Luneder
New member
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2019
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Figure I would make an information dump for those seeking art for their novel on what to expect. This is mostly some basics I picked up after 10 years freelancing as a professional and does not cover everything that maybe encountered.
Amateur vs Professional: the difference between these two if very simple, an amateur doesn’t have a guarantee of quality while a professional does. Amateur artists tend to be very cheap because they do not have the skills to guarantee a standard quality. A professional charges more because they do have the skill and experience that is worth that price.
Know what you want: worse thing to send an artist is a monologue about your novel or project full of narcissism about how great it is, all the artist is interested in is what needs to be made. You can still include details about the story but do not expect the artist to read the story because it will just take up the artists time.
Budget: this part is very important because you get what you pay for meaning if you don’t have the money don’t expect a masterpiece. It is common among professionals to have a premium and budget quality in their art because even they know not everyone can afford the high-quality art however the better they are as an artist the more likely even their budget quality would be out of reach.
Buying trust and steps to establish basic trust: this is the most difficult part to do when dealing with an artist online as well for the artist when dealing with a client online. Most basic way is through contract with steps or milestones in the project that also dictate how and for what will be paid for. For the artist the main thing they care for is money, they need some form of incentive such as an upfront partial payment. Milestones or a breakdown into parts becomes more important for this especially if you want to pay for a lot of work beside the cover such as concept designs for characters, creatures, and so on. For example if a client just orders a cover I would charge 50% upfront before even starting because I would need to know that the client has money. Now if the client wants concepts and other art I would break the commission down into parts and charge for each of those parts as I work on them till completion instead of lump summing it.
Schedule and communication: this mainly means finding out how long the project will take and checking on the artist periodically when the artist starts on the project since a lot of times the artist will have other work they are doing at the same time. Just expect that it might take a month or two because no piece of art worth mentioning was done overnight.
Revisions: A professional will already figure in some revisions when estimating the price but remember it isn’t an infinite number and the artist may ask for more money to make changes if the problem is on the client side of things.
Last thing don’t stress: you are paying someone to do this because it is what they know how to do so if you have a worry just ask the artist so they can explain it to you or add in their own thoughts on the problem and how to solve it.
Amateur vs Professional: the difference between these two if very simple, an amateur doesn’t have a guarantee of quality while a professional does. Amateur artists tend to be very cheap because they do not have the skills to guarantee a standard quality. A professional charges more because they do have the skill and experience that is worth that price.
Know what you want: worse thing to send an artist is a monologue about your novel or project full of narcissism about how great it is, all the artist is interested in is what needs to be made. You can still include details about the story but do not expect the artist to read the story because it will just take up the artists time.
Budget: this part is very important because you get what you pay for meaning if you don’t have the money don’t expect a masterpiece. It is common among professionals to have a premium and budget quality in their art because even they know not everyone can afford the high-quality art however the better they are as an artist the more likely even their budget quality would be out of reach.
Buying trust and steps to establish basic trust: this is the most difficult part to do when dealing with an artist online as well for the artist when dealing with a client online. Most basic way is through contract with steps or milestones in the project that also dictate how and for what will be paid for. For the artist the main thing they care for is money, they need some form of incentive such as an upfront partial payment. Milestones or a breakdown into parts becomes more important for this especially if you want to pay for a lot of work beside the cover such as concept designs for characters, creatures, and so on. For example if a client just orders a cover I would charge 50% upfront before even starting because I would need to know that the client has money. Now if the client wants concepts and other art I would break the commission down into parts and charge for each of those parts as I work on them till completion instead of lump summing it.
Schedule and communication: this mainly means finding out how long the project will take and checking on the artist periodically when the artist starts on the project since a lot of times the artist will have other work they are doing at the same time. Just expect that it might take a month or two because no piece of art worth mentioning was done overnight.
Revisions: A professional will already figure in some revisions when estimating the price but remember it isn’t an infinite number and the artist may ask for more money to make changes if the problem is on the client side of things.
Last thing don’t stress: you are paying someone to do this because it is what they know how to do so if you have a worry just ask the artist so they can explain it to you or add in their own thoughts on the problem and how to solve it.
