ag www.​agood​son.com

Hello Anna, thank you for doing this inter­view! To start off with I would like to know what moti­vated you to start AGM and how did you do it? Also what qual­i­fies you to have an inter­na­tional illus­tra­tor rep­re­sen­ta­tive agency named after your­self? Did your name carry weight in the indus­try before AGM?

I was out of work. No seri­ously, I was work­ing for another agency that had a totally dif­fer­ent phi­los­o­phy and work ethic then I did, so I decided to go out on my own. Also, I come from a family of entre­pre­neurs and always knew that one day I would run my own com­pany.

As for my using my name as the agen­cies name, it was a friend that sug­gested it. I was spend­ing many sleep­less hours trying to come up with a catchy cre­ative name. Then one day this friend of mine just sug­gested that I should just keep it simple and call it call it Anna Good­son Man­age­ment. In ret­ro­spect, its one of the best things I have ever done. Did it carry any weight? Absolutely not, none what­so­ever. I was a com­plete unknown. When I first approached artists to rep­re­sent them, most of them turned me down. They would ask me things like “who are you and how long have you been doing this?” since it had only been a few weeks; most of the people I first approached turned the other way. Let’s just say that I totally under­stand what its like to start at the bottom and work your way up. As for being inter­na­tional, why not. I always felt that the only thing sep­a­rat­ing me from illus­tra­tors from other coun­tries was the dif­fer­ent time zones and I could always deal with that.

In com­par­i­son to some other Artists’ Reps, for exam­ple Debut art or even thoro­good, you gen­er­ally rep­re­sent a small number of illus­tra­tors and artists, not for­get­ting the couple of pho­tog­ra­phers you have on your books. Even though you rep­re­sent fewer people than other illus­tra­tion agen­cies do you feel that you still pos­si­bly rep­re­sent too many as it stands? Have you seen the film Jerry Maguire? If not, get a copy and check it out… Do you try to spread your time evenly between pro­mot­ing all of your illus­tra­tors all of the time or do you con­cen­trate on your top earn­ing illustrator(s) and leave the rest twid­dling their thumbs even when there’s lots of work?

I try not to com­pare myself to other reps and do what I feel is right for me. The size of the group we have suits me just fine. If I wanted I could rep­re­sent many more but I like the agency to have the feel of an inti­mate bou­tique rather than a Wall Mart. I was always told that “size” doesn’t really matter, does it? As for jerry Maguire, yes I saw the movie but am not a big Tomcat fan. Since we are located in Mon­treal, Quebec I like more to com­pare my style with that of Rene Angeli, Celine Dion’s agent. Yes, it’s true that Celine has an amaz­ing voice but if it were not for her agent push­ing down doors for her, she would prob­a­bly still singing at local bars in Old Mon­treal. I like to think that I have a lot of drive and go after what I believe. For exam­ple, when I first took on Pablo from Argentina, he was a com­plete unknown. I went crazy when I saw his work and fell madly in love with his illus­tra­tions. I also knew if I worked really hard and did not take no for an answer I would help him do really well. The first place I con­tacted was Rolling Stone. No, I did not have any con­tacts there at the time but just knew that his illus­tra­tions should be in there. I called and called and called. I sent FedEx’s and I even went to NY with his book. Well the day finally came and the phone rang with a job for him. We ended up work­ing reg­u­larly with RS for two years after. It was a dream come true but only the begin­ning. We even­tu­ally sold one of his illus­tra­tions to the singer for­mally know as Prince for $$ well lets just say sev­eral years worth of salary for an illus­tra­tor living in Argentina. I kept pound­ing and the jobs kept coming. We recently found out that Pablo has had 5 illus­tra­tions selected for the next Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Arts Illus­tra­tion Annual as well as just com­plet­ing his first full page for The New Yorker. Yes, this story evolves around Pablo but I do this for all the people that I rep­re­sent. It’s my job, my duty and of course my pas­sion. I have never nor will I ever put more energy on the artists that are the most suc­cess­ful. It is the ones that are slower that some­times need that little bit extra encour­age­ment and support.

Good answer . So out­side of the job you do what skills and inter­ests do you have?

My job is my life and my life is my job but since the birth of my daugh­ter Sacha two years ago, I have fallen deeply in love with being a parent. I would have to say that it has become my new favorite pass time. That might sound corny to many read­ing these answers but its true. From the moment you have a child, you really real­ize what life is all about.

That’s not to say that having chil­dren is for every­one, its not but it sure was for me. I use to be your typ­i­cal type A per­son­al­ity where my career took prece­dent to every­thing else. Now I must admit that I truly do stop and smell the flow­ers. I also stop to tie Sacha’s shoes, point out the shapes in the cloud and teach her that the color pink has dif­fer­ent names such as “fusia.” I re con­nected with Broad­way musi­cals by going to see Mary Pop­pins with her and learned to ask if “that cookie” has nuts. I now read labels on food some­thing I thought I would never do. I buy organic when I can and have become quite con­cerned with the envi­ron­ment. To think that so many things are affected by what we do has made me a more respon­si­ble human being.

I also I can’t wait for the zoo to open up this season. A few weeks ago a baby giraffe was born and Sacha and I watched the birth on the inter­net. I promised her that we would go and see that baby giraffe in person.

Now here’s a ques­tion you must have been asked many times: You find or an illus­tra­tor finds you and you want to rep­re­sent them – what is the next step?

If I find an illus­tra­tor whose style I like, I send them a note and tell them exactly that. I ask them if they have heard of our firm and ask them if they have ever thought about being rep­re­sented. They often get back to me with typ­i­cal ques­tions such as what is the com­mis­sions we take, what are the mar­kets that we cover, is it exclu­sive etc. I also sug­gest to them that they ask around about us to var­i­ous sources and gladly supply email addresses of others in our gang, should they have any ques­tions for them.

If an illus­tra­tors con­tacts me and I like their work then I ask them a few ques­tions like how did they hear about us, what do they know about our agency, what are their expec­ta­tions in a rep. We also have a con­tract that I email over so they can see what our agree­ment looks like.
To be honest, it’s a pretty quick process. I have taken on a new illus­tra­tor on a Friday and had them up on our web­site by Monday.

I really like to dive into the rela­tion­ship. I am a reac­tionary kind of gal and when I feel its right it usu­ally is. I get a good gut feel­ing just by writ­ing a few emails or talk­ing on the phone. I have said in the past, I don’t care how great someone’s work is their per­son­ally is as impor­tant to me.

Once the con­tract is signed and the images are up on line then I have Johanne Decker, who heads up my illus­tra­tion divi­sion con­tact them and fill them in on other pro­ce­dures they need to know about. Usu­ally at the same time, they get a wel­com­ing note from Sylvie Hamel who is in charge of the admin­is­tra­tion part of the agency fill­ing them in on all the other details. We are really very well orga­nized and any new illus­tra­tor join­ing AGM sees this from the moment then get on board.

OK you have the con­tracts signed – Apart from putting the new illustrators’ details and images online at AGM; how do you go about pro­mot­ing the new illustrator… or photographer?

This is like asking how they put the caramel into the Caramel bars. Are you asking for the receipt of our suc­cess? I would have to answer back with the ques­tion, what don’t we do? Once we sign on an artist with AGM we work very hard at pro­mot­ing them. We do what­ever we can and are very very pro active in get­ting their work seen. We send out printed promos, email, call go see clients with port­fo­lios, get on all the top web­sites, adver­tise, etc.

We also encour­age our artists to par­tic­i­pate in all the great con­tests out there. We also pay a % of their par­tic­i­pa­tion. I feel that it is only fare to do so. I think we are the only reps that do this. I mean how can I push them to par­tic­i­pate so that they get that added expo­sure and not con­tribute to the costs?

There really isn’t much that we don’t do. Actu­ally, we don’t do source books. Per­son­ally, feel that source books are way too expen­sive for what you get out of them. Its not fare to ask a new illus­tra­tor to lay out so much money for a page in a book. That just did not make sense to me. I also feel that source books are out­dated and I try to find more cur­rent ways to get out artists work seen. In fact Alter­na­tive Pick doesn’t even print a book any more and theirs was one of the really inter­est­ing ones. Here in North Amer­ica we have some­thing called Zoom Media which is adver­tise­ments in bath­rooms and in front of uri­nals. It’s adver­tis­ing space that is the size of a small poster. We have been work­ing with them for years and have received thou­sands of emails that start like this… Well, I was in this restau­rant and bar and then went to the bath­room and star­ing me in the face was this really great illus­tra­tion and I took down the web­site address….

We are all over North Amer­ica, from coast to coast. Let’s just say that this media plan of mine has given the agency some really great recognition.

We have also just recently just pro­duced our most elab­o­rate illus­tra­tion promo to date, a beau­ti­ful full color book where each illus­tra­tor has a spread. The AGM Spring 07 Promo. The book is gor­geous, if I can say so myself. The cover is silver with the AGM logo embossed on the cover. Kind of looks like a smaller ver­sion of the ibook g4, with list of amaz­ing illus­tra­tors inside. The only text in the book is a small par­tial client list for each artist as well as putting the city and coun­try the artist comes from. I was quite impressed when I first saw it. It’s a real keeper.

We have also been doing the AGM Christ­mas Coaster Promo for 7 or 8 years now. It’s a col­lec­tion of coast­ers that we print each year and send them out to clients. Each year we do a theme and each illus­tra­tor and pho­tog­ra­pher pro­duces an image for the promo. Clients love them and when­ever we send them out we always get calls to see if we have more. I really like this promo and it has become a part of AGM. I can’t imag­ine not doing the coast­ers for Christ­mas. It’s just a great way to pro­mote and offer a nice gift to clients to show our appreciation.

Right… Back to Jerry Maguire! If you could only rep­re­sent one Artist – who would it be and why?

Toilouse Lautrec. Because he’s good!

If you could only rep­re­sent one worker bee out of the artists and illus­tra­tor you cur­rently rep­re­sent – who would it be and why?

Ok, so you want me to choose one artist out of my gang, no can do. Next ques­tion.

Can you name any com­pa­nies that should be avoided at all cost?

All Stock and Roy­alty Free companies.

Why do you say Stock com­pa­nies – are they not just another outlet for illus­tra­tors to make money?

I am really against stock illus­tra­tion. I work hard at get­ting com­mis­sion work for my gang. Yes, it is another outlet to make money but at what cost. For now stock and roy­alty free illus­tra­tions are not that great but things are chang­ing fast. The more great illus­tra­tors that get involved the more choices there will be avail­able and the less com­mis­sion work there will be out there. I think stock and roy­alty free is very dan­ger­ous to the future of illus­tra­tion and I am fight­ing on the behalf of all illustrators.

Where do you stand when it comes to spec­u­la­tive work?

Here’s a link if you would like a bit more infor­ma­tion on the sub­ject http://​no-​spec.com

We don’t do spec work. When we pitch on a project we always charge a fee or we don’t do it. That has always been our policy. Great web­site by the way. I had no idea it existed.

Good policy! Do you ever lose work by stick­ing to your guns?

Who cares.

Have you ever thought about open­ing a gallery at AGM? Where you could show and sell your illustrators’ and photographers’ work? If so – what would it be like and what would you call it?

Yes, I have thought about it, but I’m really too busy with the agency to think about any­thing else at this time. Maybe one day… I have a lot of ideas. I would want it to be like the kind of gallery you stum­ble into when walk­ing around Soho NY. I have no idea for a name. I would have to think long and hard about what I would call it.

So if you did have a gallery would you invite Tom Cruise?

Where do these ques­tions come from? Every­one would be wel­come to come to the vernis­age. Even Tom Cat.

What’s next on the agenda for AGM?

I want to con­tinue doing what we’re doing, keep­ing our Artists busy and dis­cov­er­ing new excit­ing styles to rep­re­sent along the way. The last 11 years have been incred­i­ble and I hope to use the expe­ri­ence I’ve acquired to be a better agent and a pro­duc­tive part of this amaz­ing indus­try. I am very thank­ful for our suc­cess and feel hon­oured to work in a busi­ness that I love.

Peanut butter and jelly or Cheese and pickle sandwich?

Use to be peanut butter but recently found out my daugh­ter is aller­gic to peanuts’ so will go with cheese and pickles.

Illus­tra­tors or Artists?

Illus­tra­tors are Artists.

Work or play?

That’s easy, PLAY!!

Top Gun or Days of Thunder?

Nei­ther

A Few Good Men?

When Harry met Sally

Andy Potts or Pablo Lobato?

I love them both, impos­si­ble to decide. All I can say is that Pablo has been with us for years and we are good friends but with Andy, it was love at first sight. They are both super guys and amaz­ing illus­tra­tors. I have had the plea­sure of meet­ing them both in person and that was very spe­cial. Pablo came to see us from Argentina and Andy recently vis­ited from the UK.

And last but not least – what does an illus­tra­tor have to do to get your attention?

For an illus­tra­tor to get my atten­tion, I have to have a cathar­tic reac­tion to their work. I am a reac­tionary and usu­ally get very excited when I see work that inter­ests me. It doesn’t happen that often but when it does my atten­tion is def­i­nitely cap­tured. I will usu­ally call them up or send them a email telling them that I love their work. It’s hard for me to describe “that” feel­ing I get when I see some­thing really great, I guess I just have a great intuition.

I per­son­ally look at every email I receive as long as it is addressed to me. I auto­mat­i­cally delete emails addressed to Dear Madame or Dear Sir and hate to receive mass emails that illus­tra­tors send out to sev­eral reps at one time. I get quite a few emails from illus­tra­tors look­ing for rep­re­sen­ta­tion so some times it might take me a while to answer back but I even­tu­ally do.

Thank you Anna, it has been an absolute plea­sure inter­view­ing you. Ohh… And con­grat­u­la­tions in regards to Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Applied Arts Illus­tra­tion Annuals.

You can see more of AGM’s port­foilo at
www.​agood​son.com

Com­ments from the AGM gang.

Kim Rosen
All the women at AGM are extremely hard work­ing and are excel­lent at their jobs. Anna is a really sup­port­ive and caring agent and I feel lucky to be a part the group.

Ilana Kohn
Anna, Jo and all the ladies at AGM are amaz­ing! They really make an effort to make the group feel like a family and take care of every­one on a per­sonal & pro­fes­sional level. I just can’t even begin to say enough nice things. Love em.

Hiroko Hasegawa
I am amazed by Anna’s pas­sion and by the energy. I think that a cour­tesy and prompt work of AGM is great.

Stephen Led­widge
Since join­ing AGM I haven’t ceased to be impressed with the level of ded­i­ca­tion, pro­fes­sion­al­ism and the over all high stan­dards of the team. I’ve been work­ing for some great clients that I would never have been able to reach oth­er­wise. It’s great to be part of the gang.

Clare Malli­son
Since I have been with AGM I have been inun­dated with com­mis­sions. Anna is com­mit­ted to pro­mot­ing her illus­tra­tors; she is sup­port­ive, approach­able and has helped me make illus­tra­tion my full time career.

Phil Wheeler
Anna is proac­tive and ambi­tious for her illus­tra­tors and these have got to be the most impor­tant char­ac­ter­is­tics of a good agent. She runs a very pro­fes­sional outfit which is a plea­sure to work with. My client list has been given a very healthy boost since I joined AGM.

Janice Nadeau
In my opin­ion, Anna Good­son Man­age­ment is a very pro­fes­sional and hard-​working team who takes care of the artists’ career in order to let them con­cen­trate on what they are best at: cre­ation. Also, Anna Good­son is pro­mot­ing our work in a very inven­tive way and, as an artist; this helps me to push fur­ther my own cre­ative limits.

Gian­luca Folì
Anna and her team are won­der­ful. Anna fol­lows with great atten­tion all of our work. It’s the famil­iar atmos­phere of the agency that makes you want to give your best. I’m really pleased to be part of it.

Tyson Smith
Anna works really hard for her artists. Anna and her crew have done a really good job keep­ing me busy and get­ting my work seen. Iron­i­cally I have never met her (she’s out of Mon­treal and I’m in Port­land, Oregon), but she often will check in on me to see how I’m doing, that means a lot. It’s not all about work and money.

Chris Pyle
I just wanted to put my two cents in as regards to being rep­re­sented by AGM. Besides being an ultra pro­fes­sional agency what a lot of people should know about Anna and every­one at AGM is that they make you feel absolutely won­der­ful every time you come in con­tact with them. That type of treat­ment just makes me want to be a better artist.

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