Making Money as an Artist 🪴
7 tips from my own experience
Click play above to hear me read this post. I record every Weekly Artists Newsletter just for you.
Hi everyone!
Making money as an artist is quite a hot topic, and it can be a bit of a touchy or awkward one. I am of the mindset that talking and sharing our experiences around money as artists will help the community grow together. I have made mistakes regarding money as an artist — charging too little, not negotiating, not following up when a contract was breached, etc… I have learned from these and hope that sharing my experiences will further the community.
Nine months ago I left my full-time teaching job to focus on a career in art. Money had been a huge consideration since I was leaving behind the stability of a biweekly paycheck. It hasn’t been easy, but I am proud of the progress, both financially and artistically, in the past nine months. Since leaving teaching, I have made money from commissions, illustrating books, selling cards wholesale & direct-to-consumer, and through this newsletter (Thank you to all the paid subscribers! You’re supporting my dream!) I also have a part-time job at an art museum for 5-10 hours a week.
Based on my experiences, here are my best tips for making money as an artist:
1) My favorite pricing resource
By far the best resource I own for pricing is the Graphic Artists Guild Handbook of Pricing & Ethical Guidelines. It has hundreds of pages about hundreds of different types of projects. It lists tables with standard pricing, and it includes so much information about how and why to price your work a certain way. It gave me the confidence to charge my worth. I cannot recommend this book enough!
2) Charge your worth: You and your work are valuable
The first wedding map I drew took me over 15 hours and I charged only $100. That’s about $6/hour. I was too nervous to ask for more. Now I charge about $500 per map, and I can complete them much more quickly. This is a price that I feel is fair given the time it takes me to create the artwork as well as other the other admin work, such as writing a contract, communication, revisions, finding reference photos, etc.. Remember that there’s a lot more that goes into a project than just drawing. Those parts shouldn’t be “free,” so charge a price you’re truly happy with. It will also make working on the project much more enjoyable.
3) Always have a contract!!
I cannot stress this enough. It’s such a good business practice to have a contract for everyone project you work on, even when it’s a personal commission for someone you know. It keeps things like payment, timelines, copyright/usage, etc… clear and formal. Check out this page from the Graphic Artists Guild website for contract samples.
4) Create an easy-to-share Pricing Brochure
I have one specifically for children’s book illustration and another for general commissions. I wrote about the Picture Book Pricing Guide here and a bulleted list of items to include in your general Pricing Brochure here. Essentially, list all your prices for the commissions you offer. It helps align the client with your expectations.
It’s part of our job as artists to teach about fair and ethical pricing to those outside of the art community. If you hire someone to paint a room in your house, but then you decide you’d like a different color, wouldn’t that come with an additional fee? What if you first want one room painted, but then you would like 2 rooms painted and one of them with a special technique? Additional fees. So again, know your worth and charge it!
5) Negotiate
It’s uncomfortable, but always negotiate for even a little bit more. I worked on some character samples for a publisher, and I was too nervous to negotiate anything substantial in case it would work against me for getting the job. I know I could/should have negotiated more, but this is an area I’m working on. I at least got them to cover the international bank fees, which ended up totaling 10% last time I worked with them. So a 10% increase to a few hundred dollar invoice isn’t that bad.
This is an area I would like to improve in, but in the meantime, I have the Pricing Brochure that clearly defines my rates for various projects. This is easy to send as a way to show my expected fees.
I’d be curious to hear from agented artists about this - what does negotiation look like for you? Does your agent handle all of it?
6) Consider a part-time job
I work part-time at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston as an educator. I really enjoy it, because I’m surrounded by art and people who love art. I get to teach art to kids, and I would really missing teaching if I wasn’t doing this job. The part-time work is often less than 10 hours a week, but I get a pay check for showing up and doing my job.
When working as an artist, most income is based on deliverables. I have to send off final artwork to get paid, so it’s nice to have a job that pays me for “just” showing up. The paycheck isn’t very big, but it alleviates the stress of making all my income from art. I am lucky that I have a lot of flexibility to make a part-time job work. I know it’s not an option for everyone, especially those of you with families.
7) Most importantly, keep going
When I started selling cards, it was mostly to family and friends. I think this is normal as you wait for the word to get out and for your own growth. But other orders will come in if you continue to put in the work. For example, someone random from the other side of the country ordered $100 worth of cards last week. I don’t know them and I’m not sure how they found my work, but I know that showing up every day allows things like this to happen.
And if you’re just starting out, reply directly to this post saying “I’m ready to sell my art,” and I’ll send you a free pdf of this paid post. It has a super simple way to sell some of your first pieces, and I want you to succeed!
All of these tips come from my experience over the past couple of years, and some might resonate with you whiles others won’t. That’s ok! Art is a career that has so many options for building a sustainable income. Don’t be afraid to experiment and see what revenue streams might work for you.
But always remember that you and your art are incredibly valuable. Always charge your worth!
If you would like to share any money tips, the comments are open. You can also respond directly to this post to send me an email. I look forward to hearing what works for you!
See you next week for a post about children’s book illustration,
Katie
PS - Are you joining any October challenges?? Let me know, because I’d love to follow along with your work! Here are my Peachtober / SCBWI Artober entries so far:
Great tips, Katie! Every money journey looks different, so it’s great to see how other artists handle it. I’ll add in another tip: Take a percentage of every paycheck (even if it’s 1% to start) and put it in a separate bank account. Every quarter spend a little bit from that account on a reward for yourself (even an ice cream or a special coffee drink counts) to celebrate your profits! As you grow, you can increase the percentage and before you know it, that account has some real money in it! Every time you look at it, you can be proud and it can also save your butt if you have an unexpected expense or need a new laptop/ipad/whatever or want to go to a conference or take a fun trip.
This is such a helpful post! It’s great to see the different elements that fit together. It doesn’t have to be just the one thing that earns you all your money. Working hard on charging what I’m worth! Still a lot of discomfort there but getting better.
Also, I’m ready to sell my art!