Cartooning as a business - Part 1.
Published by Jason December 5th, 2007 in Business TipsThis is the first in a short series on the business side of cartooning from Jason Frazer - enjoy! MG
How do we get ahead as cartoonists? Raise your hand if you do what you do because you love it. Now, keep your hand up if you think of your work like a business. Anybody still have their hand up? I thought so.
Have you ever sat down and thought about how much you would be prepared to charge for your work or your services?
A couple of weeks ago I did two small pieces of work, with each piece being slightly different from each other. The first piece of work was a poster I said I would do for a non for profit organisation I was working for. The second was a semi regular job I have going for a small magazine. Both pieces of work I agreed to do for $20 each. The poster I completed at a reduced rate because it was a non for profit organisation and I thought I would do them a favour and the second job I took on for the exposure. Now the second variable is that the only time I had to complete the work was on a public holiday.
The poster ended up taking me 3 hours to complete and the cartoon 2 hours. That’s $8.00 per hour. Let me say that again. $8.00 per hour. The thing that hurt the most for me was that I had spend 5 hours of a public holiday doing work I had promised and when finished the day was over. The worst part was that I realised I was working for $8 per hour about 3 hours into both jobs, and not only did I hate the fact I had given up my holiday to complete the work I had promised, but I began to hate the work and it showed. I handed in a half assed effort and whilst both customers were happy, I was unhappy with myself for ‘phoning it in’.
Would you work for $8.00 per hour? Would you submit second rate work and risk ruining your reputation? What if you never got any more work because you-submitted-second-rate-work-because-you-were-unhappy-about-undervaluing-your-work? *phew!*
What would you be prepared to work for? What value do you place on your work? Your time?
Next time I’ll post a few simple rules I picked up from another master, and you’ll never guess who it is.
I am on pins and needles!
Can’t wait for the next installment. I guess I’d answer yes to your question … sometimes and someways $8/hour is more than the effort I put into “speculation” cartoons that do not sell. I hope the exposure helps make it worth the effort!