First Illustration Uploads to Stock Sites

New Shutterstock contributors often upload impressive illustrations but frequently face rejections due to minor technical issues. These 6 tips from Tim Goldman (Shutterstock review coordinator) will help beginners — and not just beginners — ensure that their test submission works have a much greater chance of being successfully reviewed and accepted on the first try.

6 Tips for Uploading Illustrations to Stock Sites for the First Time

1. Choose diverse illustrations that showcase your skills and abilities at their best

Upload a variety of works so that stock inspectors can immediately understand your capabilities as a creator.

Showcase the range of your skills.

Aim to upload different types of work, so that we can clearly see what you plan to offer as a contributor.

2. Select illustrations for upload that don’t contain logos, copyrighted marks, or images of celebrities

Trademarks, certain subjects, and/or objects may not meet commercial licensing requirements (for example, images of the Empire State Building can only be uploaded as editorial content).

We also do not accept celebrity images in our library.

Be sure to read the list of upload restrictions before uploading and check if your illustration falls under any of these categories.

3. Analyze which illustrations are in high demand on the stock site

Review images already available on the stock site. Focus on those related to your themes and sort them by popularity.

This way, you’ll get a solid idea of what most buyers want and what sells the most. Generally, the most popular images are versatile and/or usable for a range of purposes.

The more niche the theme or style of your illustration, the fewer downloads it’s likely to get.

4. Remove all signatures from your work

We cannot approve works with signatures or personal logos, as these are your trademarks.

This also applies to adding your name to the illustration.

5. Upload a property release

All non-digital images must be accompanied by a property release with attached thumbnails of the illustrations. The release form can be downloaded from the stock site.

Ensure that you upload a fully completed property release via the upload editor before submitting images for review.

6. Check image quality at 100% zoom

If your illustration is under 4MP, you’ll need to rescan it to a larger size. Scaling up a scan or raster vector in this case produces a low-resolution image.

When exporting a vector to raster, make sure to export it at a large size with a resolution of 300dpi and avoid downsizing it after initial rasterization.

View all files intended for upload at 100% zoom to check for visible artifacts or rough edges.

Review your work once more.

Keep these tips in mind when preparing your first upload, and you’ll be well on your way to becoming a successful contributor on Shutterstock!

Original source: www.shutterstock.com/blog/6-tips-to-follow-when-submitting-illustrations-for-the-first-time