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andytfish · 4 years ago

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FREELANCE GUiDANCE: A 10 Part Series- Part 5- GET PAID SON!

The biggest magic trick the Freelancer ever pulled was convincing his client to actually pay him a fair wage.

You want to make it in this business, kid, you gotta get paid.

You can turn to the Graphic Artists Guild Pricing Guide for some reference if you're just starting out. But unless you live in New York or LA (lower Alabama I'm not talking about) those prices are going to be spit-took when the client hears them.

So HOW do you get paid? The easiest way is to negotiate with respectable clients.

First and foremost, make sure you agree up front (and in writing) that you WILL be paid. Not only do I use a formal contract I also insist on ALL communication between me and clients to be via email-- why? Because then I have a paper trail-- I can re-read emails for project details and I have essentially a written correspondence regarding the agreement of trade.

Cause that's what it is-- the client is trading you something (preferably cash) for your services to provide.

When you first hang your freelance shingle up you're going to get approached by a LOT of people offering you work either on SPEC or "for the exposure". Here's a cold hard truth-- unless that company offering you exposure is Time Magazine it's not worth it-- and guess what? Time Magazine actually pays you for work so the point is moot.

This brings up the basic formula of work:

1. Work on Spec - You'll get paid after publication based on the number of copies sold because your work appears in it. I HATE these deals. HATE 'em. If you're going to work on SPEC then work ONLY on something you OWN. In the comics world writers can whip out a 22 page story in a day or two, an artist will take a month or longer if they have a full time job. Yet SO many writers and publishers of small companies offer you spec for payment with ZERO equity in the product. BAD. Make sure if you're providing the artwork you are getting a share of the profits.

2. Work for hire-- You'll get paid up-front or upon completion but you will own nothing. You are solely providing a service, like a plumber installing a new bathroom for you-- they can't come over and use it any time they want just because they installed it. Same thing here, you do the work, you get paid and that's it.

3. Royalty Work-- You get paid up front or upon completion of the work and you will get a royalty based on the number of copies sold.

How do you negotiate?

I use a simple method when someone contacts me-- here's how I handle it and it works 85% of the time:

"Hi Andy-- we LOVE your work and we have (such and such) we think you'd be PERFECT for! We were wondering if you'd have time and what such a project would cost?"

"Great! Thanks! What's the budget?"

That's as involved as it gets, now keep in mind there are a couple other factors--

A- I look over the project that they're talking about and make sure I understand exactly what it is they are looking to hire me for.

B- I calculate a rough budget and time frame in which I can deliver it so I have a number in my head.

Now if that client has a project that I REALLY dig, or if they happen to make me laugh in the proposal AND they show that they've actually LOOKED at my work that will go a long way towards keeping my price down. Steve Altes, when he reached out to me about his graphic novel GEEKS AND GREEKS, not only referenced specific works I'd done but he made me laugh. His online presence was tremendous and he happened to mention a record album he had been looking at that day- and by sheer coincidence I had looked at the same exact one (a vintage one at that) -- I knew it was instant Karma and this was a guy I not only wanted to work with but I found a new friend.

Ok, so about 85% of the time the client will come back with a budget they had in mind. On the 15% of the time they don't I have to give them a number. I've been doing this a long time so I can come up with a number pretty quickly.

I use a simple equation:

WHAT DO I NEED to pay the bills this month?

HOW busy am I?

How LONG will this take?

Let's say you pay yourself an hourly wage of $100/hour and that is what you consider your IDEAL rate. Ideal= you're in good shape bills wise so it's okay if you lose this job.

Factor in the number of hours you expect this to take (a good rule of thumb is to double whatever number you come up with because you're likely to underestimate how much work this'll be).

ASK and UNDERSTAND what your royalties will or won't be. If it's none then you need to up the price a bit. If it's being used for commercial purposes what kind of permissions are you granting? Someone who hires you to design a T-Shirt for a Cub Scout fundraiser shouldn't have to pay the same amount as someone who is hiring you to design a T-shirt for their website that they will then sell in perpetuity with no royalties on those sales.

This is the point where you're going to hear about the magic of exposure. Exposure means you should do this cheap because of the fame you will gain.

I just don't buy into that. I DO free work that I donate to Charity Auctions like Art In The City or the Boys and Girls Club. I do it because I believe in the cause and if it's lead to any exposure no one has mentioned it to me.

In fact you can get a lot of exposure just by building yourself a decent web-presence, but that's next week's lesson.

All right so let's assume they've given you all the details of the project and you want to do it, and it fits in your schedule and it seems to be a good mix for you.

You figure how many hours-- let's say 10 to keep the math easy-- double it because you know how bad you are at figuring how much work something is going to be and you have that hourly rate-- in this case $100/hour which brings us to a grand total of $2000/USD for 20 hours of work granting them whatever useage rights you are comfortable with. NOTE: Specify the currency you'll be paid in. USD = US DOLLARS. It's a world economy now.

A good rule of thumb is if they aren't going to pay you royalties then add 30% to the quote. So now we're at $2600. I'd also be comfortable giving them a 180 days exclusive rights to the image, after that it reverts to you so that you can use the image on your own product. If they want to keep the image as an exclusive to them in perpetuity (essentially forever) then add a few more bucks to the job.

I like the rule of 1/3s for payment- so 1/3 up front for me to start, 1/3 at the halfway point and 1/3 at completion with the agreement that they get the final useable image with the final payment.

Meaning of course, that every file you sent them for approval through the stages was at 72dpi and NO bigger than 500 pixels or so tall. This ensures they don't just take your prelims and run with it never paying off the balance owed.

Remember if you give them a price that's too high you can always lower your price, but you can't raise it.

In that same vein, if you are in financial straights as this potential assignment comes in you can simply follow up your quote if you don't hear from them within a day or two and tell them it's negotiable if you were far off from the number they had in mind.

It's all about NEGOTIATION.

NOW WHAT ABOUT THE CLIENT WHO WON'T PAY ME?

It's going to happen, sooner or later. A client runs out of money before the balance is paid. Unless they file for Bankruptcy protection your best option is to file a civil case against them in your local court system. In fifteen years I've never had to do this, but I've come close twice. It's not hard to do especially if you have a contract and a paper trial of your conversations. It's a simple filing fee and the clerks will usually walk you through it. You'll have to see a constable or sheriff about notice getting served to the (likely now ex) client but that too will be explained to you when the time comes.

You should also use your instinct. If a client comes to you with a project someone else had been working on in this day and age of the internet it's not hard to track down the previous creator and find out why the relationship ended.

If a client comes to you with a project that is scattered with fallen creators that should give you a pretty good insight into how smooth this project is going to be. It certainly could be that this person is a great partner to work with and all those creatives were the guilty parties, but far more likely is that this is a difficult client who is never happy.

Add that to the equation when you're providing your quote (should you decide to work with them).

I was approached by a client once who I was warned against by several friends who stated they were difficult and slow to pay.

When I quoted the job I did my usual hourly rate x hours x2 only I added ANOTHER X2 to the equation so essentially the quote was DOUBLE what I would have normally charged.

They balked at the price, I stuck to it-- they finally relented and we were off to the races. They weren't the most difficult client I'd ever had but they were "tweakers"-- so there were a lot of revisions along the way. They were also a committee which is another FLAG-- committees are slow to green light and that usually eats into the deadline.

If a project needs more than one person's approval I stipulate when the approvals need to be in hand in order for the project to come in on schedule. This way I can point to this when we start running late. I also insist on ONE CONTACT person from the group so I'm not getting multiple directions taking me all over the place.

By the time the project was over it had taken me twice as long to finish it as I'd projected-- good thing I doubled my quote.

When they came back for a new project I knew what I was getting myself into up front and used the same quote system.

BECAUSE SOMETIMES IT'S OK TO SAY NO.

No matter how much they like you, how much they love your work, how much they're willing to pay, how desperately they want to work with you. Sometimes the right thing to do is to pass.

*OK so what about that HOURLY rate? $100 might seem like a lot or it might seem dirt cheap depending on where you live and how long you've been doing this Freelance thing. Your best bet to discover the going rate in your area is to keep yourself familiar with the work being done in your industry.

Locally you can attend Chamber of Commerce and Business to Business events, but I find local means little money (at least here in Central Massachusetts-- I've found the same thing in Boston too). So I keep my client base international via the web.

But network with other artists, find out what they're charging. Look at ads via sites that advertise for freelancers and see what clients are paying.

A site like FREELANCED.COM can give you insight and fits of laughter too. I'm always amazed at the number of people who will apply for a gig that pays something like $2 an hour. Amateurs no doubt, because a professional couldn't keep the lights on for that rate.

Meaning keep an open mind when perusing the offerings. Like the reviews on Amazon, you have to weigh in the value of what the person is saying.

Which will take us to the next lesson:

Part Six: ESTABLISH AN ONLINE PRESENCE

Andy Fish is a freelance artist and writer who has been living the lifestyle longer than there has been an iPhone on this planet. The advice given has worked for him, it might work for you, he hopes it does. But like all advice, take it with your own situation in mind. If you want to contact him shoot him an email [email protected]

Which will take us to the next lesson:

Part Six: ESTABLISH AN ONLINE PRESENCE

#ADVICE #FREELANCE #FREELANCE LIFESTYLE

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kaitiblogsstuff-blog · 8 years ago

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For my final project I did a 24 hourly comic, most of the comic is from my day of 4/21 and the last page is from 4/22 as I fell asleep haha, but I managed to do 24 hours worth of panels. I really enjoyed doing this project as it is a representation of myself in a sense, one of my favourite hobbies is drawing, and this comic represents one of the 24 hours in my life makes it more personal and more of who I am than anything else. I had considered voice acting everything and putting the comic to video but it proved to be too difficult as I would not be able to accurately get everyone’s voices correct and I would not be sure how to pace the video without the VA as everyone reads at different speeds, so instead here’s a 15 second video of a panel from 4/21′s 6pm-7pm for a better idea of what happened

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwsQwpYM6ctMNm13SzVSQl8tWVU/view?usp=sharing

I got help from my friend Viktorija (who was vaguely mentioned in some of the panels as just my Russian friend) for the video, you can find more serious forms of her work here

#24 hour comic #final #for class #creative writing

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commish-catalog · 7 years ago

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average pay rates for comic book artists:

by johnchalos, Aug 9, 2013, 3:36:03 AM

Journals / Personal

"Generally, the good graphic novels fetch $100 - $300 per page, although professionals who have been in the industry for a long time can command as much as three times that amount. In fact, one elite illustrator commanded as much as $1,000 a page (on a 22-page comic book)! Most of the popular titles that artists, like David Cassaday, work on are monthly issues, which end up providing him with a six-figure salary. The back-end royalties on merchandise, trade paperbacks and movie royalties are also generous."

www.freelancewriting.com/artic…

"In 2008, Sean Jordan, founder of Army Ant Publishing, claimed established freelance comic book artists were paid anywhere from $220 to $4,400 per book project, which breaks down to $10 to $200 per page. Pencil and inker artists can ask for $75 to $200 a page. Colorists often fall in the range of $35 to $125, and writers and letterers make $10 to $50 a page. A lucky few dozen famous artists working for top companies bring in $1,000 per page."

smallbusiness.chron.com/much-c…

"While, I'm at it, there's a big matzo ball sitting out there. Sean gives us a pretty good idea of his page rate, which works out to about $450 a page, inking included. We're not talking about a big name star in comics (yet), but that's a lot of cost for talent, especially, when you're talking about a guy whose known work was on moderate selling Vertigo books."

ifanboy.com/articles/sean-murp…

"I highly encourage artists to NEVER charge less than minimum wage for their hourly rate when they are figuring out their prices. If you are going off the hourly as a way to figure out base prices. For the US, $7.25 is a very common minimum wage, so I suggest you round it up to $8 at least. Even at $8 an hour, your page rate should be $40 a page, assuming you spend 5 hours total on it. This method of figuring out your base really depends on tracking and making good use of your time. If your time is highly variable, you might need to use another method.

Another pricing strategy some amateurs/aspiring professionals take the base professional rate and half it as a way of figuring out their base price to break in and slowly raise their prices as they fall into more demand.

You may be tempted as an artist to under charge, and under value your skill. The fear of being denied a job because of charging a decent rate is a huge reason why artists don't get paid well. DO NOT UNDERCHARGE for your skill level. It devalues your work, and devalues every other artist's work too. Try to stay in line with other artists of your skill and resume level, and what you need to charge to cover your bills and make a living."

www.shadowsden.org/comic-artis…

"Figure $100 for the writer, $150 for the penciller, $130 for the inker, $90 for the colorist, and $30 for the letterer. Those numbers go up and down depending on talent and publishers, but that's a nice round number for us to work with."

www.comicmix.com/news/2010/09/…

"Top comic book artists reportedly make around $500 per page; that figure varies depending on the artist's popularity and the publisher he is working for. The best comic book artists may make around $80,000 a year."

www.mania.com/much-can-good-co…

"The first rule of freelancing is that paying work comes first. Love don't pay the rent."

robot6.comicbookresources.com/…

"Though he won't reveal what he makes, his page rate—the amount an artist charges per page drawn—is among the highest in the business. Given that an elite illustrator can command up to $1,000 a page for a 22-page comic book and that most popular titles are monthlies, a top talent like Cassaday can comfortably clear six figures annually. And that's not counting potential back-end royalties for merchandise, trade paperbacks, and spin-offs, which are negotiated separately."

upstart.bizjournals.com/career…

"I know a lot of people say this, BUT persistence truly is key. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Never give up. What one editor doesn't like, the next might think is gold. Also, never let yourself be taken advantage of. Never work for free. Always require pay, never work on the promise of pay if profits are met.

Not to sound pompous or conceited, just be confident in your work. Remain humble at the same time. You never know who you'll meet in the industry and who will be working for which company down the line. Don't burn bridges."

When I first started, I would keep my price lower than maybe I should, but if you're going to make a living, you have to stand up for yourself and be a great agent for your work. Be proud and confident in what you do. They need your services, and you just need to decide who is lucky enough to receive those services.

www.payscale.com/career-news/2…

"Even if you are lucky enough to get an extended run on something, you're still not making $6,000 a month. Remember those extended production times? Yeah... these days, most comic book artists need more than a month to pencil a book, much less pencil AND ink a book. Some creators can, of course, but again, they're the exception. And to come in even CLOSE to the deadlines you have to work under in comics means a lot of long hours at the art table, 8-12 hours a day, depending on how fast you can draw."

matthewdowsmith.blogspot.com/2…

"For creator-owned books – which, again, do not always generate page rates – that amount ranged from $17 to $100 per page, while for-hire naturally was much higher. On the low end, publishers like Boom! and IDW paid between $50 and $150, with the higher end found publishers like Marvel, DC and Dark Horse paying upwards of $300 per page, topping out at nearly $500."

multiversitycomics.com/longfor…

twitter.com/forexposure_txt

youtu.be/qbAIjk3ql0g

#deviantart #comics

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thatsnotcanonpodcasts · 6 years ago

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Episode 53: One Year On - We Are Still Here - Bandages, Black Mesa & Miss Fury

WOW, one year, thank you everyone for listening. It has been an amazing year, with special guests such as Hydark, Shawn and Tahlya combined with support from the Podfather Zane, all hail Zane. We had fun recording this episode, we were all together, with the Professor and Buck in the same room and DJ in another because he is so loud in real life, seriously we think he swallowed a megaphone or something. We also wish to apologise for not having Nerf guns with which to shoot the DJ, but as it was in a public place we might have gotten into trouble. But down to business, first up in this episode we look at new bandages that use electrical shocks to improve healing and shorten the time involved dramatically. These things are so cool they make Aquaman look normal. While it is early days yet this is something we can look forward to. Next up we look at the latest from Black Mesa and the issues with colour saturation making fans blue. Wait, what, haha, you will have to listen to find out more. Then we wander down History Avenue to take a look at an amazing comic from 1941 that was so far ahead of its time the American censors were threatened, which makes Buck furious. With all this and more we hope you enjoy this episode as much as we have enjoyed bringing it to you.

EPISODE NOTES:

Bandage using electric zaps - https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/innovation-2019-bandage-uses-electrical-zaps-heal-wounds-faster

Black Mesa update - https://steamcommunity.com/games/362890/announcements/detail/1751240246269717390

Miss Fury - https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-05/miss-fury-the-most-famous-superhero-youve-never-heard-of/10777988

Games Currently Playing

Buck

- CSR Racing 2 Legends- https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.naturalmotion.customstreetracer2&hl=en_US

Professor

– Age of Empires 2 - https://store.steampowered.com/app/221380/Age_of_Empires_II_HD/

- Apex Legends - https://www.ea.com/games/apex-legends