Ownership Matters

Monday Mind Dump on Art and Writing

(If I didn’t know better, I swear that ChatGPT is really trying hard to please me. I didn’t TELL it to do that. I told it to make ONE image with a raccoon for my substack post. :D Which is what triggered a writing project for next year: Where Reflections Dream. Pretty sure Chat has been fully broken in to my expectations at this point. I’ll do my own comics, thank you. Still, it did summarize this NICELY.)

This has come up several times recently, and as an artist and an author, I have opinions on it based in experience.

As an artist I’m of the mind that you do whatever you want. I get it, but the reality is this: Authors are the ones more likely to take advantage of an artist than an artist is to take advantage of an author. Doing the art takes a tremendous amount of time and skill. Otherwise, you’d do it, right?

I can write a chapter of a novel in one day. It takes me THREE months to pencil, ink, color, letter, and format that chapter. And I work fast for an artist.

Obviously, it’s a choice, so I don’t even get where the recent: Why should authors support artists? thought is coming from. Other than the cold calling they do to try to get business. I don’t like that or do that…however, in my case, an author cold contacted me with a business proposition, and I took it as a learning experience to work with someone who I thought was all together and had good writing.

What I got was long, unpaid hours doing over a hundred pages of a full color children’s comic that took me away from actual paying work. Then, when it came to getting this book published, he’d arranged for a publisher. I fought with the files and set everything up…only for the publisher to disappear.

Oh, that’s okay, we can move on, right?

No. Because then I learned that this author was going to his other artist and using my work ethic to push her along with guilt. I didn’t like that. It made me pause. Then came the breaking point. I don’t recall exactly what brought it about, but he made the comment: My name is on the cover. Not yours.

Excuse me. You presented this to me as a mutual work with a 50/50 split following publication. I’ve got piles of medical bills and am doing this work (when I should concentrate on other work) because I said I would.

That was it. I OWNED all the art, because he did not pay for it, it was MY art. The story wasn’t mine, so I re-purposed that art into a story of my own. I could do that. Oh yes, you can believe he tried the whole sunk cost fallacy on me: But you’ve done so much work on this project! Yeah. It’s MINE. I did all the character and world designing. Everything.

So this is the thing: Art is a product. It must be purchased for you to own it. Writing is a product. You must purchase it to own it. Works both ways. Otherwise, you do what I did and teach yourself how to draw and do it yourself.

In the comics industry, both artists and authors are paid. When a novelist goes to get a comic made of their work, they pay the artist for the service. Then, they take OWNERSHIP of the artwork. Someone else’s work is purchased.

If an artist goes to an author and wants to commission a script, they should pay the author whatever they agree upon.

This is a sample price chart of prices, depending on multiple factors, from experience to names, time frames, and industry.

Full-service artist (doing pencils, inks, colors, letters)

Indie/Beginner: $100 - $300 per page.

Pro: $400-1,200+ per page.

Writing

$25 to $100+ per page.

If you’ve ever seen a sample script, you see why. It is infinitely easier to write a comic script than to draw that script. Different work loads. Different pay rates.

I’ll caution against ever accepting an offer to share profits on ANYTHING. Just, don’t. Don’t offer it. Don’t accept it. Even if you trust the other person, it’s not a good idea. Stuff happens. I’ll never do it again. My time is far too valuable to waste on a ‘maybe’ of that kind.

Heh, and as I’m writing this, I have someone cold contacting me on Suno and note that their line of questioning is leading toward what their profile says they do: Doing music videos.

Yeah. I’m an artist. I can do that myself. I didn’t just spend hours in four different programs testing things out to not do it on my own. Especially when I know I can’t afford what it would cost to have someone else do it. Same goes when someone doesn’t pay attention to the hand drawn art on posts and offers to do a comic or illustration for me. I can do it on my own. I didn’t spend decades learning how to draw and illustrate not to.

Although now I’m at the point where I need to relent and realize that until my eyes completely heal and I get new glasses, I need to do digital inking over hand. As much as I love using pens and brushes, it’s a frustrating experience when you can’t see the art with your glasses on OR off.

- TC Ross