How much to charge?

[Paul Kinsella]

I plan to "hit the road" soon to sell my cartoon to newspapers. How much should I charge newspaper editors (and other people) to use my cartoons?
Newspaper -
School Newspaper -
Company Newsletter -
Magazine -
Online publishing (websites, blogs, etc...) -

[Leah-Admin]

I guess it depends what they pay and fees are likely to vary between each organisation.

[Paul Kinsella]

I guess it depends what they pay and fees are likely to vary between each organisation.

I'm sure that is true, but I want to post a suggested price on my website and have something to say when asked how much I charge. Anyone know how much established cartoonists charge newspapers for use? I'm just looking for a "ball-park" figure here.

Here is what I plan to put on my website...

My rates...
Newspapers - $10
Grade School and High School Newspapers - FREE (Please send me a free copy.)
Collage Newspaper - $5
Inhouse Newsletter - FREE (Please send me a free copy.)
Customer Newsletter - $20
Magazine - $50
Online Publishing (websites, blogs, etc...) - FREE (Provided that a link to normandcompany(dot)com is placed on each cartoon so that anyone clicking on the cartoon will be taken to my website. If that is not practical, for example if posting it on FaceBook, then a text link placed directly UNDER the cartoon will suffice.)
Other Use - Contact me at paulrogerkinsella(at)gmail(dot)com

That is my best guess for prices now. What do you guys think? Too low, too high, or what? What do you charge?

[haydnlock]

How become your cartoons are lower in newspapers than magazines.
Daily Sport pays out anything between £30 - £500, The Guardian pays out between £125 - £350. Don't sell yourself short. I agree schools should have some freebies, it's good publicity, however you need to milk the good deed. Don't sell yourself short. It will show in the quality of your work, even if the money does not matter, aim to be more premium.

[Simon Lake]

I agree with Haydn. You are providing a specialist service that is very much in demand. Okay if you are a Hobby Cartoonist and doing it for a laugh, but it's no joke if it's your bread and butter. I won't get out of bed for anything less than $50 (Freelance sites). With the exchange rate that will give me roughly 35 quid. That's my Broadband, electricity, baccy and a couple of ciders. It's not asking for much is it?

[Leah-Admin]

My prices are just about as low as you can go but I'm providing services mainly to small business owners so I feel the price is right...for them at least. Newspapers however, as others have said will and should pay more!

You can see my fee structure here , if this helps?
http://www.artist-writer.com/Fees.html

[Paul Kinsella]

I'm afraid that I did not make myself very clear. Allow me to clarify...

The fees are to pay for a one-time publishing of a single-panel cartoon that I've already created and plan to publish in other newspapers later. These are NOT custom-made cartoons. Nor will I be selling off the rights for them to be used elsewhere. For example - a newspaper likes my cartoons and starts publishing them 6 days a week. At the end of each week they have used 6 different cartoons and owe me 6 fees in total.

haydnlock - Are the "Daily Sport" and the "The Guardian" newspapers or magazines?

Now that I've explained it more clearly - what do each of you estimate I should charge for each of the following...
Newspapers - ?
Grade School and High School Newspapers - ?
Collage Newspaper - ?
Inhouse Newsletter - ?
Customer Newsletter - ?
Magazine - ?
Online Publishing (websites, blogs, etc...) - ?

[Simon Lake]

Paul, essentially it is not considered good practise to re-sell cartoons once they have been accepted by any publication and in fact you could even find yourself in a spot of bother doing this. They would normally automatically assume copyright over this material. That is really supposed to be part of the service you provide.

Having said that, the closest I can come to give advice to you in this regard therefore would be:
Newspapers - $50
Grade School and High School Newspapers - $10
Collage Newspaper -$10
Inhouse Newsletter - $50
Customer Newsletter - $50
Magazine - $75
Online Publishing (websites, blogs, etc...) - $100

If you are still interested in an angle of reselling toons, then you may want to consider submitting your work to http://www.cartoonstock.com/

[Kathy]

I can't speak from experience, but I've been researching and looking at a lot of cartoonist/illustrator websites, and they charge much more than that. They also do not necessarily sign away the copyright. Often, they will offer to sell licensing for one fee, and to sell the copyright costs much more. I've seen some that will agree not to relicense a cartoon to anyone else for a certain amount of time, for a fee.

I've only seen two or three that normally sell the copyright to the buyer.

I guess it ends up being a question of what the buyer is willing to pay you for what you choose to sell - licensing or copyright.

[Paul Kinsella]

Paul, essentially it is not considered good practise to re-sell cartoons once they have been accepted by any publication and in fact you could even find yourself in a spot of bother doing this. They would normally automatically assume copyright over this material. That is really supposed to be part of the service you provide.

Having said that, the closest I can come to give advice to you in this regard therefore would be:
Newspapers - $50
Grade School and High School Newspapers - $10
Collage Newspaper -$10
Inhouse Newsletter - $50
Customer Newsletter - $50
Magazine - $75
Online Publishing (websites, blogs, etc...) - $100

If you are still interested in an angle of reselling toons, then you may want to consider submitting your work to http://www.cartoonstock.com/

Are these suggested prices per cartoon or per week?

I called the sales department of King Features and was told that the fees they charge depends on circulation - they said they would (for example) charge $30 - $50 a week for a 6 cartoon run in a newspaper with 100,000 circulation. So that would be $5.00 - $8.30 per cartoon.