Chewing Pencils

Every so often I like to sit back and take stock of how the cartooning business is going. How much work is coming in, who hasn’t paid for it and what action, if any, I need to be following up on.

The first three months of this year were incredibly dry and slow. For perhaps the first time in my freelance career, I had a run of clients who asked for a quote but then went with somebody else. Yes, this is part of the business, but this run was worse than usual!

Then, at the beginning of May, a previous client from over two years got in touch and asked me to begin a series of ten cartoons. This was good - the income levels were starting to look a little less embarrassing! Then a client from about one year ago asked for three more cartoons. I had a series of single image clients, then a request for some book illustrations. This last one has taking me a little off guard.

One hundred illustrations (yes - 100) for a book, all of which will be paid for at a nice rate. The down side is that they’re needed really soon! But as a freelancer you can’t pick and choose. You can, however, take such huge bites that it becomes difficult to deliver.

This project is going to stretch me, but I’m looking forward to the challenge. It’s the third or fourth book I’ve been involved with, but the biggest by far. It should proove to be a rich source of information for Chewing Pencils too, so I’ll keep you updated as I go.

What projects do you have on the go at the moment?