The Artwork Dilemma

[sayter]

On the topic of core book art:

     When publishing, artwork is likely a huge aspect to the printing process. If entirely digital, this becomes a non-issue in contrast to printing a limited hardcover run (at least this would make sense to me). MY query is rather straightforward.

When a publisher prints your book, and you have included artwork, is there a "standard" industry fee for X pieces of artwork? Do they charge by-piece? And most important, what is the differential between Color and B&W printing?

Simply looking for some relatively generic figures so that I can get an idea on what the damage I am looking at will be. On the upside, I am planning to do a lot of art on my own....but no way can I handle to whole book whilst writing it as well
     

[kregmosier]

might be better served posted in the 'Publishing' section...


-kreg

[Nathan P.]

Depends on a lot of things - first off, are you doing a traditional print run, or print-on-demand?

For POD, content of the page doesn't matter, it's just whether its B&W or color. From the figures I've been quoted, B&W pages cost about 2 cents a page to print, while color costs between 15 and 20 cents a page. I have no idea about traditional printing.

When you say "standard industry fee for X pieces of artwork," are you asking whether printers charge more to print pictures than text? As far as I know, they don't. POD printers certainly don't.

[timfire]

For POD, content of the page doesn't matter, it's just whether its B&W or color. From the figures I've been quoted, B&W pages cost about 2 cents a page to print, while color costs between 15 and 20 cents a page.

Actually, color pages tend to run more like $0.25 a page +/- a few cents for POD. Those color pages add up fast.

Are you also asking about artist fees? Though the price of art varies tremendously between artists, expect to pay around $100 per full-size (8.5 x 11) page. However, most pieces for a RPG book tend to be half or quarter size, so you don't end up paying $100 per piece. Also, some artists ask for more for a cover piece, as a cover sometimes requires more detail.

[Nathan P.]

Just to clarify - 15 cents a page is how much lulu.com charges according to this, and Avalon Innovations, a POD service I've been talking to for Timestream, quoted me 20 cents a page for color. Again, those are both POD quotes. But yes, they do add up quite, quite fast.

[Veritas Games]

Just to clarify Nate's quote from Lulu, if memory serves, if you have even one color page, your whole book is priced at the color price.

Happy New Year, Nate!

[Nathan P.]

And to you, Lee!

Yes, with lulu you have to do either all-B&W or all-color. Avalon (and other POD printers, I'm sure) can set you up with printing some pages in color and some in B&W, though. Once I have my books in hand, I'll post about how we worked out my needs for Timestream. Anyhow, there's a fantastic thread about comparing the various POD printers at POD printer round up, in case people haven't read it.

Anyway, we're slowly moving away from the original question, I think...I'm sure if Chris has more questions that haven't been addressed, he'll ask 'em.

[dindenver]

Hi!
  When another publisher prints your art, they have to pay you for the copy rights. If you are the writer and artist, they will prolly go with the same deal, if it's good art, I guess you should be able to negotiate a little more money.
  If you are printing your own art, you just have to pay for the price of printing it in color if it is color art. This is usually more expensive the more color pages there are. Black and white text and art is the same price unless you need to bleed to the edge.

[sayter]

Hmmm thats less than i expeted to pay either way. Not too shabby, I suppose. I will be handling about 40 or 50% of the art myself. The rest will have to be contracted, as writing, playtesting and revising takes a lot of work.

Thanks for the info, folks.