How much to pay for a map

[saraphiel]

Hello! (Sorry to dive in on first post!)


One of my family members is a crazy talented artist that loves making maps. (They look top notch quality to me.)


I want to commission him to make a map of my world for my fantasy novel. I have absolutely no idea what a fair payment for him would be, I have never even bought artwork.

I'm not looking to get it inexpensively or get a family discount of any sort. If someone wanted you to make a map from them (complete fantasy from scratch, with descriptions of countries/terrains from me (and a bit of help with the logistics of proper geography,)) how much would you charge?


Thank you for any input!

[- Max -]

Hello Saraphiel, welcome to the Guild.

Why don't you just ask your family member how much he would charge? ?

[saraphiel]

I guess I could, it just felt like it would be an awkward conversation. I didn't want him to feel obligated to ask for less.

[Vhey]

Ask them how long it would take. Then offer them something similar to expected wages in the area.


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[Jaxilon]

I really depends on what style the map is in...if he's hand painting every stroke and it's a large map it could take a ton of hours.

I used to really struggle with how much to charge, well, maybe I still do to be honest but what helped me was to figure out how much I need to make in a month to cover all my expenses and then how many hours I have to work. Do the math and that's how much per hour I need to make...that does tend to put most hobby purchasers out of the ball park but that's the honest wage if you were going to make a living as an artist.

So, yeah, depends on a lot of factors so I guess there is not a clear answer. As an artist gains in popularity then supply and demand drives the prices up. I often do maps for the love of doing it rather than to actually make a living out of it but then it's not my main source of income either.

Sorry, I'm not more help.

[saraphiel]

Thank you so much for the input!!

I'm only expecting a black and white drawing, maybe with terrains on a key.

Your posts have been helpful. Hopefully there's some data on what a fair wage is around here, and then I'll add a couple or few bucks an hour.

He is so freakin talented, but he does none of his art professionally, just as a hobby. I bet he could make, at least, a modest amount of money with his work.


I'll point him towards this site. (maybe after this post is buried. :/ it would just be awkward, lol.)

[LordEntrails]

Maybe an approach you could take would be to say something like you would pay him $12/hr and expect it to take him 10 to 20 hours to make. That way you have set a lower and upper limit on the expectation, and he might realize that he could actually make a decent amount for doing it.

I've got a similar situation with my daughter. She's not at the level of professional, but I want to encourage her to draw more (people, scenes etc) so have offered to pay her for custom caricatures etc. Hasn't worked yet, but she hasn't shut me down yet.

[Midgardsormr]

Just a note on expectations for freelance work, since that $12/hr was thrown out there: A freelancer must take into account that they will not likely be working 40 hours / week. Thus, their hourly rate should be much higher to account for that. For a salary of around US$30,000 / year, and with no business overhead taken into consideration, a very busy freelancer (working an average of 30 billable hours / week) should charge somewhere in the vicinity of US$20/hour for their time. A reasonably busy freelancer (working and average of 20 billable hours per week) should charge at least $30.

Adding costs for equipment, supplies, business services (accounting, legal, advertising, etc), and facilities pushes those numbers up accordingly. $50/hour is not an unreasonable rate for a freelance artist in Los Angeles.

I have known some Los Angeles artists who thought $16 / hr as insourced "freelancers" (they get paid as though they're independent contractors, but the company treats them like regular employees. Illegal but rampant behavior in the visual effects business) was a fair wage. They forgot to account for being laid off for two to three months out of the year. None of them are still working in this industry.

I know $50+/hr seems high from the perspective of a consumer, but remember that what you're getting is a product that can be sold exactly once. The artist will quite likely never make another dime from a commissioned piece of work, even if they retain the copyright.

Here is some information for suggested rates for illustrators:
http://www.illustratorsonline.com/we...riceguide.html

edit: Oh, and some people simply don't want to make a living at their hobby because that transforms their favorite leisure activity into a job, and they have a strict policy about hating their job.

[Rootuser]

I don't know if you have the time and or desire to do it yourself, but you can also ask yourself how much is your own time worth? If you could/should be writing your novel instead of messing around with a map, how much money (in time) would you be sacrificing?

[LordEntrails]

Note, I didn't say it, but the $12/hr rate is something I would suggest if you were paying a hobbyist to do it, not a professional. Midgardsormr is absolutely right in what a professional, either in a full-time or part-time mode should be looking at and the considerations they would need to account for in a rate.