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What do you charge for your freelance illustration work? The answer – probably not enough! There seems to be a growing trend in the indie comics community in which freelancers are not getting paid fair rates for their work. It sickens me when I peruse Deviant Art and see countless artists offering their talents for a measly $5 per page. It’s infuriating when I look through job offers on Digital Webbing that offer a whopping $20 per page, yet come with a list of complicated demands. It drives me to the brink of insanity when I spend all day on Craigslist only to uncover ad after ad ending with “I can’t afford to pay you at this time, but you can add the work to your portfolio and we can split the profits (if there are any – which there almost never is).”
We’ve all been lanced at one point or another, but it doesn’t have to be that way. We artists have no one to blame but ourselves for this mess.
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Most artists have no idea how much to charge for their work. In addition, they are often easily persuaded to lower their already low rates. Have you ever looked for a new gig and drastically lowered your rates because everyone else was charging less than you? If you think you’re charging too much, here are some things to consider:
– Your work is your work and unlike anyone else’s
– Your work could be of a much higher quality than the other applicants
– You might be able to work much faster than others
– You might be more reliable than others
– You might maintain better communication than others
– You might be able to meet deadlines better than others
[Tweet “Your work is your work and unlike anyone else’s.”]
For all you know, the other people who are applying for the gig might just be hobbyists who don’t know the first thing about collaborating, or their skills simply might not be up to par with what the project requires. My advice is to seriously consider the amount of time and effort the project will require and submit a rate based on what you think is fair. Do not let the low-ballers sway your opinion on the matter. They are not charging enough and in the end they will suffer for it.
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Artists are a timid bunch. Many are afraid to charge fair prices because they think their work simply isn’t worth it. More often than not, their work is worth much more than what they are getting paid. When I was first starting out, I was (regrettably) charging peanuts for my work. As I gained experience, my rates slowly began to increase. Everyone has to start somewhere, right? Sure! But if you’re serious about illustrating for a living, you should not have to be forced to give your talents away for next to nothing.
Article Series:
It’s Called Freelancing – Part 2
By Michael Yakutis, Making Comics (dotCom) Community Liaison.
makingcomics.com
It's Called Freelancing, Not Slavery - Part 2 of 3 - Webcomic Underdogs
This is excellent Michael! I am looking forward to the next installment.
Thanks! Part 2 has been posted, and part 3 will be up tomorrow.
Completely agree, and coming from the side of the guys hiring artists. Some of the things that make Seba (our artist) so awesome are the things on your list. He is an awesome team member, who does great work, so we try to pay him for it. Even though he is a member of our team, we pay him a good amount per page, because we recognize this is his livelihood. And he responds by producing top notch art on a great timetable and etc.
Whoops, started bragging too much about my artist again… 😉
Exactly. And you’re right, Sebasp does some awesome-ass work! I’ve worked with a lot of clients who try to argue the number game with me, and the numbers rarely add up. Yeah, the total cost of a project or book might be a couple grand, but divide that by X number of pages and then divide that by X number of hours it takes to produce a page, and I’m making well below minimum wage! A lot of people don’t take this into consideration. Some do, but a lot don’t. I’ve worked with a lot of people who treat me more as a hobbyist, rather than a professional, which is always aggravating. However, when I do get to work with people who understand the value of an illustrators efforts, things usually go pretty well 🙂
“But if you’re serious about illustrating for a living,”
I think that’s a key point here and it doesn’t apply to hobbyists and amateurs and artists that just want the satisfaction of creating something. If I was a professional architect who designed houses for a living and I saw a yard sign saying “Help me build a tree-house 10 bucks an hour” I wouldn’t be offended about it; it doesn’t apply to me.
I’ve made the occasional “I can’t pay but…” pitch and I’m just trying to strike a chord with someone that maybe is an okay artist and wants to make a webcomic but doesn’t have a story idea, or something along those lines. (How’s that workin’ out for ya, Mcmasters? Not too good). But it’s not done with expectation of attracting someone trying to make a living.
And I think that’s totally cool. In fact, I go over this sort of thing in the second part of the blog, which is up now. If a writer and artist want to collaborate together on a project and there is no pay upfront, I think it’s fine so long as it’s a collaboration. But when it’s an employer/employee relationship and the artist doesn’t have any room to breath or implement their artistic interpretation where they see fit – that is when there is a problem. But if two people just want to have fun and work together on something without high expectations of one another – cool!
Two cents I’d like to add to your swell article. The problem of undervaluing and underpaying plagues many artistic-based skill sets. I encounter it all the time with my clients. So I feel you. Second, “I can’t afford to pay you at this time, but you can add the work to your portfolio and we can split the profits (if there are any – which there almost never is).” The approach I take to try to be as fair as possible for the artist are work for hire one-time flat rate contracts. Honestly, I don’t know if my stories will ever make me anything, so instead of dumping an artist into the royalties % thing, a flat rate would be much fairer. Agreed or no … ?
I agree. I, personally, would much rather be paid a flat rate than stress about royalties. Even if the royalty percentage is high and the page rate is low, I’d still rather take the page rate. It really just makes things easier in the long run for everyone involved.
And yes, although this article is geared towards illustrators, it applies to any freelance field.
I wanted to like your response but that feature doesn’t exist… hmm…
Excellent article, Michael, this comment also coming from someone on the paying side. I’m sick and tired of artists in general being underrated. This happens to me also as a writer (here we have food for another article altogether!).
It is good that we also differentiate between collaboration and hired work. I believe we touched this on one of the forum threads. Collaborators share risks, and share profits (if any). On a work-for-hire approach the artist shares none of the risks, but then the author/boss maintains full control of IP. As it should be under this scheme. And given the status of the comic medium, I fully understand and support artists choosing a work-for-hire scheme.
I won’t be like Dan and brag about my artist also , but I agree with him: if you are getting the art you want and need for your project, if you are getting a team member that is involved in your project, by all means, compensate her!
Now, to part two!
Thanks!
Yeah, I’ll fully agree that although artists have it pretty rough, writers have it a lot worse. It’s reaaaaally hard to regularly get paid as a writer, especially if you’re trying to break into comics.