Fourecks said:
I'm just curious to know how much an amatuer artist of some skill would charge for black & white images (similar to those found in a GURPS sourcebook) as a package deal.
Just a small point -- as soon as an amateur artist gets paid, they're no longer an amateur artist.
It's kinda like the way the Olympics were before they started allowing the pros play the team sports.
Essentially, how much for say... 192 page book, one small image every second page, one large one every fourth or so a couple of page frame graphics, etc.
Seems like you might be making the equation more difficult than it needs to be. A small (say 1/4 page illo) every two pages, a 1/2 every fourth and a full page illo every 4th page almost sounds like an illustration on every page.
It might be easier to approach it from the POV of having a 1/4 every two pages -- that's 96 1/4 page illustrations. Call them art credits -- 1/2 page illustrations use 2 art credits, full page illos use 4 art credits.
That might make it simpler.
You know... just off the top of your head, nothing written in concrete and thrown off the edge of a pier, just a guesstimate.
A slightly low industry average is 25.00 a 1/4 page illustration. That would means you should budget 2400.00 for the interior art at the guestimate number of illustrations.
The lower you drop the payment, the lower the quality will become. You could also use some clever art director tricks to make the book look like it has more art: reuseable chapter heading art and illustrated borders/headers/footers. A smart artist would want more for an illustrations of that nature, too.
SJG used to (they may still do it) have the unpleasant practice of paying on final reproduced art size, not on assigned size. You could draw 20 1/2 page illustrations then get paid the equivalent for 20 1/4 page illustrations because they needed to reproduce them smaller.
I advise all artists and publishers to avoid that system.
Are royalty deals ever made, ie. you promise ten percent of all profit made? Who retains copyright? Who is willing to work for FREE? What levels of quality should I expect for what price ranges, etc.?
Royalty deals have, and can be made, but they have to be really well defined -- what constitutes profit can be really difficult for all parties to be satisfied with.
You get what you pay for -- if the publisher wants to obtain permanent copyright, he should be willing to pay for it.
Anyone willing to outright work for free is an idiot and undervalues their own work as well as the work other professional illustrators do in this industry. Exemptions are, of course, granted for charity and the like.
There was another thread -- either here or in another board on this forum last summer where a number of publishers just outright stated their pay rates. A good idea would be to find that thread and compare their products with their rates.
Hope this helps,
Richard Pace
Art-Golem