Guys I don't want to lecture or sound too heavy about this but it's something I see more and more as a freelancer. so I wanted to ar least comment on it and describe the way I deal with it.
I've had it happen. I've got friends who've had it happen. Chances are you may have had it happen. You run into a snake charmer who sells you some story about how they've got all the talent in the world as a writer, or are the next big indy publisher, and need someone to draw their comic for them, but the kick is they've got limited funds and can't really pay you what you are worth. Right there is the telling point. They are trying to test you out to see if you'll take less that you think you are worth. There are exceptions to every rule kiddees but the answer is almost always sorry, no. I have rates that I must adhere to that keep me doing my best work, which is all I want to put out. I try to be as flexible as I can and I've even worked out deals with people to do piecemeal work as they can afford it, but do yourself a favor and stick to your rates. Don't ever let someone else tell you that their financial bottom line is more important that yours. After all without your art, their comic is just words on a page. Remember where you stand in terms of how much work you do as opposed to a writer. With services like Kickstarter and Kabbage it's easier than ever to get funding for projects.
Ok with that said it's tough to get money up front in the freelancing world so how do you protect yourself? Well I like to use watermarks and also send low res images out for samples and never release a high res, un-watermarked image as a sample until I'm paid. Yes people will try stuff like,' I can't make out the image clearly with that thing there', or 'can I get a higher res image to look at?' Both are usually signs that they are fishing for free work to use. It's sad but true if you believe the stories people tell these days you will inevitably get burned and the more trustworthy you are, the worse it will be. Protect yourself, and treat transactions in a business-like manner and don't trust the charming guy who is suddenly your long lost best pal on the other end of the email until said guy coughs up the fee you agreed upon. If you do you will suddenly stop hearing from him or her in the middle of a project and often times see your work pop up finished or colored by someone else in a manner that you aren't happy with and often times are powerless to stop. People also use this trick to build fake portfolios to shop around. It's happened to me and worse to other people I know. None of which deserved it. It really benefits nobody, as the people who are content to steal partially finished work and who have a string of dupes working for them are taking what would have been great work with soul in it and turning it into sample quality work that they can't see the flaws in, with no heart or soul. Sad but true. There are a lot of these folks out there and they all have a good story to tell, but I mean if you are going to work for free dust off that comic you wrote but haven't had time to work on and do something great with it in your free time. Don't do someone else' work for them, especially if they aren't willing to pay you anything. They don't deserve your artwork or your time. Take the time and make yourself a watermark, and make sure to send optimized images out at 72 dpi for samples, trust me they show people what they need to know, no matter what they say. Trust your gut on people but protect yourself so that they cannot take advantage of you. I know how hard artists work, these people often times think it's easy for us and/or just don't care if we put in a full week/month of 14 hour days on their project. Their goal is to get it done and spend little or nothing on the artwork. If we all get wise and protect ourselves soon enough they won't have artists to exploit and these folks will go away in large part. They don't appreciate art and therefore don't deserve your time or effort, and certainly not the art you slaved over and put all your heart and soul into. It's a real problem these days but one that we can all deal with simply and methodically. Best Wishes!
D
No comments:
Post a Comment