When I was working as a part-time freelancer, the one thing that kept me from quitting my day job was the idea I had fabricated that illustrators don't earn enough to make a living and all have part-time jobs. THIS IS NOT TRUE. Anyone can make a living out of their passions if they are willing to put the time in and learn. I want to clarify that if your goal is to go full time, it is possible to happen sooner than you think. Lots of illustrators do have side jobs; however, some choose to sell homemade cards or maybe prints, so you can keep it within your passion.

Research

So, you have your target audience (see earlier blog post on finding your target audience) and you know there is a need for your service, but you don't know how to price your work well. There are a couple of things we can do to work this out.

Asking around: You can ask people how much they would pay for your service. Don't just ask friends and family but strangers too. Many groups on Facebook will give advice and some agents who will help if they think you are good enough. Keep it relevant don't ask a family friend who has never brought a card how much they would pay for your card; instead, find someone who buys lots and get their opinion.

Other artists: I often message other artists to discover insider information. They are all so willing to help! Find an artist who has similar work to you and politely ask roughly what they charge; this information might already be on their website, so make sure you check that out first.

Selling

Sounds obvious, but this can actually be one of the best ways to find out your price. Start high and see what the reaction is once you say your price. If they quickly say yes ask for more next time! If the client is scared off, keep trying or lower it slightly. Most authors are pretty blunt about whether a price is good for them or not.

Calculate

This is a good option to start with and gives you a rough idea if you have none at all.

(Standard Hourly Rate X Number of Hours per page) X Number of pages = price

For example

$15 per hour X 4 hrs per page = $60 per page

$60 X 24 pages = $1,440

This is a rough number, and it will change over time depending on how you work and your skill level. It is hard to calculate because everyone is different, and it is hard to measure your own skill level.

Try all the above, and you will soon know where to start with your pricing.

TIP: Keeping your location into account is good; however, now we live in a digital world, we can use this to our advantage. Did you know the USA's children's book market is worth around $2 billion, whereas the UK's is only worth $411 million? If you want to make more don't just target your advertising to your own country.

Standard Fees – Books

Since this is where I specialize, I wanted to give you the rough fees for children's books artwork. This might also help other illustrators who need a benchmark. Prices for flat rate jobs vary wildly, so it is hard to give you a definite figure; however, these are the prices for artists who have been working for a while and have a few clients already:

Cover art: between £600 and £1,000

Full book black & white interior illustrations tend to be between £1,750–£3,000.

Full book colour illustrations + cover £2,000 - £10,000

As I said, that is a significant price difference, but it entirely depends on the demand for your work. I didn't start seeing prices over £2,000 for 8 months after I quit my job and went full time; for some artists, it can take more time, and some (especially if they took formal education in their field) less time.

Advance

Advance again wholly depends on the company or client. For my self-publishing clients, I ask for a deposit like an advance. This makes sure you are not doing any work for free, and when you work with self-publishing authors, this is hugely advised. I would aim for anything from 10%- 30%. Again, this is different if you go through an agent or write your own book. Let's say you get paid £3,000 with a 20% deposit; the client then pays you £600 before you start the work. The rest of the payments should be divided into sections, so you always feel equal. This might look like this: 20% deposit, 20% after character design and storyboards, 20% after delivery of sketches, 20% after half of the colour completion and final 20% on delivery of all artworks. Many authors agree to this as it also breaks up their payments into more manageable chunks, and it's easier for you to keep track of your finances.

Royalties

Royalties are detailed in your contract and can vary depending on the company. The standard in the UK is 5% of the retail price on paperbacks and 10% on hardbacks. It used to always be a given to get royalties in the traditional publishing world however sadly times have changed and traditional publishing is more risky now than it used to be with the rise of self publishers. I have only been given royalties on about 5% of the books I have done.

Working with self-publishers can be more complicated and you often don't see a huge return if you ask for royalties. It's entirely up to you, but I would always try to get paid more with less to no royalties for self publishers. Sadly, most self-publishers don't make it as big as they expect. It can be a gamble to get royalties and can be the reason a self-publisher doesn't pick you.

Agents

If you are lucky enough to bag yourself an agent, the pricing is often worked out for you. There is very little room for adjustment on this price, and you have to consider the time agents spend negotiating that price for you in the first place. However, having an agent doesn't always mean big money and can often leave people out of work for months. All of my highest paying clients have been through my freelance work, so don't think that the high paying work comes easy due to having an agent.

Doing work for free

Image: Image created for my first ever published book

Starting out as a freelancer is hard, so now and then, you may work for free. Its crucial to understand the difference between working for free because you want to and working for free because you feel you HAVE to. I still work for free if it's something I am passionate about, but it's always on my terms, and I ask for it. Working for free can be an essential step to getting yourself paid work. It can also give you room to make mistakes and not stress about deadlines.

If you are a book illustrator and working for free, you can try ask for royalties, and sometimes this is an excellent way to feel like you are getting something else for the work you provide.

Here are a few tips if you choose to work on a few projects for free to help build up your portfolio

Ensure the work is relevant to what you want to get paid work in. Turn it down if you are asked to do work for a children's book but want to get paid to do print design.
Working for free gives you more choice. You can aim for more prominent companies and work in your exact area, don't be scared as you have nothing to lose.
Working on things you are passionate about makes it so much more enjoyable. You can't always be as picky when you are being paid.

We cover paid samples later, but for now, here are some questions I often get asked about doing samples for free:

Q. I have someone interested in my service but isn't completely ready to put down a deposit. Should I do them a sample for free?

A. This depends on your level of experience and the client. If it is your dream client, then why not? If they are willing to pay a considerable amount for the final piece, then yes! However, my main advice is to judge the audience and if you think when you ask for a paid sample, you will lose the client, then offer them a free one. Starting out, I did a couple of free samples, and they ended up being my first paying clients.

Q. I have been asked to illustrate something exact with other illustrators, and then the client will pick one of us. Should I do this?

A. I personally disagree with this method used more and more by authors but once again judge the client and how badly you want to job. I used to agree to this kind of work only if it was a choice between myself and another illustrator. Sometimes picking an illustrator is hard, and not everyone can see your vision. This is why it’s essential to keep an up-to-date portfolio full of common themes and/ or offer a paid sample.

Q. I have done the free sample, but they don't want to continue. Do I still own this work?

A. Yes! You own any work unless you sign a contract stating otherwise. You can use this on your portfolio.

Knowing your worth

You often must be a bit ruthless being self-employed, and to do this, you need to have lots of self-confidence. We go more into the topic of confidence in week 5, but for now, I want to talk about pricing and knowing your worth.

There may be a time when someone tells you that you are not good enough to be charging what you are charging. Still, you need to understand that if more clients are buying your service than telling you you're pricing too high, then you are doing it right. I am very happy with the price of my illustrations, and I have been charging this much for a while now; however, only last month someone asked if I would do the whole book (26 illustrations in full colour) for £70. I know, laughable. That's less than I got for my first ever paid book! The point is that it doesn't matter how big or small, talented or starting out you are. Some people just don't understand the value of what you do.

It is also important to not accept anything under your worth to keep the industry alive. Remember I said do free work to help get your portfolio up and running? Well, if you keep doing free work past the point where it's 'learning' then you are putting everyone who charges for their time out of work. You need to keep upping your prices to your skill level and going back to the tips above to ensure your pricing is correct.

Influencers: We love to hate them, right? I know genuinely talented artists who are asked to give work for free in return for 'exposure' daily. If you want to go ahead with this, that's fine, but you have the right to ask to see their statistics and work out if it will genuinely benefit you. Having followers on Instagram does NOT equal worth. Them giving you exposure to other influencers isn't going to bring in cash flow; however, if it's exposure to authors or your target audience, then weigh out if it's worth your time and money.

Hopefully you now have more of an idea of how to price your work! Don’t forget you can book in a mentoring session to go over this in more detail and personal guided advise on how much your work should cost.

Pricing Your Work as an Illustrator