Making Money Cartooning

By Stu Rees

             This page contains the handout I provided at the “Show Me the Money” seminar on June 24, 2000 at the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists convention.  The handout has been supplemented by comments from the three panelists: Steve Kelley, Jack Ohman and Dick Wright.  Send questions or comments to stu@stus.com.

Internet Observations

1. Niche cartoons sell very well on the Internet. For new material, do something with a built-in audience or with big corporations looking for content (medical companies, stock brokers, etc.). For your archive cartoons, arrange them by subject for buyers' easy searching.
2. 75% of Internet deals generate little or no income because either the deals fall through or there is nothing owed under the percentage split. Signed cash deals typically generate around 3x the print rate, but can easily range from 1x to 10x.
3. Of the 75% of worthless deals, most are obviously worthless by (i) looking at the contract, (ii) checking out the web site and (iii) learning the general reputation of the buyer. Issues noted below will help you to recognize and kill bad deals early.
4. Get paid at publication unless the dot corn is a blue chip (i.e., Shockwave.com) and you have a signed contract. When the venture capital money dries up, artists are generally the first ones stiffed.
5. Don't abandon paying work for speculative Internet work, but you should be investing any speculative time in learning Macromedia Flash animation.
6. Advertising split deals are high risk, unless there is either a track record of success (such as at Shockwave.com) or a minimum advance payment. With an unknown dot corn, assume a percentage deal is giving away your content for visibility (and be pleasantly surprised if you see some money).  Unless you have a Shockwave.com or other blue chip buyer, don't sign a percentage deal if you must give anything more than a 30-day non-exclusive. Unknown dot corns are likely to generate a $2-5 CPM, whereas the blue chips can be $10-35 CPM. Therefore, a percentage deal can be worth ten times as much if it is with the right buyer.
7. Few buyers commit to more than 6-12 months. If one does, be a bit suspicious.
8. See the "Legal Observations" section below.

 Legal Observations

1. Cartoonists are not in the business of selling cartoons. Cartoonists are in the business of selling the legal right to use their cartoons. Failure to protect your legal rights to your cartoons will significantly undercut income over the long term.

2. Deals cancelable on 30 days notice reduce legal risks greatly.

3. Register your copyrights. See http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright for forms and instructions. It is easy, cheap (because you can do it in batches for a single $30 fee) and can be done without a lawyer. A registered copyright is utterly essential if you are to ever enforce your rights.

4. Register your trademark (if your have one of importance). See www.uspto.gov/web/menu/tm.html for a searchable database and online applications. Trademark registration is expensive in filing fees, search fees and legal fees. Plan on $500-1 ,000 if there are no problems. Unlike with copyright registration, for trademark registration a lawyer is usually necessary.

5. Nondisclosure agreements (a.k.a. NDAs or confidentiality agreements) have my vote as the most over-used legal document cartoonists see. The underlying purpose is to allow the other side to sue you for disclosing or using their secrets. The first question I ask is, "Why should any business be disclosing its secrets to a cartoonist?!?" The most legitimate reason for an NDA is that the cartoonist will be working on a pre-launch Internet site or other product. In such cases, the NDA should expire very soon after the product is launched. The most problematic reason for an NDA is when a fly-by-night Internet site wants to disclose its business plan to you so that you will accept a percentage of the upside as compensation in lieu of cash. In such cases, the company's need for the right to sue you is based on its inability to pay you. You lose twice. Also, about 1/3 of requests for NDAs are by paranoid people.  A good way to tell if you've got one of the paranoid types is if the buyer won't limit the time and scope of the NDA to the minimum reasonably necessary.

6. Both the right of first refusal (the right to bid first on your creative projects) and the right to match someone else's offer need to be limited in the fie/d and the topic. "Field" refers to what type of creative project you develop. For example, a comic strip syndicate doesn't need the right to match an offer for your new Broadway play. "Topic" refers to the subject matter of your proposed project. For example, United Media might want the right to pick up any concept by Scott Adams related to workplace humor. Both Field and Topic are addressed (though not by those names) in every right of first refusal. Pay close attention to both.

7. Exclusivity is similar to the right of first refusal in that the devil is in defining the scope. There are three basic types of exclusivity: property, use and person. Greeting cards offer the best  examples of all three. "Property" exclusivity would be Hallmark wanting to own a cartoon outright in all fields of use. "Use" exclusivity might be Hallmark wanting to have the exclusive right to use the cartoon on greeting cards and wrapping paper. "Person" exclusivity would be Hallmark wanting the artist to only sell cartoons to Hallmark. Granting exclusivity of any kind becomes messy very quickly (especially in terms of electronic and Internet rights), and almost without fail requires the use of an attorney.  Buyers very often want far more exclusivity than they need because it's easy to ask for more rights than to carefully define what's actually necessary.

8. Don't hesitate to trade rights for meaningful cash, but don't give up more than a 30-90 day publication right (whether exclusive or not) unless you are paid handsomely. For example, one-time reuse fees should be 50% of the original commission price. Don't lose this valuable market by selling all rights to a cartoon for inadequate compensation.

9. Ownership of the copyright and original art of newspaper staff editorial cartoonists is dishearteningly simple. The paper owns everything done by its employee, unless there is some signed writing transferring ownership. The signed writing can be as simple as a letter stating the terms of employment. On the other hand, a freelance cartoonist who is not a technical employee probably only gives the right of first publication to the newspaper unless there is some signed writing granting ownership to the newspaper.

General Observations

1. When selecting a career path, you need to place yourself on the following scale: (i) entrepreneur who happens to sell cartoons and (ii) pure artist who hates and doesn't understand the business world.  The closer you are to (i), the better fit you'll find a syndicate or newspaper job, since they perform the business functions. The closer you are to the entrepreneurial mindset, the more frustrating you will find the restrictions of an employer.

2. You care more about your work than anyone else does. If you are going to hand over any control or rights, you need to know your reliance is justified. Examples of justified reliance include (i) if the other side has a track record of success (King Features brings a lot of sales ability to the table), (ii) if you are given an advance or other guaranteed money, or (iii) if there are contractual commitments to advertise, devote sales time, etc.

3. Always consider why you are entering a market: to make money, creative interest, keep up with other guys, etc.

4. Register as a domain name your personal name and any trademarks. See www.networksolutions.com

 Specific Markets

1. Web Animation: Pays well if targeted to a niche. 2-3 minute animations or small games go for $15,000-30,000. Sweetheart deals for unknowns are becoming scarcer, but are still there.

2. Internet Companies: Go in-house with a dot com for web design. Actual employees get benefits and good pay.

3. Speaking: (The following information was supplied by Steve Kelley based on his experience as a comedian)  Get started by giving free speeches or performances to local service organizations such as Rotary Clubs or Lions Clubs. They are always looking for free breakfast / lunch / dinner speakers, and will let you talk on practically any reasonable topic. These engagements offer the practice necessary to hone your skills. Clubs share their speaker lists, so such engagements also leads to the good word-of-mouth that generates paying gigs.  If things go well, you will hook up with a speakers' bureau.  Speakers' bureaus supply local convention coordinators with potential speakers.  The newspaper employing an editorial cartoonist generally likes the goodwill created in the community by having an employee take part in civic organizations.  Editorial cartoonists have a strong platform for public speaking since they can bring slides of their work; this provides a visual component to the performance and gives the cartoonist an opportunity to receive instant feedback on the work.  The appropriate fee to charge is a tough call.  When starting out, you will probably have to do the work for free.  After establishing a solid reputation, a $3,000 fee is not unreasonable; if travel is required, consider asking for $1,000 or so per leg of the flight.  These fees may seem high, but there is a lot of invested time in honing your skills, and there is the ever-present risk of humiliation.  An agent is likely to charge about 15% to handle you. 

4. Greeting Cards: The animated greetings market is getting saturated, but still pays $800-1,200 per property . Print greeting cards for Hallmark and American Greetings are almost all produced in-house.  Small card companies usually pay $300-800 per print card, often as an advance against 5% royalties.  Rights are negotiable.

5. Editorial cartoon syndication with the major syndicates: The competition is brutally fierce, with maybe three new launches per year in the whole industry. Client lists of 20-30 sales are typical, which generate $5,000-15,000/year.  Very successful editorial cartoonists may have 100-250 clients, and only a couple have more than 250.  (See below for additional comments by the panelists.)

6. Comic strip syndication with the major syndicates: Net pay to the cartoonist is roughly $35,000-$45,000/year per 100 sales. A launch with the biggest syndicates averages 50- 75 sales. The smaller of the well-known syndicates average 20-50 sales in their launches. Modest client list growth normally continues for a year, and then slows considerably for most. Development deals of2-10 months are the normal prerequisite to a launch at many of the biggest syndicates.

7. Syndication with the minor online syndicates: Most minor online syndicates violate almost every concern I have from a business or legal standpoint. They want significant rights, but offer almost nothing in return. Unless there is a guaranteed cash payment, I can't emphasize strongly enough that the contracts should be limited to 30-days and grant no exclusivity, rights of first refusal, confidentiality, etc. If you are approached, ask how many people they have dedicated to sales and what their sales success has been. Ask who their big sellers are, and then contact those artists to verify the company's claims.

8. Original Art: There is no established marked for sales of original editorial cartoon art. Josh Needle, who runs www.impolitic.com, is trying to develop a market for original art and limited edition reprints.  For example, he has had some success selling Conrad limited edition reprints for $500-$1,000 in the Los Angeles area. There is little market outside LA for Conrad, or anywhere for anyone unless of similar stature. Original art sales for Pulitzer winners can be in the $500-$700 range. Local cartoonists sell original art for $100-200. One interesting thing Josh is doing is having a gallery and an existing inventory of cartoons. This differs a bit from what I understand was Mark Cohen's model of taking special orders (although Josh is starting to do that, too).  Original art tends to be an impulse buy, so it's important to make yourself easy to contact, or to put the art with vendors such as Impolitic.com which can get your material to potential buyers.

9. Anthology Books: Very few editorial cartoon books make money. Those that do typically make only a few thousand dollars. On the other hand, comic strips reprint books for cartoonists in the non-superstar category typically sell from 3,000 to 15,000 copies, with a royalty of 10% of list price.  Niche books can sell very well over many years, such one book on fly fishing that has sold more than 50,000 to date.  Andrews & McMeel dominates the comic reprint book market, and offers a fair deal.  Steve Kelley had the following comments about editorial cartoon books.  They are easy to self-publish at $2-3 cost per book, and sell in the $10 range.  The newspaper employing the cartoonist is often solidly behind book publishing because it adds to the prestige of the paper.  Sometimes newspaper will foot the publishing costs for half of the profit, and will often provide free advertising in the paper.  Having a book to sign and sell or give away is prestigious, so is a very nice touch at local speaking engagements.  Editorial cartoon books tend to only sell in the home market of the cartoonist, and are best published in November to take capitalize on Holiday sales.  If you are interested in producing a book, talk to other cartoonists who have done so to get information about the process.  

10. Reprints: The best market for editorial cartoon reprints seems to be local cartoons. This makes sense because there is such a low supply in any given market.

11. Stock Art: Editorial cartoons are so timely that stock art houses will probably not be interested. Gag cartoons may find some success at www.cartoonstock.com or www.cartoonbank.com (but CartoonBank is for New Yorker cartoonists and a few others by invitation only).

12. Newspaper Staff Position: 

Panelists' Thoughts on Editorial Cartoon Syndication

1. Dick Wright stated that he thinks the syndicates do a very good job with billing and fixing missed deliveries, but that their sales effort after the initial launch falls short of what the cartoonist could do himself.

2. Dick stated that the keys for editorial cartooning are (i) quality and (ii) consistency.  The four ways to lose clients are: (i) a new newspaper editor wants to pick his own cartoons, (ii) a newspaper editor wants to clean the slate in order to start with fresh new material, (iii) budget cuts require dropping some cartoons, and (iv) the quality of the cartoon dips.  The only one truly in the hands of the cartoonist is quality, so some loss of papers is inevitable.

3. Dick shared some insights as to how to be successful in self syndication.  His marketing method is to send out packages of his materials to newspaper editors and follow up with a phone call shortly thereafter.  Editors are unaccustomed to personal calls from the artists, and are typically flattered.  Remember that the editor will be considering several factors: (i) the newspaper's need, (ii) the feature's quality, and (iii) cost if all other things are equal.  Regarding need, remember that you won't be able to sell an editorial cartoon very easily to a conservative paper if you are a liberal.  The panelists noted that there is a dearth of conservative editorial cartoonists, so that's a much better market than liberal cartoonists face.  Regarding cost, you should not feel timid about asking what the paper is paying for other features; such information will allow you to underbid the competition if you wish.     

4. Steve Kelley noted that editorial cartoons are often sold in de facto packages these days by the syndicates.  Formal syndicated packages provide some safety in numbers and a stable income, but obviously are limited in the potential upside.