted by: Cin | April 14, 2005 at 07:15 PM
That's awesome Janee! Only one of many to come I'm sure!
Posted by: donna | April 15, 2005 at 12:30 PM
Atta girl!! I'm so way happy for you!
I'm sending you a great big hug!
luv, mabelle
Posted by: mabelle | April 15, 2005 at 09:46 PM
Wow, Janee! It looks great. Congrats! And it being a valentine day book, it will sell great. And an African American kid on the cover? I am so glad to see that kind of diversity, I usually don't see any A-A titles at Valentines day. Not even my valentines day book. Ha!
Hoping this is the first of many more to come, and Im sure it will.
Posted by: Don | April 17, 2005 at 10:33 PM
Janee, this is WONDERFUL, wonderful news! You are amazing. And for the record, I never once visited here and thought of you as anything but an artist!
Congrats to your latest magnificent milestone!
Posted by: Giao | April 18, 2005 at 10:01 AM