Thank you all for your comments!

Since many of you were wondering about Shutterstock's reaction to this problem (which really seems to affect quite a lot of SS contributors), here's their reply:
http://submit.shutterstock.com/forum/abt29395-0-asc-15.html

 

As far as I know Shutterstock buyers are not allowed to use images for larger sized calendar prints (or calendar prints at all) unless they purchase an Enhanced license - is that right?

My sister (who's a Shutterstock contributor as well) found several of her images used in a calendar series printed by a UK company. Those images were definitely purchased from Shutterstock but my sister never got an Enhanced license for any of them. She wrote to Shutterstock support several months ago and they promised to take care of the matter. However, nothing has happened so far. Today my sister saw that even more of her images are being used for the 2009 calendar series.

What can she expect here - nothing?
Has anyone ever faced a similar scenario? Any advice on that matter?

(By the way, this issue probably concerns a lot of Shutterstock contributors as this calendar company buys regularly from Shutterstock and has a large sortiment of calendars with many different topics.)   

IS frustrates me, too! I was (finally!) accepted as an illustrator after my third or even fourth try but now that I'm in, I get almost all of my files rejected. Ironically, IS almost only accepts those of my vectors that do *not* sell well on other sites ... (And on IS either!) So far I haven't been able to figure out what they really want. They might accept an image, reject a similar one the next day. What bothers me most is that I am frequently asked to resubmit only to have my images rejected as "not suitable for stock" the next time. All the time spend on correcting the files is just wasted. Once I even had an illustration rejected as "not suitable for stock" while allowing me to resubmit at the same time.  I just don't get it.

I'm constantly amazed that IS is such a good seller for many! For me, it doesn't even come close to SS, DT or FT. With my rejection rate, the upload limit and the long review times, it's a painstakingly slow process to build even a small portfolio ... with emphasis on "pain" - oh well, and "slow".

I wanted to sign up with SnapVillage a few days ago but the registration didn't work. I tried with a second e-mail address but to no avail. Did anyone else have this problem?

I e-mailed support (twice so far) but didn't receive a reply. Well, maybe I'm just too impatient ...  Can anyone tell me how long - on average - it takes for the SnapVillage support to send a reply?

 

I know that there are some people doing extremely well with microstock, even up to the point of earning their living that way. All of those I know are photographers though and I wonder - is this possible for illustrators/vector artists as well? I don't know any example though I'm suspecting some people to do quite well. Successful illustrators might be somewhat more "under the radar", it seems. 
What do you guys think?