Work-for-hire? Bad or good idea?
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I found this video very helpful... I know it was pretty recently mentioned on the forum, so maybe you've seen it already:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SZY_Fz4Lz2s
Will Terry and Tyrus Goshay talk about illustrating self-published children's books, and Tyrus lets loose some absolute gems from his experience, in my opinion.
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@smceccarelli Thank you, Simona. I'm going to download the GAG pricing ebook asap. I think I'm going to take the leap and send her an estimate, but this being my first professional gig ever (let alone a picture book) I have no idea how to outline my process because I don't know what the process is - LOL.
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@laurel-aylesworth Illustrating a whole book is a time-intensive process so if you're considering working with this author, you'll want to consider how much you love their story because you'll be living with it for several months.
I agree with @smceccarelli , make sure you and the author are both clear on the scope of your work. Besides illustrations, who'll do the graphic design, illo/text editing, art direction, printing, marketing? How many rounds of revisions are you willing to do before you charge extra? If this is your first foray into illustrating a book, I think you should try to focus on just the illustration and art direction parts unless you have a strong interest in other aspects of the book's production.
A big pro of doing this project is that you'll get to practice going through the whole process of illustrating book, from thumbnails and dummy book to sketches, color, and final illustrations, while getting paid a bit for your time. However, it would be a different process working with an established mainstream publishing house where the art director would communicate with you directly, and any interactions with the author would be little to none.
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I'd ask how you much is it worth to you for her to own your work? Why does she get to keep all her rights and also your rights too? And why is that it important to her? Unless she is paying A TON OF MONEY, I'd say no for sure.
Rights are very expensive in my opinion and if someone wants them, they have to pay. I typically say at least double a regular fee would be a starting point.
The only exception is if it's work for hire with a legit educational publisher like Scholastic or Harper Collins, etc. That way you at least start to build your stock. Working with a self published author is so sketchy. You get paid little, don't own any of the work or rights, and they typically have absolutely no idea of how to sell a book. Remember, making books is actually the easy part. Getting them into buyers hands is an entirely different thing.
SVS Faculty Instructor
www.leewhiteillustration.com -
Actually, disregard what I said. @Lee-White makes a really good point about retaining your rights to your artwork.
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@Lee-White makes a really good point about rights, and this is what happens all the time in editorial illustration (buying out the rights in editorial is REALLY expensive - maybe 3-times the normal cost of the illustration) - talking as art director here (I buy editorial illustration for the agency I work for).
But in my freelance business I`m finding a niche in developing characters for campaigns or work on established characters. Even if I kept the rights to that art, I couldn´t do anything with it and it would make the client very uncomfortable to know that somebody else could use his character. So it´s typically work-for-hire.
I think the business of illustration has got a lot of facettes and it´s difficult to say what´s right or wrong in principle. Just be always aware of your worth and of the amount of work you invest. Self-publishing authors have often very little awareness of that and that´s what makes it risky and complicated to work with them:
I have to say I´ve had very puzzling interactions also with publishers....so no gurantee there either....For me it´s turning out to be very much a case-by-case discussion, but maybe it will change once I have more experience and more legacy. -
@lee-white Thank you for your thoughts, Lee. I think that might be part of my problem...since I'm at the novice level I don't actually know my worth yet. After watching one of Will Terry's videos on the matter, I felt maybe the experience of doing a work-for-hire project would be worth the potential trouble. But now after reading your comments, I'm back on the fence - lol. In the video, they mentioned it would be near impossible to track royalties anyway. Maybe a solution is to send an estimate that would be double what I'd think to charge, as you stated, and if they go for it, then great. If not, life goes on. Would you suggest I pass on the project and just keep honing my skills and aim for working with publishers in the future?
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@laurel-aylesworth That would be my recommendation. The only way I would say do it is if you LOVE the manuscript and story and it pushes you in the right direction. Otherwise, it will be a painful experience and not help you out in your career at all.
SVS Faculty Instructor
www.leewhiteillustration.com -
@lee-white Thanks, Lee. Would love to see you and Will Terry duke it out over this subject on a 3rd Thursday someday
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@laurel-aylesworth That would be fun! We just did a podcast that will be out soon where me and Will scrapped about doing fan art. I love battling Will and Jake!
