Weekly Creative Biz Note #7

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Side of Children's Books

First of all, we're not claiming to be the guru of children's books--and we never will. We've worked on a few books with publishers and feel we have more to learn. We experience something new every time!

Let's start with the GOOD. Children's books are fun to work on. They're creative and the reward of seeing your art in the bookstore can be exciting! During the process you meet your quick deadline for the sketches and it takes the client 3-6 weeks to give you an approval. For educational books, it seems to us that the sketches hardly ever get changed (which is good). So, sometimes we go ahead and start backgrounds and a few of the illustrations to get ahead of our deadline.



The BAD...they are time consuming and the pay isn't that great considering the amount of time spent. But sometimes that doesn't out-weight the creative juice that goes into it. Scheduling a book project of two weeks or two months can cause problems with other incoming projects--actually that can be a good thing. LOL The client schedule always seems rushed even though it takes them forever to approve the initial sketches. Also, you won't be able to display these pieces for promotional purposes until the book is published...that could be up to a year and a half away! Unless, you negotiate a deal. What type of deal? (you say) If the pricing seems low and the publisher won't budge, then negotiate the right to display the artwork for promotional purposes (your book--online only--no print). Lately, we've been creating an extra illo on our own with the intention to use it as a promo piece right away.

The UGLY side seems to be all the "wanna-be-the-next-Harry-Potter-sensation" entrepreneurs (self-publishers). And if you do cartoon work of any kind you know what I'm talking about! PixelBoy Studio averages about one email a week from numerous "digger" types (from mothers to uneducated business people) desiring an estimate without giving any details pertaining to the project. These people usually have no clue as to the process involved and how costly it can be. This can be frustrating for our rep (and ourselves). You never know if somebody has a potential idea or project. So, we ask our normal questions (that some can't answer) and try to decipher the riddle. Most of these "diggers" want the art for practically nothing or for free--in hopes of paying you with future revenue. Stay away from these people!!! Once they receive your estimate you probably won't hear back from them and multiple times my rep has told me that three other of her artists have received the exact same email! LOL Eventually, you will start to see them from a mile away and won't waste your time on unnecessary estimates.

My advice is to always get some compensation upfront unless you're working with a large publisher. There should be a contract of some sort. Get the answers to all your questions and briefly give the client a rundown of your typical "process" before you go into the estimate phase. It'll save time. Trusting a self-publishing stranger to give you future royalties or payment is nuts--don't do it! My brother and I plan on creating a downloadable PDF that explains the artist's and publisher's process and expected costs--that's coming soon.

Next Friday--Weekly Creative Biz Note #8---Invoices, Bills and Taxes--But I Thought I was an Artist?!
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