This week's column is a "very special episode" of Comics-Op. As I've been telling some of my friends over the last several weeks, I had a client bail on paying me, which effectively rocked my world. As an update of sorts, I've since secured far better employment elsewhere, and I'm going to be OK. But the whole incident made me reflect on being a freelancer – and how my recent experience, though not in the comic book industry, had its mirror in many industry stories I have heard over the years...
The Ashes Of Bad Clients
If you do work, you need to get paid. Paid by money, paid by barter, paid by added publicity, or paid just by the warm and fuzzy feeling of knowing you helped better the lot of your fellow human. But whatever the agreed-upon payment is, you need to get it within the agreed-upon time-frame. Even if it's comics, and comics are of course awesome.
I've never had a problem getting paid for freelance work in the comic book industry, but I have a collection of horror stories from other freelancers stretching back for almost 15 years. These range from:
- Doing the work but never getting paid.
- Doing the work but getting paid outrageously late.
- Doing the work and getting paid, but only after legal threats.
- Doing the work and the publisher dying on you, with payment and rights to the characters in limbo.
- Getting paid late and as a result almost being evicted (requiring note from editor to landlord explaining that the vouchers were screwed up).
- Investing tons of "sweat equity" in a publishing venture that either never materializes or dies prematurely.
- Spending time on serial "spec" projects with nary a single one getting off the ground; you can actually fill an entire career with this, if you're not careful.
- Taking lots of abuse and crappy unethical behavior from bosses because freelancer is afraid of being blacklisted if perceived as "troublemaker."
But the genesis for this article originally came not from comics, but my recent experience in another field. Basically, I did the work and did not get paid. And because I did not get paid, I almost could not pay my rent. Because I did not get paid, I was eating lots of ramen and cheese sandwiches. And when I asked to be paid, my client acted like somebody just farted. And when I again asked to be paid, client said the check was coming. And when the check didn't come and I again asked to be paid, client admitted she did not have the money.
Awesome.
Freelancer Mistake #1: No Contract
I made several mistakes with the aforementioned client. The first biggie was not insisting on a contract.
For review, a CONTRACT:
- Specifically indicates what is expected of you.
- Specifically indicates how you will be recompensed, and within what time-frame.
If you are doing work for someone, even in an industry as awesome and fun as comics, you need a contract. For example, this gig for ComiXology required a contract. The first column could not go up before the contract was reviewed and signed. Work should not begin before the contract is signed and the terms made clear.
But I made the mistake of not entering into a contract with this recent client. Part of that was because of a second mistake that seems to particularly afflict some members of the comic book industry...
Freelancer Mistake #2: "WE ARE ALL JUST FRIENDS HERE WORKING TOWARDS SOMETHING AWESOME"
Yes, the project is awesome – it's COMICS, after all! And I'm working with my BUDDY! So to even bring up contracts and terms and rights would be kinda gauche. It's not about the MONEY – it's about the LOVE!
This is a potentially fatal viewpoint: fatal not only financially, but friendship-wise.
In my case, the client and I shared certain hippy-dippy viewpoints on life like "going with the flow" and "universal awakening for the betterment of mankind." Screw contracts: did the ENERGY feel right? Whenever I talked payment with this client, the energy was decidedly "low." Because it's
materialism, man. There are things more
important than money. It will all sort itself out by the wisdom of the planet.
I honestly believed that anyone that enlightened couldn't possibly back out of payment – why bring the vibe down by talking dollars and cents? Which, I realize, put me in the John Locke incredibly gullible category. At least I didn't donate a kidney.
I go back to the comic book industry, and stories I've heard from freelancers. "But he was my friend! I knew him for 15 years. We started out together in the biz, man. I didn't think there was a need to worry about a written agreement/fair terms/timely payment." OR "Yeah, I know I'm being severely jerked around here, but at least I'm working in the field I LOVE."
When the the time came to invoice my client for Month One, she related a different version of the verbal contract we had made over lunch thirty days previous. In her version, I was paid simply by virtue of her incredible wisdom and insight. In my version, I was paid $460. And this, my friends, is why verbal contracts suck ass.
Freelancer Mistake #3: Not Keeping a Paper Trail
But she grudgingly paid the $460, and we entered into plans for Month Two. We
almost committed to an agreement on paper – but then she said something to the effect of "I think we're onto something good here – why restrict our awesome potential by writing it down?" And I, in my stupidity, said "OK – we'll deal with the contract later. Let's make the magic happen
now."
Flash-forward to invoicing for Month Two. Client doesn't "remember" that I did any work for her. Seriously. This was her response to my inquiry about invoicing: "I'm not sure what we are doing here." So I write out a long dated list of everything I accomplished, with emails to back it all up.
And here is another point for you budding freelancers to take with you – SAVE EVERYTHING FROM YOUR RECENT ASSIGNMENTS! Emails, notepads, receipts, EVERYTHING.
And that's why I love Gmail so much, and rarely delete an email. It provides me a complete record of the work I do (which mostly involves the Internet). "What, you don't remember the work I did? Here it all is – I can forward you every email, if you'd like." And so, the proof of work firmly established, the client promised me she would send a check out.
Freelancer Mistake #4: Not Saving For A Rainy Day (Or Cluster****)
The check, as of this writing, has never been sent. Even the disclosure that I would not make my rent payment had no effect on her, except for her insistence that she would "take care" of me. (Note: not "pay" me for work done. "Take care," as if she was doing me a favor. The verbage used is very revealing) And the client's appeal to poverty in our last email exchange has pretty much made me lose hope that I will ever see that money (though miracles are known to happen).
And why is it in her best interest to put me on the top of her "must pay" list anyhow? The work she needed me for is finished. We had no contract. I'm a nobody. It's not like I'm a grade-A ball-busting blogger or anything...
When I first became a freelancer, a friend of mine in the comic industry told me that the #1 advice he had to give was to save my money. Build a savings for rainy days, lags in gigs, and the possibility of rotten clients.
I did not do that. I operated as if every gig I had would go off without a hitch, no lapses in payment...and yeah, that happened for a good long while. I was very fortunate. But when one client flaked, I folded.
Mr. Miyagi Can Kiss My Butt
The irony of ironies is that early on, my former client had given me the following assessment regarding my career shortcomings:
"Valerie, you need to value the work you do. Don't give it away. Specify terms up-front. And insist that you get compensated."
So it was like in the end, she served me up a Mr. Miyagi-esque lesson in exactly that. Sometimes, I like to believe that she planned it all out this way on purpose. Sometimes.
But the ball now is in my court. Do I make a stink? With the connections she has, will I get "blacklisted?" Will my insistence on the stinky fartiness of "payment" make me look tacky?
Similarly, I knew a freelancer who had consistently been treated like crap by his publisher. It was one outrage after another, including late pay and possible "borrowed" material and ideas that he never got compensated for. But every time I told him to put his foot down, he was worried that he would be blacklisted, seen as a troublemaker. And I am convinced that part-and-parcel of that worry stems from the love of comics – the need to stay, somehow, in the industry one has revered from childhood. Would this same freelancer put up with this crap if he was in the rubber tire industry, for example?
As freelancers in the comic book industry, you deserve to be valued for the work you do. You shouldn't have to give it away. Always specify terms up-front. And always insist on getting compensated.
THIS IS NOT A HOBBY (Unless you specifically acknowledge it is, and have an alternate means of supporting yourself).
THE COMIC BOOK FREELANCER TEN COMMANDMENTS:
- Sign a contract
- Check with a lawyer.
- Never assume anything.
- No, I don't care if this is your drinking buddy from 15 years ago. Never assume anything.
- Keep a paper trail and save emails.
- Save your money for a rainy day.
- Never feel shy or demure about following up on payment issues.
- And you need to be treated with respect.
- Employers who insist you be treated like crap or else be blacklisted are TERRORISTS. If you give in to their terms, they will only hurt you again and again.
- Comics are awesome, but not so awesome that you don't need a living wage and health insurance.
A Brass Pair
My brand-spanking new client emailed me a contract the same day we agreed to work together. I received my first check in the mail within a week-and-a-half of invoicing. And when I mentioned to my old client that I got this new job, she asked me to put in a good word for her so perhaps they would hire her too.
AND THIS HAS BEEN...
The fourth edition of Comics-Op!
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Valerie D'Orazio is a former editor at DC Comics, is presently president of the Friends of Lulu and is probably best known as the Occasional Superheroine
Comics-Op is ©2009 Valerie D'Orazio
