Freelance Cartooning
(Page 6 of 6)
January/February 1970
By the Mother Earth News editors
Always include return postage and a return address on the envelope in your submission.
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Sooner or later, you'll have to set up some kind of system so you can keep a record of the drawings you have in the mail, the ones that have already been to a particular editor, and the ones that haven't. You'll want to put your name and address on the back of each cartoon too. Editors sometimes get several batches mixed up together and this will help to keep everything straight.
PAYMENT FOR A BEGINNER'S WORK
The usual rule for a beginning cartoonist is "Get as much as you can, BUT GET THE JOB!" As you start doing work for local business men and newspapers, you'll find, that many of them can't - or won't - pay a lot for the work they use.
Don't be discouraged. The experience acquired on these first jobs is worth a great deal to you. As you improve your work, you'll gradually slide up from, maybe, $5.00 a drawing to $15.00 to $50.00 or more. Some of the TJs even go over $100.00 to their regular contributors.
A good artist who keeps at least 10 batches of cartoons in the mail at all times should average $100-$200 a week. A part-timer with only a batch or two out at any one time can generally pick up $10-$20 extra spending money each week. That's not great, but cartooning worked that way can be looked upon as a hoppy that pays its way. . . and I've seen a lot of times when that $10 came in very, very handy.
Naturally, since you want to be a cartoonist, you're going to make every last drawing your very best . . .whether it's a paid-for-in-advance $100 cartoon or a $5 spot.
Cartooning is no bed of roses but it can be a very fun way of making a living and - if you make it to the top with a syndicated strip of your own or as a regular artist for, say, PLAYBOYyou'll be in the Big Money, indeed.
Now, for a detailed step-by-step plan for dropping out of the rat race to start cartooning on very limited means, read on. Carl Kohler is the fascinating guy who did just that . . . he also has originated many, many ways of selling cartoons and he will generously share some of them with you.
And, I'll say it once more: Carl's section should inspire a lot more people than just the would-be cartoonists among TMEN readers.
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