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Kerfuffle posted:Also, illustrators: be wary of self publishing authors that want *you* to illustrate their totally awesome book. I have gotten more insulting offers from self publishing authors than any other client type. Don't accept royalties as payment for your work. You are not a bank. Always get an advance and don't sell yourself short for "a great portfolio piece". As for resources, my mom (an attorney) bought this book for me after I low-balled my first commercial illustration job and didn't negotiate the terms of the contract: Business and Legal Forms for Illustrators It's a good guide to everything to look out for in commercial jobs and contains form contracts you can customize and checklists of things to negotiate and look out for in contracts. There are other books in this series concerning graphic designers, fine artists, etc.
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May 14, 2012 19:46
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Defenestration posted:Found a neat video on why spec work is bad. This is great. I especially like the comparisons to other industries. I'd really love to see it posted in SA-Mart or otherwise see SA-Mart raise awareness of the shittiness of design spec work. I've been trying to pick up small projects (since my job is going to poo poo), and I think, 'Hey, I could do a great website banner for that price so let me link my portfolio and.. oh, it's another loving contest..' I avoid design contests out of principle, which limits the work I can do through SA for goons (and elsewhere online) because most calls for design work are contests rather than the buyer directly soliciting designers and choosing a designer to work with.
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Jun 28, 2012 22:26
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RGBRIOT posted:It's a hard thing to argue with buyers over. By that I mean as much as we might inform people that 'hey you're kind of taking advantage of designers by doing this' they hear 'free free free / cheap cheap cheap!'. Now to be fair if every designer went on spec work strike this method would die out pretty fast, but that's wishful thinking. Some people need the work, ANY work, and welcome even just the chance at making a few $$$ and the rest have a variety of reasons for doing work that's generally not in their best interest anyway. Personally I use my entries as free advertisement and portfolio padding, but even then I know in the back of my mind that I and my competitors would be better off in the long run if we didn't follow these types of offers. Yeah, I know exactly what you're saying. It's not something that could be fixed easily. But I think my main issue with it isn't so much designers missing out on money for their work, it's that everyone creating the spec jobs is having their conception of how much design is worth (not a lot) continually reinforced. That's the really damaging aspect of it. It just really sucks that designers trying to make a few bucks by entering in these contests are also aiding the devaluation of their work and industry. I have way less of an issue with high-paying contests (which I'd probably enter myself because oh god I need money), because in those cases, the devaluing aspect of the contest goes away and the winning designer is actually compensated fairly. I really hate the contests where the holder has no idea how much he should be paying for design ($15? $20?) and the designers (who I can mostly sympathize with because they need the cash) show the holder that yes, the design work he wants can be had for $15. quirex posted:One of the biggest problems with design is that, almost by definition, laypersons literally can't tell the difference between getting "a logo" crowdsourced for $50 that sucks and getting a whole identity that will be versatile enough to work in all the situations they need it in. I think some of this has to do with a lot of designers not having a good understanding of what they need to sell when a client asks "I need a logo," and as long as designers go along with just making a logo the situation won't improve.
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Jul 5, 2012 20:58
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I had a book cover art commission pay out today, and it was glorious. I was very lucky to have been working with a legit, honest design firm that ultimately paid me quite handsomely for the use of my art, but for the love of god, don't dive into working without at least getting a rough estimate of how much they intend to pay you. A designer at a firm contacted me via DeviantArt about the use of one of my pieces for a book cover, that they would like to license it and compensate me. We corresponded over email, and I offered to rework the piece for print, as the original file was too small for print and not that good technically (it was one of my first digital paintings ever), and the designer agreed. I did all this epic work before realizing that I had no idea if they'd try to lowball me because I was just some dumb kid they found on DA, or if they'd pay realistically like my last commercial cover art job. I got down to negotiating, and started really high, with NO idea of what they were expecting to pay and half-expecting them to balk, but I got the amount I wanted, so it was a giant relief. On the flipside, they were really happy that I was able to deliver work on time and was familiar with terms like 'CYMK' and 'invoice'. So yeah, if I were doing that project again, I'd talk about payment expectations before committing to anything. DA artists are just too easy to take advantage of and many of them would probably think $75 for use of their fantasy art on print book cover is totally awesome. RetroVirus posted:I was wondering if there's some sort of language I'm missing... I have been asked quite a few times to "contribute" an illustration or comic to a publication. When I respond with my interest and rate, I either get no responses or they say "sorry we have no budget." Don't worry, I don't take up these offers. Ha, I've gotten this too, namely in the form of inquiries to my DA account. Someone asked me if they could use one of my pieces as an album cover for a self-produced single or something, and I said I'd be happy to license the piece's use. Never heard back. It seems like people think that if it's already been created, they should be able to use it for free if they just get permission. Wait, artists want money for the use of their IP, too? Wtf! I've also replied to art and design contests on Craigslist with just my portfolio (and not the desired spec entry). my reply rate on those isn't too good.
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Feb 7, 2013 02:40
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Defenestration posted:Random House's Hydra imprint gives a great example of what contract NOT TO SIGN, EVER, HOLY poo poo THIS IS BAD I'm of the mind that these moves are a direct response to Amazon's massively disruptive Kindle Direct Publishing, which lets independent authors just upload their Word doc and JPG cover to the Amazon Kindle store for free, take advantage of Amazon's amazing e-distribution infrastructure (trusted Amazon shopping cart that already knows your credit card info + Whispernet) for free, and take home 70% of the cover price. That's $2.08 in your pocket per $2.99 short story. There's definitely been a paradigm shift, and don't NEED some lovely e-book publisher to distribute your fantasy story for you (especially with such a lovely contract), when you can just have Amazon be your publisher/distributor. I don't think the old guard publishing houses want you to know that, though, and are happy to expand their efforts to capture all those wanna-be authors who are all too willing to sign lovely contracts so that they can be 'published'.
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Mar 7, 2013 19:02
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Pheeets posted:Random House responded to Scalzi's post, but I won't quote it here because it just steams me that they're trying to justify their machinations with convoluted "explanations. Also: John Scalzi posted:3. Author copies? You get one copy, on your preferred platform. Sorry, mom! Gotta pay Amazon! Seriously, that’s just a dick move.
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Mar 7, 2013 22:25
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Pheeets posted:They addressed their reply in part to him, yes. He's the president of SFWA.
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Mar 7, 2013 23:16
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GiveUpNed posted:I'm on the other side of the country from her. Will she have to mail the cheque to me, or can it be a wire transfer, or somehow electronically done? Is a regular electronic bank-to-bank transfer not an option? I just include my account number and the appropriate codes or whatever for my bank/branch on my invoices. And then all of a sudden there's more money in my bank account. For the client, it's a matter of logging in to their online banking and copypasting the numbers into the transfer money option thing. I have it in my head that wiring money is a different thing from electronic transfers done via online banking, so correct me if I'm wrong.
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May 17, 2013 07:03
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