sewerbabe:
PLEASE. PLEASE read this if you or someone you know is/are an animator or a comic book artist that has been published/hired/etc.
This is a 100% genuine question.
What do you do for money?
I always hear, “don’t do Comics and expect to get paid.” I get that. I’ve lived it. But here’s the thing.
To even finish a fucking comic…you have to work on it. And if you’re working some job as a waiter to pay rent, how the fuck do you have time to make artwork at all?
When I work a “real” job…I’m always there!! I don’t have time to make anything or devote any thought to creative stuff whatsoever. I work, I come home, I take care of the house/run any errands that need to be run, feed myself and then sleep, having to prepare to repeat the process tomorrow. Art has no place in that schedule. I’ve tried so hard to fit it in, and I’d find myself falling asleep at my laptop or forcing myself to draw something I don’t really like or isn’t what I necessarily would like to be known for just to gain views and followers fast.
I haven’t drawn in a sketchbook since high school. I spend 12-18 hours a day making content. I work until I cry from pain. I don’t understand why for over 10 years of trying I’m still left completely fruitless.
Like I said, I am being 100% sincere. How do you pay for food? How do you finish your projects while still maintaining your mind and body and environment? I have never had anyone to tell me anything about making art, I’ve always had to learn everything in the hardest way possible and I’ve been given many roadblocks that would make anyone else give up…like losing my entire digital portfolio twice (about 7 years of art, comics and animation) and all the physical art I’ve ever made (“accidentally” thrown away during a move….I’ve had to restart my entire art journey about 3 times…and now, 2018 has brought more hardships than I could’ve ever imagined (from becoming an orphan to having my childhood home go into foreclosure). I am afraid that right now I can’t work at a retail or serving type job. My mental and physical health has drastically decreased since my parents passing, though I hate to admit it, I know it’s true. I also know I need to be seeing some sort of therapist or something (I don’t know anything about how going about setting that up works. I don’t know about diagnoses or doctors. I’ve never been able to afford one). But it’s all very confusing….do you know of a way that someone could make money from home? I don’t think I can audibly talk to a customer…I know that’s just wanting an easy path…
I am so beaten and battered from trying to succeed in this game for so, so long and losing so much during the proccess…I don’t want to grow jaded but I know that seed has already been planted…
Please. If you have any ounce of kindness in your body and if you have literally fifteen seconds to spare. Take a moment to reply and please tell me what I can do to make this work. I want this more than I’ve wanted anything and I always have; drawing has been the only thing that I’ve done for my entire 24 years on earth. Please give me any advice you can possibly think of to help me and I promise I’ll repay you. I will pay you actual money I shouldn’t be spending if you help me. I do not want to give up on my dream. Again, if you can spare any advice, please help. I do not have any other person to ask for help from. I am not close to people.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this. And please if you could give me advice I could really use any sort of direction right now.
Webcomic artist here. I get it. It’s hard. I’m in the same boat and maybe it might be my own fault because I made my webcomic for free. But the thing is, if your own comic project is not free and you only release a chapter for free to get people interested, you may have to pay huge amount of Money on advertising to get people to actually buy your work (or even look at your work but even with a free webcomic, you’ll still feel you are posting into a void) and you’ll won’t make much on merch either. But this one is about the webcomics.
Now for freelancing. Your clients will either be indie publishers or writers. Indie writers, they either expect “collaboration” ( in other words, free labour from the comic artist) or they pay peanuts. For indie publishers, either they don’t pay upfront or they pay peanuts. (unless you are working for Marvel or DC) Take Image comics for example, they don’t pay page rates, they pay in royalties. So everytime your comic sold, they pay you a percentage of that profit. But Image don’t take any comics, you might have to pitch to them multiple of times before you get accepted. Even if you do get accepted, there’s no guarantee that your comic will sell.
The only thing I can tell you about making money in comics is that the money is in subscription services or paywalls like Patreon and Gumroad. But it is a catch 22, if you have no audience, you can’t make money at all. If you paywall your stuff, readers will probably read other comics because there’s tons of free webcomics online. You can check out Tabulit comics, they help webcomic artists to get paid for their own personal projects. There’s also Comixology, if your digital comic is accepted you can make a few sales. You can utilize Etsy as well to sell digital or physical comics.
So with paywall and such, the thing that might discourage you is piracy. People just taking your content and posting elsewhere for free.
Lastly, I heard illustrators make a living via Upwork. (However, it requires you to use your photo and probably wants you to give up personal info in order to use that site).
Some webcomic artists use Ko-fi for donations.
