Chewing Pencils

The business side of the cartooning craft was so important that it took two tips to cover it all. Nearly two years after writing this post originally, I find that the business end of freelancing is taking up more time than I thought. But it has paid off for me as I get paid more for the same amount of drawing.

Remember, the aim is to make money form drawing cartoons. And making money means you are operating a business. And clients will only deal with you if you are business-like. So as uncomfortable as it is, we have to get our heads around this side of what we do.

Here’s what I had to say last time I wrote. Feel free to add any comments about some of the things you have learnt from being a business cartoonist!

Tip 8:- Become business minded (Part 2).

In the previous tip for becoming a professional cartoonist, I began to explore what it meant to become business minded. I briefly covered tax considerations, business plans, copyright law, marketing, contracts and communication. In this entry I continue with the same theme by looking at a further six points.

8. Charge appropriately. This is perhaps one of the most frequent questions asked of me by other cartoonists/illustrators - how much should I charge? It is difficult because while we want to make some decent money out of what we do, we don’t want to scare paying work away by quoting too much. However, to be true to yourself and the cartooning/illustration industry as a whole, there are a few things you should stick to:

* Never work for exposure only. Exposure doesn’t put food on the table, and you can’t get more exposure than the Internet anyway. If the editor, writer, printer and publisher is being paid, then you should be too. Feel free to do some charitable work for causes you believe in, but don’t make it a habit to give your work away.

* Be prepared to negotiate. Use the standard rates for your market as a starting point and work from there.

* If you are charging by the hour, quote around $100/hr and negotiate from there.

* Ask for 50% of the expected fee upfront and do not start any work until it is in your account. Make this part of your standard contract, and point out that it is non refundable. Sometimes this is referred to as a “kill-fee”, which is basically payment you receive if a client pulls the plug on a project before you are finished.

* Charge extra if your client asks for changes to be made to ‘almost finished’ work. I charge anywhere from 10-70% for changes, depending on their complexity.

* If a client requests copyright, charge them 100 times the amount of the individual cartoon for the privilege. It is never a good idea to sell copyright, but if a client really wants it, make them pay - and pay big! Recently I had a client request full copyright for a series of 10 cartoons I had done for them. I said they could have it for $10 000. They declined, but we did negotiate a re-usage fee which meant I have received an additional amount every time those same ten cartoons are reprinted anywhere outside of the original project. My income from those ten cartoons has continued for over twelve months now. This is what is meant by selling a ‘license’ to your client and, again, should be made clear in your standard contract.

I have found that quoting the standard rates for the initial work and then an additional 25-50% for any subsequent re-usage has worked well and generally been accepted by my clients.

9. When I worked in research, one of the points in our mission statement was to deliver ‘in full and on time.’ The same still applies now that I am a professional cartoonist. When a deadline is given and agreed to by both parties in a contract, the burden is then on the cartoonist to meet that deadline with whatever was promised. The client is not interested if your monitor explodes or your pencils are blunt - they want what they are paying for. So, make every effort possible to meet those deadlines. Constantly missing them is unprofessional and will see you miss out on repeat work.

Having said that, sometimes there are personal reasons that make everything work-related grind to a halt. Most clients will be sympathetic to these if you are upfront and honest with them as soon as you can. Recently a previous client contacted me to do some work to which I agreed. Later that week my eldest son was taken to hospital by ambulance and life suddenly was turned upside down. It wasn’t on the top of my priority list, but as soon as was appropriate, I let my client know what was happening. As it turned out, they also had young children and were quite understanding about my situation, extending the deadline a few weeks.

10. Send invoices and receipts with all work. Invoices should include your contact details, a breakdown of the work completed, the cost for each one and the tax component. Make sure the terms of payment relate to the invoice date and not the date of publication as these can be months apart and there is a good chance you’ll be forgotten in the process. Again, make this clear in your standard contract. Receipts should be the same as the invoice, with the only addition being a large, clear ‘Paid’ stamped across it.

11. Getting money out of some clients is next to impossible. Thus it is a good idea to have a standard ‘late fee’ notice, and a ‘warning of impending debt collection action’ letter. It is unlikely that it will be ever cost effective for you to engage the services of a debt collector, but there are consequences for clients who get a reputation for not paying their freelancers. Don’t crawl under a rock and hope the money will just ‘turn up’ one day…

The ALCQ have some good information for artists and debt collection here.

12. Keep, and backup, good records. Use a simple spreadsheet to record your expense and income by date and client. This makes your tax reporting much, much easier. And keep all of your client details in your address book for future reference.

13. The longer you are in the business, the longer your list of previous clients becomes. Do your best to keep in touch with them, even if they change jobs or move companies. Send them Christmas cards and your newsletter if you have one. Stay in the forefront of their minds and when they need a cartoonist, they will call you.

We rarely expect to be working in the business world when we start to draw. In some ways, it is a little like playing a game, so we need to know the rules, as well as some of the short cuts to gain an advantage. If you can master the business side of your cartooning, you will find yourself far, far ahead of some of your competition.