@amberwingart Hey! Congrats on the job!
Here is what I recommend for ya:
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Go watch the business videos. If you haven't done that, you need to.
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Go buy a digital copy of the Graphic Arts Guild: Pricing and Ethical guidelines. Use their contracts.
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Get a signed contract from your client (2 copies, one for you and one for them).
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Get a payment advance. Typically this will be at least 1/3. If this is a private person (not a company), do not take less than this amount. If they don't want to pay this, walk away. A client who won't pay in the beginning is definitely not going to pay in the end.
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Try to speed up and automate your process so you are quicker. One card every two days should be the goal. I've simplified my art somewhat over the years and just finished a 32 page picture book in 31 days. That's one finished image per day. This will make/save me thousands of dollars in a single year. Time is money, and if you are slow you will pay for it. So the question becomes how can you speed your process up? Think like the animation industry. Use backgrounds over and over and just paint the new stuff on top. Try to reuse imagery where you can. Build digital brushes that take the work out of image making, etc. Each person is different, but every pro needs to figure this out in their own way.
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Get the second payment (of 1/3 the total bill) after you deliver sketches. Don't work on just one card at a time. Try to bring them all up at the same time. So submit all sketches, then get approval, then do the edits/revisions, then on to final paint. Get the last 1/3 payment at the delivery of final art.
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See if you can use some of these as promotion throughout the year. It will build an audience for the project and keep you in the public eye. Many book illustrators fail AFTER their first book deal because no one sees them for a year while they work on the book!
That's it for now. Go kick some booty!! : )