Children's Book Commission! pt.3

I talked to Patrick on Monday in regards to last post/email I received. Now I am having a little bit of a dilemma. I am so confused. I just realised now that I know nothing about getting paid and handling money and bookkeeping and all these things to do with money, and I'm terrified. but I guess this is the time to be asking questions. this is why I'm in school.

So, basically I tried negotiating with the publisher about the amount I'll be paid for working on this project - as Teresa thought that proposed budget was too low. She also asked me if this is a flat fee or royalty (and obviously I had no damn clue what any of these meant when I feel like I should which scares me, as mentioned before)

Anyway, the publisher said that the proposed budget is the best that they can do. So now I'm getting mixed opinions from others whether I should do it or not. Personally, I really want to take it on as I feel that it'll not only help me with my portfolio, but also will hopefully increase my exposure over in GCC/Middle East countries - which in time, I hope will open up more doors for me. But I also don't want to be taken advantage of.

I decided to do a bit of research on how much an illustrator should be paid for working on a children's book and found Amanda Hall's 'Getting Paid' FAQs. which opened up some things to consider, but in conclusion, I'm still pretty clueless and unsure of how to go about doing this.

Some things I've learnt though (taken from Amanda's website):

Q - Is it usually good to take the fee you’re offered? 

 A - I think at first the client will usually offer less than they actually have in their budget for the job, in the hope that you’ll agree. You can always find out by asking them for more: if they won’t raise the fee, then you need to decide whether the job is worth doing.

Q - Do you always get paid a flat fee for your work?

A - I usually get a flat fee for educational illustration, particularly when I am one of several contributors to a book. The other way I get paid is as an advance on royalties.

Q - What is a royalty?

A - This is the way a lot of illustrators and writers get paid by publishers, and most picture book payments work like this. The royalty is the illustrator’s or writer’s percentage of the money made from the sales of their book. The details of the percentages are all outlined in the contract for the book.

Q - What is an advance?

A - The advance is the sum of money that the publisher pays to the contributor while they are working on the book, so that they have something to live on before the book sales come in. This varies hugely, depending to a large extent on the commercial success of the contributor so, if you have no track record, you are unlikely to get a large advance.

Q - How does it work?

A - Royalty statements are sent out twice a year showing the contributor how the book is selling. The money from any books sold will then be offset against the royalty advance the contributor has been paid, until the sales and the advance cancel each other out. Only then will the contributor earn more money from the book, but that will continue until the book either stops selling or goes out of print.

Q - What about doing your accounts and all that?

A - You’ll need to create a system of bookkeeping, sending out invoices and keeping receipts, paying your taxes etc. The Tax Office is pretty helpful in my experience and I have been on quite a few Business Link courses designed for people just starting out – see Other Sources of Advice.

After reading these, I feel like I should straighten out what I'm getting paid here - flat fee or royalty. If the budget they proposed is a flat fee and on top of that I will be getting a percentage of the money made from the sales of the book, then I think I will be super happy. But again, I still want to work on the project even if not because I feel like there will still be some good from doing it (such as exposure abroad). so I'm really torn! aaaaaargh! I'm going to discuss this some more with Patrick, maybe Teresa and John too, to see if they can help me with my dilemma haha.