@Robyn Yeah, I have to be careful talking about how much fun illustration is for me. Kidding, of course – I love telling people how much fun I have with what I do, even if they end up thinking that I shouldn't charge for it. Kind of like how I think of major league baseball players. ;)

I also wanted to add something to this post. When I say I don't work for free, it's true.

However.

There are causes I believe in and situations where I'll provide limited services for no *money.* However, I do make sure I'm getting something tangible out of the relationship. So even if I'm not getting cash, I'm getting something that has value to me.

The main thing is, I get to decide if it works or not.

Any others with experience like this?

=>In those instances, I still submit an invoice showing the value but deducted as a charitable donation.

I had never thought of that.
I’m working on a book for children, translated in a local dialect in Africa.
This is a charity action.

I previously had some troubles :
Sponsors’s participation is greatly appreciated because they bring xxxx $.
When I work for free I often have the feeling that I bring no value because I’m not treated like other participants.

That’s ok, I’m not asking for the people to say ‘thank you’ but I don’t want anybody to give me the impression that I’m useless.
Anyway, c’est la vie :)

I’ll use your advice!

Je pense que vous avez raison, il est nécessaire mai à souffrir un peu au début, mais vous présentant comme un professionnel rémunéré est toujours préférable à long terme pour votre carrière.

Il s’agit d’un choix très personnel, mais parfois, je voudrais faire un don à un organisme de bienfaisance que je trouve intéressant. Je n’ai pas toujours l’argent, et je préfère donner mon temps. Si je peux donner mes services c’est génial pour moi, une longue que la valeur de ce que je donne est apprécié et compris autant que l’argent aurait été.

Dans ces cas, je continue de présenter une facture indiquant la valeur, mais déduites comme un don de charité. Cela montre que:

1. C’est mon choix d’être altruiste.
2. Il ya une valeur tangible pour les travaux que j’ai fait.
3. Dans l’avenir, c’est ce travail comme des coûts.

Merci encore pour l’affichage. Comme vous pouvez le voir, je suis en train de travailler sur mon français aussi bien, alors je suis heureux de vous commenter.

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Ange, thanks for commenting. I’m really happy to be getting insight from another country on any of my posts. Please feel very welcome here.

I think you’re right; it may be necessary to suffer a bit in the beginning, but presenting yourself as a paid professional is always better for your long term career.

It is a very personal choice, but sometimes I want to donate to a charity that i find worthwhile. I don’t always have cash, and I would prefer to give my time. If I can donate my services it’s great for me, a long as the value of what I’m giving is appreciated and understood as much as the money would have been.

In those instances, I still submit an invoice showing the value but deducted as a charitable donation. This shows that:

1. It’s my choice to be altruistic.
2. There is tangible value to the work I’ve done.
3. In the future, this is what work like this costs.

Thanks again for posting. As you can see I’m working on my French as well, so I’m glad to have you comment.

1. Should I work for free so that I can get experienced, grow my contact list and actually have some professional work inside my portfolio?
or
Should I keep on trying to believe that my work’s value is more than 0?

I think that nobody should ever work for free.

I noticed that I got more attention when I had a “business” attitude, as soon as I decided to talk about money before publishers did.
Some of them said “we are making books for children, it’s strange that you talk about money” and i had this easy answer “We both want to make a great book. I make a good story/illustrations, I spend time for this, and you pay me if you want this to happen.”

Nobody else than the artist himself should decide if he wants to work for free. Don’t even suggest me to work for free. If I’m passionated enough by the project, and I have enough money to pay the rent, I’ll talk about it by myself (personal project, charities?).

If you work once for a nice price with a nice publisher, you get more money and attention in the future. You ‘build’ your career. At the beginning it’s difficult to pay your everyday rent, but I think that it’s a clever move.

2. Even if a publisher pays well, he actually gets much more money than what you get.
In France, we are paid with royalties but finally it’s like a fixed price if your book is not well-sold. I don’t know if illustrators are paid the same way in Usa, or england.
Ex :
book price = 5€
royalties = 10%
advance (?) = 2000€

You get 2000€ when your book is published (1000€ when you start working on the book, 1000€ when it’s published).

10% of 5€ = 50cts
2000/50cts = 4000

The illustrator doesn’t get money until 4000 books are sold.
If sales are under this level, 2000€ can be considered as a fixed price because you’ll never get more.
That’s what happen mainly.

I actively try to dig into self-publishing. I can’t speak english so well, and it’s a bit difficult for me to share my thoughts, join discussions and develop new solutions ‘together’ (illustrators, artists, etc…) but I’ve decided that I will concentrate my efforts on making connections in 2009.
So came my site, my Twitter, etc..
Still new for me.

I’ll be following your blog, and sorry for my poor english.

I could pay for them with money, but golly, that’s almost $400.

It would be much cheaper if I could get Les Schwab to put four new all-weather Dunlops on my car for free. They could write “Les Schwab” on the side of the tire (as small as possible so it doesn’t distract from the beauty of the tire). I could also carry Les Schwab business cards in my glove compartment.

Whenever I’m driving around town and someone says, “Hey them are some mighty nice tires ya’ll got there” I can tell them that Les Schwab did it.

Imagine how much business they’ll get from me just going to pick up beer every third Saturday.

Really, they should pay *me* to put new tires on my car because they have all those mechanics and tires sitting around anyway. I know they need the work.

Artists are much rarer creatures than lawyers and doctors and plumbers and electricians, all of whom consider themselves professionals and charge respectable fees for their services.

Art is a skill that takes practice and perseverence to perfect. I find the people that want work for free are the ones who say, “Oh, I can’t draw a straight line.” Well, they probably can’t remove an appendix either, but I bet they wouldn’t expect their doctor to do that for free.

How many plumbers take on free work because it’ll look good on their resume, or they can show people their portfolio?

Value your work, or nobody else will. Stand together and do NOT do spec work – it’s a way for cheap bastards to get a lot of free ideas, so they can choose the best one and then go to the boss’s nephew who “does art” to “clean it up.”

@Robyn Yeah, I have to be careful talking about how much fun illustration is for me. Kidding, of course – I love telling people how much fun I have with what I do, even if they end up thinking that I shouldn’t charge for it. Kind of like how I think of major league baseball players. ;)

I also wanted to add something to this post. When I say I don’t work for free, it’s true.

However.

There are causes I believe in and situations where I’ll provide limited services for no *money.* However, I do make sure I’m getting something tangible out of the relationship. So even if I’m not getting cash, I’m getting something that has value to me.

The main thing is, I get to decide if it works or not.

Any others with experience like this?

About working for free – after so many years of volunteering to do freebies for nonprofits and friends, I have struggled with this one. But I’m learning, I’m learning. And even more importantly for me, I’m learning how to spot those potential clients who want to get as much as they can before you ask where the money is, and then they take what you’ve done and run. I still think people are basically good, but some people suck and I wish them very bad karma.

We certainly seem to be on the same page with this one. And my thoughts on it can definitely be applied to any artist. We’re always the ones being asked to perform our skills for free! Why not accountants? Or doctors?

And you’re bang on about the children’s books too. I found out that fact after taking a children’s book writing class. It can be pretty disillusioning if you want to write and illustrate it yourself. What’s the alternative? Self-publishing, I guess.

Thanks again and great info. I love that you’re trying to educate with your blog too. Yay!