Watch Out For These Art Scams!
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Art by Ruth WellmanWhat is trade and commercial publishing and which one is better? How do you avoid art scams? And should you list prices for the work you sell? This week, Jake Parker, Lee White, and Will Terry discuss the answers to these questions and give their best advice on dodging scams and pricing their work.
This episode was recorded in two sessions.
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A scam I see a lot on Instagram is 'DM ArtWorld to promote it!!' or something like that. It gets posted the exact second I post a piece of art with any popular hashtag. Some small account suggests I DM a massive art account (with like a million followers). The massive account is also somehow a fraud. There's so many of them. I've never responded so I don't know how the scam goes.
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@kylebeaudette they want you to pay them to promote/share your work on their page. However, since their page gets no real engagement it's just money down the drain
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I found the conversation towards the end about pricing yourself per hour as amateurish really interesting.
I have been freelancing for about 10 years and I think because I'm just in a slightly different field it is different, but I have never heard of a day rate before Jake Parker, and I have TRIED to request a flat rate a few times, but my clients always want an hourly one instead haha.
Personally, I always give an hourly rate with an estimated amount of time I expect the project will take, and updates on how much time I've used when I turn in roughs etc. and especially if I think we will go over I let them know as far in advance as possible.
When I do "commissions" like a painting of someone's family I do those as a flat rate. And when I've done self published books as well, but when working with a larger company or client I do hourly. Not sure if that's just because my clients have been in a different industry, such as games or video production or marketing. But I'm always asked upfront for an hourly rate and have been told specifically that my client prefers that over a flat rate.
Anyway I think it depends on the field you're freelancing in!