Advise on pricing my work

[u/Zwitter_Draws]

Hello! A few months ago many authors started to be interesed on my art for their covers and merch. I didnt had any experience in that field at that time so I gave pretty accesible prices.

Maybe TOO accesible I am affraid, now I am getting more requests than I am able to manage to take, so I am considering to raise my prices but I am not sure if it's apropiate and I don't have any other place to ask 😅

Currently I am charging $440 usd for the bigger pack that I offer (it's a full cover desing, an art piece that can be used for page inserts or art prints and a bookmark desing, both sides) and it takes me 24 whole hours to complete, divided in several days ( I got the exact time info from ClipStudio Paint). The price also includes commercial licence for everything, printing files, editable files and mockups.

The illustrations are 100% digitaly hand drawn.

For the full cover alone I Charge $220

The front cover $150 (same with 2 characters illustrations)

And for the Bookmarks $30

I try to keep my prices low because I know getting money it's really difficult so I am worried to loose some clients because of that. But I am starting to feel exhausted already, and I am booked for like 2 months still 🫠

For you as an author $500 for the bigger pack will be affordable?? I am even thinking on making it $550

I have seen bookcovers alone (not hand drawn) go for $600 so I am not really sure about the pricing for this

Just a few notes before I go:

- The full pack pics were not allowed in the thread because of the level of nsfw they had, but I can show in private

- English it's not my first language, so if I don't make sense XD it's because of that

- I entered the book cover desing marked by accident 5 months ago, so I am super new in this space. I have been taking courses online but I don't have any career for it

- On the other hand I am an experienced digital artist that have been working as such for +7 years

[u/Strange_Being_6033]

Your illustrations are fine but before you raise your prices.... sorry to say but you need to do some serious work on your topography. Your topography is not at the level you want to charge.

[u/SLeonaTA → u/Strange_Being_6033]

What does topography mean, exactly?

Besides knowing what it means in geography?

[u/Chaptive → u/SLeonaTA]

They meant typography

[u/Consistent_Ask_3200]

I disagree with the other comments, if you're getting a lot of clients with your current prices and it's overwhelming, you can and, in my opinion, should raise your prices. If there are clients paying for it, your work is professional. You can raise it a little bit and see how things go

[u/malheurmae → u/Consistent_Ask_3200]

Me too, I feel like they are comparing him to trad published novels only. This artwork is not for trad (imo), but perfect for indie because it is unique. The typography only needs work on the first 2 covers for the back panel; title is fine. Player One font is perfectly suitable for the book's theme, so idk what these people are on about.

[u/bioticspacewizard → u/malheurmae]

Indie book buyers still look for the same quality. The closer your cover looks to trad, the more likely you’ll sell.

Indie covers shouldn’t be aim to be “fine” or “unique”. They shouldn’t settle for worse quality just because they’re not trad.

Indie authors deserve better than having to settle for mediocre at Pro prices.

[u/malheurmae → u/bioticspacewizard]

Oh, yeah... that's so interesting.

[u/Accurate-Addition371]

Where do you sell your stuff? Do you own a website or work on platforms like fiverr?

[u/Zwitter_Draws → u/Accurate-Addition371]

I am on Vgen mostly.

[u/bioticspacewizard]

None of your designs are professional enough to charge this much for. I think your current prices are already too high for this level of work, so I definitely wouldn't recommend raising them.

All artists deserve to be paid, but you can’t charge professional prices for amateur work.

[u/malheurmae → u/bioticspacewizard]

This is not true at all. I'm actually convinced that most people in this sub have never seen the shitty DEVINART cover work (NOT AI!!!) on everyday emerging artists' works. I mean, I see absolutely terrible, fan-art-esque drawings and bad photoshop all the time, same as 10 years ago. I wonder if people like you only read a certain genre or trad published books only to think this looks amateur compared to true amateur work on published books lol.

[u/bioticspacewizard → u/malheurmae]

No. I work in publishing.

Typography is everything. If you can’t get that right you’re just an illustrator, not a cover designer.

[u/malheurmae → u/bioticspacewizard]

Hmm, yeah, I'm sure you do. Your position is one that approves or critiques cover work? You work for a publisher who only accepts first submissions and immediately calls any needs for revision as an amateur? Cutthroat there...

Only the back panels on the 1st 2 cover examples had BAD typography and that is easily fixed. You're putting zero value into the art and 100% into typography (on 2 examples), and failing to acknowledge that asking for a different font type and size can be a single revision request. Additionally, I'm quite anti-thin, narrow, and wispy cursive fonts found in trad and on many popular books, personally. They are very difficult to read (NOT because they're cursive), yet approved all the fucking time. I went to a bookshop event for upcoming releases 2 weeks ago and kept having the same thought.

Book cover artists are still iustrator (typically) at the heart of it. There were many compliments from readers om the front panels for the first 2 books by the way, excited to buy printed versions at Monstererotica, btw. I don't see a lot of positive comments on this sub in general.

I work in a different type of printed artwork, but my area is art that is specifically ONLY meant to draw in customers and then be easy to understand. It's not the same, but typography IS very important, but not the ONLY or MOST important thing lol.

[u/bioticspacewizard → u/malheurmae]

This isn’t a cover that someone has commissioned and can revise. These are examples this designer is putting forward as the best examples from their portfolio.

If this is their best foot forward, then we can only judge their work on what they’ve shown, not some hypothetical future revision,

[u/malheurmae → u/bioticspacewizard]

I meant in terms of your very harsh, cutthroat superior publishing company that you work for. Also, some authors like shitty typography and if it is what the client wants, then that is what they get. You can clearly see better typography on the other examples, including the bookmarks. Also, everyone starts somewhere and most people's first few works in their portfolio are not as strong as the later ones, which will eventually be replaced with more work. Once again, hard to fathom that you aren't accounting for any of this while in the industry.

You also aren't acknowledging that OP's pricing is very cheap for cover art AND extended licensing rights for an author. Even if OP increases their pricing a bit, they will be still on the lower end of pro-pricing, fitting within their current level of expertise. Their work is better than actual amateurs, period.

[u/Zwitter_Draws → u/bioticspacewizard]

You are wrong. All these cover ARE commissioned work and already paid for at the prices I have

[u/bioticspacewizard → u/[deleted]]

It’s really not. The most important part of any book cover is the typography. It’s far more important than the art. And none of the typography on these covers is up to snuff.

[u/ravenkult → u/bioticspacewizard]

lol no they're not

[u/nnynny101]

Your illustrations are nice but typography is terrible and needs a tonne of work if you want to charge people for full covers.