on 6 June 2008If you know how to make pictures but don’t know how to sell them, this should help. It’s written by Darrel Rees, a former illustrator who now heads the well regarded Heart agency, and takes you in general terms through all aspects of where the work is, how to get it, and how to get money for it when you’ve done it.
The cover is blocked out of a mustardy bronze that continues as the only colour on most of the pages, all the illustrations (including rather sweet chapter headings by Brett Ryder) being spot or duotone. Two gloss inserts provide full-colour reproductions of eight illustrators’ work, accompanied by Q&As on their experiences in the business. Nicely set in Monotype Grotesque, the type is comfortably legible unless you need to refer to the page numbers, which for some reason are halfway up the page, tight against the spine – the daftest place I can think of, and I’ve put folios in some daft places.
Rees’ text is all good stuff, delivered authoritatively but in a pleasant, chatty style. In places, hard information is a bit lacking. The section on payment, for example, is very helpful in explaining how invoicing works, how long it’ll take to get paid and so on. But it misses the opportunity to explain the benefits of VAT registration, omits the common requirements to supply bank account details and Inland Revenue reference, and doesn’t mention the Late Payment of Commercial Debts Regulations 2002. The section on copyright, again useful as far as it goes, concludes with a reminder that the author is not a lawyer and can’t vouch for the accuracy of the advice, which makes you wonder if he might not have got some of this stuff properly nailed down after 14 years handling illustrators’ interests.
Distinctions are properly drawn between advertising and editorial work: the latter not only pays less (sorry chaps – Ed) but is less susceptible to negotiation on rights, partly because publishers often have ongoing licensing deals in place that have no room for one-off exceptions. Already being familiar with editorial rates, which are accurately outlined, I was hoping for some inside gen on advertising fees, but apparently ‘it‘s very difficult to go into a great deal of detail on advertising fees, because they are complicated’. Bah.
Maybe that’s why you need an agent. But the section on using an agent is even more frustratingly coy. Rees offers some sensible questions to ask about what agents will charge you for, but is vague about what the answers ought to be. And these extras are on top of their commission, which – he mentions almost in passing – is ‘25 to 40%’. Whoa, that’s rather a wide range, and one end of it seems to have disappeared into the stratosphere. At 40% to the agent and another 40% to the tax man (assuming you’re beyond the starving student phase), the burning question about being an illustrator isn’t ‘How?’ but ‘Why?’
Still, whether you want to get an agent and aim for those elusive big-bucks advertising jobs or set out alone to pester the world’s art directors, How to be an illustrator is a sensible place to start.
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