OK, so if you have been following the blog you know that I’ve been having trouble getting paid by a few OSR type clients (there are 2 with outstanding balances owed me; other than sending them messages with requests for payment, I don’t know what else to do). In addition, there is the matter of the ‘ape head’ illustration where I let frustration get the best of me and managed to screw a bad deal even further from my end.
Going forward, I obviously need to do things differently and have received both public and private responses and suggestions. Based on that, I’m looking at:
- An overall rate increase.
- Require a deposit before I start work.
- Require a signed agreement before I start work.
- High rez scans delivered only after final payment is rendered… up until then, the client gets 72 dpi jpegs for placement/approval.
- Include a “change order” request process in the contract.
- Avoid the “noob” publishers who may (or may not)have good intentions but have unrealistic or unclear expectations.
The hardest part of this is the ‘rate’ concept. I have no idea what is reasonable or fair. The conventional formula seems to consider type of usage (one time use vs. more rights) plus time/complication multiplied by usage itself (i.e.: I understand some illustrators and photographers may charge a lesser price to a magazine with a smaller distribution).
As far as the deposit goes, I’m thinking of asking for 1/2 up front and the other half within 30 days of delivery (when I did photography I tried to get paid within 30 days, even offering discounts if people would pay me before the first 30 days were up and threatening to charge more for invoices that went past 90 days— no one ever paid me early and the late clients who were billed extra for delinquent payments never paid the penalty (in fact, some of them never paid their bills at all)).
I’ve done some hunting and haven’t been able to find how much other artists charge for artwork — any good suggestions for finding price info out there?