Looking for Artists for RPG Book Illustrations

[KingOfChaos]

Realms of Evil Games, a new D20 game publisher, is looking for artists that are interested in breaking into the roleplaying game industry as an illustrator. Our first book, a sourcebook on evil careers and prestige classes for the D20 rule system, still needs some artwork done and we are simply short on artists at the moment.

Payment for work would not be upfront, since we have to wait for the netprofits from the first sale. We are a new company with very little money at the moment. We are are printing through another company and they do take a bit out of the money because of the printing cost, but I do plan on paying.

Interior Illustrations: 30 dollars per colored picture (this is industry standard). We do not have the option of black and white artwork for this book since the company we are imprinting through only uses colored work in their releases.

If any of you are interested in this employment, please contact our Director of Human Resources at: ssambra@aol.com and include "RoE Games Artwork" in the subject of the message.

Thank you.

[ironfinger]

30 buck per colored illustration? damn no wonder people are flooding the entertainment industry. I can't see how that would be worth it to any illustrator. You'd make more money drawing portraits in a fair.

Not trying to flame you KingofChaos, just a sad commentary on the industry standards of pay.

[Blankfrank]

That's just sad. :(

[mcotie]

It's not bad if you can crank one out in 1 hour or less.

[Romus]

A good one would take far more than an hour, even in black and white.

[KingOfChaos]

Well, some companies may pay more for art, it really depends on the individual company. However, a poll basically set the standard at 30 bucks per interior illustration. Printing itself costs a lot of money and most companies can't afford to crank out $200 dollars for an interior illustration (unless they are Wizards of the Coast).

One of my freelancers just made $800 dollars for partially illustrating a book for Fantasy Flight Games.

Covers, of course, are a different matter entirely :) Most companies pay upwards to a $1,000 dollars for a good cover.

[RormanKnockwell]

It does seem low, compared with other ways of making a buck. Keep in mind, though, that he is looking for people trying to get their first illustration job. For people like that, the ability to put a professional assignment on the resume is the most important thing.

I started out (over ten years back) doing RPG illustrations for small publishers, and the rates of pay were comprable. I've pulled out my old account book so as to take a look. Let's see here...
One client paid $1.50 per column/inch. A 2 column wide illo 3 inches high would have been $9.00. Another company paid $148 for 14 illos, thats about $10 each. These were all pen & ink. Looking back, I worked dirt cheap, but it was fun and good exposure. Eventually I got some work from TSR, and others who natually paid much better.

You really can't expect much starting out. What you should expect, though, is payment upon delivery. That's what worries me about this offer. Not to insinuate that KingOfChaos is out to rip anyone off, but if they haven't budgeted up front for their artwork there might be something wrong with their business plan. I'm sure their printer does not have to wait until they turn a profit before they get paid. Neither does their web host. The services of a professional illustrator, even one that lacks experience, are no different.

When I was just starting out I was approached by a game publisher who offered to pay based on their "adjusted gross profits". I got some good advice and walked out of that deal, even though it meant breaking their silly contract. The company folded, leaving a few angry unpaid artists in it's wake.

[KingOfChaos]

Just a little financial information so people don't think I am a crook. I do plan on paying my artists (in fact I am paying them more than the writers).

Here's a rough projection for a $24.95 product.

Wholesale Price/Unit: $9.98
- Distributor Commission (18%): $1.79
- Shipping (typically 2% of retail): $.49
Price Paid to Publisher/Unit: $7.70

Estimated Printing Costs: $8,500.00

Paid to publisher: $11,550.00 (1,500 * 7.70)
- Printing Costs: -$8,500.00
- Marketing Costs/Co-Op (if any):
Net Profit: $3,050.00

Profit Paid to Imprint for 1st Month sales: $762.50 (3,050*25%)

Profits Paid assuming a complete sell-through of 5,000 copies: $7,500.00 <- That is how much my company recieves for writing the book...as you can see, we can afford to pay everyone.

So we are getting a good amount of money from this imprinting deal with another publisher, so I am not going to skimp out of paying people. I am not an amature looking to rip talented people off.

[RormanKnockwell]

You appear to have all the financials worked out, which is great. An artist who wants to take you up on your offer would have to realize that the figure that you state as a profit is, of course, an estimate based on the assumption that you sell the entire print run. To be fully informed, the prospective illustrator would want to check your company's track record with previous products. One might also want to contact artists who had worked for you in the past, and ask them if they were happy with the way they were treated.

I mention this not to insinuate that you intend to mistreat people. It's been my experience that people almost always go into business with the best intentions, but sometimes things don't work out as planned. The artist should of course try to protect himself as best he can.

You must concede that paying your artists based on your profits is to invite the artists to share in the financial risk that you are taking as a publisher. I would say that a beginning artist sometimes needs to take those risks in order to break into the market. My intent is simply to help inform beginning artists on the nature of these risks and how they might be minimized.

[twistedreality]

I am a young artist, 18

I am basicly trying to blow my way into the industry and the pay does not seem very bad at all.

I know that it has been some time since this was posted but if there is still a position available I will be more than happy to fill it.

if you would like to see my work just copy and paste---

http://bluehyper.deviantart.com/gallery/

to contact me at anytime just call

786 218 7082

Thank you for your time

Javier Antunez

[BDPatton]

This posting belongs in the non-paying section of the site.

Please see the guidelines for posting in this forum: http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=20158

[DFrey666]

Greetings,

All ways be cautious with RPG companies who want illustrations...I'm just saying that there is an inherent problem in the DNA of that industry where payment is like the creatures you create...in the imagination.

I've been burnt to a crisp by 51% of these companies.

Let the pencil holding person beware...they are traveling on unholy ground.

Stay Hungry

[Eric Lofgren]

Interior Illustrations: 30 dollars per colored picture (this is industry standard).

Everything was fine until you said this. 30 bucks for color interiors is absolutely NOT the industry standard page rate for rpg's. 200.00 to 300.00 is the industry standard page rate for color interiors. And 100.00 to 150.00 is the industry standard for black & white or greyscale interiors.

[misledtomisery]

this is from 2002.....how and why did this come back?

[t y l e r]

What Eric said.

[rpace]

Twistedreality dredged it up by posting a response.

~R