How do you factor in your creative time?
At the end of the day, most of us want to make money with our art.
How we go about calculating in our time for our artwork is pivotal to ensure that we are compensated for our skill, education, and background. I have to be honest, charging for my art is hard. So, I am going to divide this into two categories of how I am paid for my art, sometimes they overlap and that is when the magic happens.
Let's talk about product. Before we even begin to sell it, there is an investment made. We have taken the time to create the piece of artwork and if you are using POD or you create your own product your end goal is to sell a ton of product, at least a quantity that will cover your time spent making the art.
I am going to use my Spring Bug tea towel as an example. When I create a tea towel, I consider the life of the design, I want this design to go into production more than once.
I have easily printed over 500 towels, if not more with this one design. To get to a wholesale price, I double the cost of the towel and then because the market rate is
$10-12/towel for wholesale I sell my towels for $10, included in this cost is materials, shipping and packaging. The remainder is a little slice left over for profit, for ease let's call it a $2. The real kicker is that if you spread that profit over 500 towels, that ends up being $1000 for the one design. That is pretty good. The real magic is that I use that design for other products. You will find the Spring Bug on wrapping paper, gift tags, and even washi tape!
So, for product I always evaluate the life of the design and also the going rate for the product, try not to undersell yourself. Look at what your competition charges and match that. I recently raised my price for $9 to $10 a towel and that is an additional dollar for each towel sold. I did this because I was undervaluing my work.
Now, let's talk about licensing! When we license our artwork we get paid for it over and over… if it is a good piece of art. Again, I am going to use the Spring Bugs. I have been able to license this on fabric, so I get paid a royalty when it sells. I have licensed this on women's clothing where I got a flat fee. I have licensed this on puzzles, where I get a royalty when it sells there. This is not to brag. Not all of my artwork works like this, lol, but it would be a lot cooler if it did, ha ha.
When I license my work I consider the market I am licensing in, the number of pieces that will be produced, take a look at industry standards and I look at the size of the company. When all else fails I ask around. I always read the licensing report put out by Shannon McNabb… she does an industry survey on licensing and collects all the numbers. That is super helpful.
I also consider time put into pieces of artwork. There are some pieces of artwork that take very little time, like a blender, so if I license this I will be able to get more bang for my buck compared to a hero print. You may want to consider what artwork is getting licensed and consider what kind of print it is and how long it takes you to make that kind of artwork. If you also know the industry you are going into you can factor all these points together. Some industries pay more than others. Being aware of this allows you to create artwork specifically for the industry you want to market you artwork in and get paid for your time.
As you can see, there are a lot of factors that go into getting paid for your creative time. I think the piece I come back to the most is learning the industry standards- I am notorious for under selling myself. It takes time and confidence to truly charge for your art and the more we talk about it, we continue to raise the bar.