One of the more challenging aspects of freelancing (especially if you are just starting out) is figuring out what to charge for your services. Different clients have different budgets, and they will be using your artwork in different ways. How do you know what your fee should be for a greeting card illustration? What is a reasonable royalty for a children’s book? What about that ad agency who just called and needs storyboards by tomorrow?

Fortunatley, there’s the Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines, published by the Graphic Artists Guild. The GAG is a professional organization for commercial artists. Every few years, the GAG surveys their members (both graphic designers and illustrators) to find out what they are charging for various projects and publish the results in book form. The 12th edition is hot off the presses.

Each chapter covers a different industry that commonly hires freelance artists (i.e. advertising, magazines, book publishing, etc.), and gives a detailed explanation of the standard industry contracts/terms you should expect to see for use of your artwork. The more you know about a particular industry, the more able you are to present yourself as a knowledgable professional and the less likely you will be to undersell your services, or worse, get ripped off by a client with low respect for artists (and believe me, they are out there).

Each chapter also includes charts that list the current “going rate” for various projects, to help you figure out what you should be charging. Since every project is unique and there are many factors that effect price (i.e. complexity, deadline, rights purchased, the artist’s experience, etc.), the charts often have some wide price ranges. Still, those charts have saved my bacon many times.

(Incidentally, when a client calls I have learned to never, ever give a price quote off the top of my head. I’ll either over-estimate and scare away the client, or underestimate and wind up resenting the fact that I’m working so cheap. Instead, I always tell the client I need to run some numbers and get back to them. After I’ve figured out what I think I should charge, I usually grab this book to see what others are charging for the same service and, if necessary, adjust my fee accordingly.)

Finally, the book also includes sections on professional ethics, legal issues and contracts, complete with sample contracts and business forms for you to copy and use. I’m surprised at how many freelancers (especially those just starting out) don’t use formal contracts when being hired for a project. If you come to the client with all of your terms spelled out in black and white, you immediately present yourself as a professional worthy of respect. You also scare off any shady clients who might want to take advantage of you. And by spelling everything out up front you prevent any misunderstandings about fees, deadlines, or what exactly is expected of you. I personally have adapted my estimate/contract from Tad Crawford’s Business and Legal Forms for Illustrators because it comes with contracts on CD which I can cut-and-paste into my letterhead. But the GAG info in the Handbook is very helpful as well.

I should also mention that most of the book’s content is geared towards graphic designers and illustrators, though there is also some info for cartoonists, animators, website designers as well. I’m still waiting for my copy to arrive in the mail, but the previous edition had only a few pages of general information about freelance animation work. But that edition was published four years ago. With recent advances in Flash technology and the YouTube phenomenon, internet animation is booming like never before. Hopefully the 12th Edition will have more in-depth pricing info for animators.

This book is an absolute must-have for any freelance artist. Make sure to get the 12th edition (although curiously, the 11th edition is still featured on the GAG website). If you freelance, run out to the bookstore and grab a copy right away. Or order one from Amazon.com

As much as I enjoy making my living drawing pictures, it’s important for me to remember that freelancing is still a business. I have to keep reminding myself that I’m a business person first and an artist second. If I don’t, I know I’ll be headed for a train wreck.

Artists are creative and free-wheeling by nature. The discipline and planning required to maintain a business can seem boring, confusing, and/or intimidating. Fortunately, the magical and powerful Internet is there to help!

One of the sites I visit regularly is FreelanceSwitch.com. It’s a blog that specializes in tips, tricks, and advice for freelancers. The articles are well-written and often extremely helpful. All this week they are doing a series called “The Business of Freelancing”, with a new article posted every day. The author is Shane Pearlman, who seems to have a pretty good blog of his own.

Yesterday they posted Part 1, “The Business of Freelancing–Saving For Taxes”. For the rest of the series, visit FreelanceSwitch.com every day this week.

Also, I have a category of posts on this blog called (coincidentally) “The Business of Freelancing”. Click the link over to the right to view all of my previous posts under that heading.

Images copyright © Bob Staake. All rights reserved.

Freelancing can be a lonely existence, and listening to background music or DVDs in the studio all day can get tiresome. So I’m always looking for good documentaries, interviews, and instructional material that relate to being a commercial artists. When I can actually hear the voice of another artist “talking shop” in the background, I eat it up.

I recently stumbled across a real gem on iTunes. It’s a podcast called the Illustrative Designer Podcast (hosted by Von Glitschka), and the artist being interviewed is Bob Staake. Staake is a very prolific illustrator/designer/cartoonist. Over the decades he’s built up an enormous body of work ranging from advertising to children’s books to animation design.

This is one of the better interviews I’ve heard in a while. Very informative and inspiring. If you work as a freelance illustrator, this is must-listen material.

Listen on iTunes
Listen online

Also, check out Bob’s blog. (I’ve added it to my blogroll.)

I love being self-employed. Freelancing has worked out for me (going on eleven years now), and I’m extremely grateful. I wish the same success and happiness to anyone else preparing to venture out on their own.

However, it isn’t always a bed of roses. If you are considering a career in freelance, the last thing you want to do is go into it starry-eyed or unprepared. Here’s a good article I recently stumbled upon that lists some of the not-always-pleasant-but-very-real aspects of being self-employed:

The Reality of Working for Yourself

Far be it from me to discourage anyone from pursuing freelance. It’s a wonderful way to work. Just make sure you jump into it with your eyes open.

(Thanks to Freelance Switch for the link.)

Self-promotion is an essential task for any freelancer…and the need for it never ends. The other day I was reading an interview with the very talented Peter de Seve, a top-tier illustrator. Even with his stellar career, he acknowledged that art directors will soon forget about you if you don’t remind them that you are still out there.

Unfortunately, many art schools don’t do a very good job of teaching their students about self-promotion. So a freelancer just starting out might feel lost, not sure what to do or how to go about it.

The established professional often has a different problem: Finding time to self-promote. The cycle looks like this: You advertise, clients start to hire you, you get busy (too busy to advertise), new clients stop hearing aobut you, work slows down or even dries up completely. And there’s no guarantee that the cycle will start up again.

Thanks to the folks at HOW magazine (an excellent magazine, by the way), now you can have a plan. They’ve just published a free 2008 Marketing Calendar. The calendar has two tracks, one for “Rookies” and one for “Veterans”, and tasks are broken into simple bite-sized chunks to keep things easy and manageable. Just download the calendar and tape it above your desk. Or, if you are more digital-saavy, you may want to enter tasks from the calendar into your computer (I use iCal) to help you stay on top of things.

Download the free 2008 Marketing Calendar here.