Why it is TOTALLY cool to steal from artists
We are not doing this for the money, we are doing this because we have to, it is who we are. Money-shmoney.
We are LUCKY! We have jobs that we love, so it isn’t actually like WORK. Yes, PLEASE take it.
Sure, I worked on my skills for years and years and years before I could ever be considered good enough to be a professional, but still, it’s my DREAM JOB. Take my art and do whatever you like with it. I just like to spread JOY!
Have you figured out that this is SARCASM yet?
Last night someone posted this picture on Facebook and tagged me of a Whatif Monster craft kit being sold in a Ben Franklin’s craft store in Washington state.
Someone is selling my concept, my idea, my art that I took years and years and years to create and is making a profit off of it without my permission, and worse yet – without giving me a cut at all. NOT OKAY.
I am about to tell you a secret. Well, not so much a secret, but something no one in publishing really talks about. MONEY. And how an author or illustrator really makes it.
I am a children’s book author and illustrator. Which means I worked my a$$ off for years and years and years to hone my artistic talents, my writing skills as well as learning in detail about how the publishing industry works for years and years before I ever had the itty bitty chance to be published.
All this time? I was working another job as a graphic designer. I worked my 8 hours a day at a computer to make money for bills and to live on, then stayed up late during the week and worked all weekend long in the HOPES that one day I would have the CHANCE to make money doing what I love to do.
This is what happens when you get that chance.
WARNING: This post is REALITY. People out there thinking that this is your dream job? This might give you pause. And a sad, sad face. The reality of what I am about to tell you is hard to take.
When you get offered a contract for a book in the world of children’s publishing, (after you are all, WOOHOO!!! MY DREAMS ARE COMING TRUE!!) you get an advance.
If you are lucky enough to be an author AND an illustrator it is a good thing. I am. All these numbers are HALF if you are only the author or illustrator.
My first advance for my first book was $4000. Which I got $2000 up front and $2000 upon completing all the art for the book 6 months later. Not exactly money you can live on – don’t be quitting your job just because you got that book deal! But definitely go out to dinner! You deserve it!! You worked for 8 years for that $4000!!
Advances need to be paid back. My royalty rate for that first book deal was 7% for paperbacks and 10% for hardbacks. My books only came out in paperback (yeah my agent whom I no longer have never asked that question. FORMER agent.) So I get, for perpetuity, $.42 a book every time it sells. If I was just the author or illustrator, I would only get 21 cents. That’s right, 21 CENTS A SALE. But I am rolling in it, because I get 42 CENTS! WOOHOO!!!
So. Let’s do some simple math, shall we? I would never make another cent on my book unless I sell MORE than $4000 in royalties, because I have to pay back my advance. Which means: at 42 cents a book, I had to sell 9,525 books until I made another 42 cents again. NINE THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED TWENTY FIVE books to make 42 cents more per book.
Damn, right? DAY-AM! That be cray-cray right?
RIGHT!
But I did it. Twice. Because I had a two-book deal the first time I got published. So I had to sell 19,048 books to ever make more than $8000 off of those first two books.
And I did it.
By taking myself on the road and into schools and making sure that every sales person in my company knew me and loved me and loved my books and would help sell my books. That is a lot of marketing. And a lot of time on the road.
That first year I traveled for 19 weeks to schools all over the country to sell my books.
And if I wanted to make a living doing this (which I did), I had to write another book while I traveled and sold books.
So I did.
In between school visits and marketing myself on the internet and in person and at festivals every waking hour (so I could make 42 CENTS a book) I wrote another book, sold it and then took 6 months to paint that one – when I wasn’t traveling. Mostly I painted like a crazed person 14 hours a day all through Christmas break.)
This time I was more savvy with my contract though. I got 10% for paperback AND hardback books. And my advance went up to $6500 because I was proven with my past sales.
So lets do THAT math, m’kay? I make $.70 a book on a paperback (I sell vastly more paperbacks than hardbacks so let’s just go with that). In order to pay back my advance and be able to collect 70 CENTS a book per sale after that, I had to sell, 9,286 of THAT book to ever make another dime again off of my art every again.
Which I did.
Just like the first two books. And meanwhile, I knew, I had to write and sell another book if I wanted to keep doing this because DUDE! It is hard to make a living from 42 or 60 CENTS a book. Which is why I supplement with school visit income. Which is why I travel about 14 weeks a year.
And yes, I LOVE what I do. I am DELIRIOUSLY HAPPY with my career. I ADORE working with children! It is truly my DREAM.
BUT.
Like the rest of the world, I want to get paid for my hard work. I have to pay bills just like the next guy.
And it is incredibly hard work to make money in this field. But it is who I am and what I want to do with my life. I am not complaining. AT ALL.
But do not ever mistake me or ANY OTHER ARTIST as someone whom you can take their art from just because you think we would be flattered. WE ARE NOT FLATTERED THAT YOU ARE STEALING FROM US.
We are not flattered that you are making money off of the years and years and YEARS of hard work that we have put in to our careers to MAYBE be lucky enough one day to make a living off of.
Would you walk into someone’s house and see a cool mug and say, “Dude, I am taking this. I love this. I might sell it and make some money. I am sure they wouldn’t mind. They let me in their house, they let me use this mug. It’s cool.”
I make money from my sales, from my school visits and from licensing my art. (which by the way, the going rate for that royalty is 5%. Yeah. Don’t get me started.)
So the next time you use someone’s creation and think, “Oh! I can make a craft item to sell at my local craft store!” without their permission, or illegally download that song, or movie, or image off of a site? Make no mistake. You are stealing from an artist. And that? Is so not cool.
I paid for my son to go to college this semester. It cost me $5932. I had to sell 9,937 books to pay for that.
Please don’t steal from artists.
Every time you do? A unicorn dies. And that sh*t is not magical.
