Four Lies You Should be Prepared for
I hate to say this, but there are many people out there who try to take advantage of cartoonists who are just starting out in this business, and don't know any better. People will lie to you in an effort to get you to work for them for dirt cheap or even for free. In this brief writing, I'll tell you the four most common lies I still hear as a freelance cartoonist. The point of this is that you become familiar with the lies, and will avoid falling into the traps that so many beginner cartoonists fall into.
1. "We're on a low budget, but there'll be more projects in the future."
This is a very popular line among cheap clientele who think they can buy quality work for a fraction of the cost.
Let's say their company really is on a low budget… So what? You can't go to a five-star restaurant and say, "Hey, I'm a bit low on cash right now, but I promise to eat here more often." You'll be shown to the door. And that's exactly what you should do to this person.
In addition, if they're being cheap with you on this project, what makes you think they'll pay fairly on the next one? They probably won't. And if their budget does pick up, they'll just probably go to a different cartoonist anyways.
2. "We'll let you use this for your portfolio."
This is by far the most ridiculous thing I hear from people looking for artists. What's sad is that a lot of beginners take on projects like this, thinking it's the proper way of building up a portfolio. And of course, many clients know this and thus use it to take advantage of talented beginners and get free work.
First of all, you don't need anybody's permission to display your own work in your portfolio.
Second, there are better ways of building up a portfolio than doing free work. You can make cartoons for "pretend clients" (nobody will ever know), you can do cartoons for your self or friends and family, and you can draw cartoons solely for the purpose of adding it to your portfolio.
3. "I'd like to see a few sketches before I sign the contract."
I hear this far too often. You might get trapped into thinking that by spending your time to make the client several sketches, you are bringing them closer to signing the contract. That's exactly the reasoning I had when I was just beginning as a freelance cartoonist, and it led me to a lot of wasted time.
The fact is, you can never know for sure whether the client will end up signing the contract or not. If they don't, then you have wasted several hours of your time for nothing. And that fact alone is enough to reject such pleas.
And if they do like your sketches, they can just take them to another artist and you get screwed because you didn't get the deal but gave them a bunch of sketches that they're going to use.
When I hear this line, I always give the same answer: "Sorry, but I don't put pencil to paper before a contract is signed."
4. "Can I keep these sketches and think about it?"
At the end of a meeting, never let them keep any creative work such as sketches, charts, brainstorming notes, etc. Just as in the case above, this is valuable material that you might end up not earning a cent on. Kindly refuse to give away the material, and say that they're free to schedule another meeting if they'd like to see the sketches once more before signing a contract.
