Asking for Permission and Receiving It from Favorite Author Artist

I subscribe to one of my favorite artist/ author newsletter. Upon receiving it this week I opened it to read it. In it was a fantastic quote that I instantly thought would resonate with my audience. The only problem was there was really no image to go with it. Believe me, I did a LOT of searching and brainstorming but nothing seemed to fit.

The only artwork that would fit, would be what the author drew to go with this quote. I wanted to contact the artist/ author and ask his permission (which is totally ironic as he is pretty famous for NOT asking for permission).

Now, I am horrible at waiting - absolutely HORRIBLE. I dislike waiting for people, waiting in lines and waiting for answers.

I could email him, but this was Friday and I knew the absolute soonest I would hear from someone would be Monday but more likely Tuesday.

I could try to phone, but I would probably get an assistant and the answer would be 'No'.

Then I saw the Twitter button attached to the email. I decided I would tweet him. He had this post from the newsletter in his Twitter feed, so I shared it. In it I wrote a question to him, (in 140 characters or less) asking permission to use the art while giving full credit to him.

In less than 10 minutes I received my answer which was... 'A thumb's up' symbol!

I am pretty overjoyed at the approval and kind of giddy that 'he' acknowledged 'me'!

There are two takeaways from this I learned.

1. Twitter is awesome and levels the communication field. Always include your Twitter account in relation to any posts, email or newsletters that you send out!

2. Don't be afraid to ask for permission!