After working as a technical illustrator for 25 years, I am suddenly on my own. I have been contacted to do freelance work and don't have a clue about what to charge. Any advice?

Hi

We pay between £150-£250 depending on size for colour editorial illustrations. Ad rates should be far higher.

Cheers

Dan

Do you plan to charge a flat fee or an hourly rate? It seems an hourly rate makes more sense, especially if each assignment varies in difficulty.

I know this sort of thing really varies by publication. I get submissions from artists that want (and likely deserve) twice what we pay. But you want to know what we do pay: Between $150-$500 for 1/4 page to full page (or even cover) illustrations. We are a B2B technology publication, and rates are certainly higher for consumer.

minimum $75/hour.

When I started doing freelance, I asked the same question! It is a tough one. You can do it one of two ways. You can charge them per project or per hour. If you set a price per project you need to figure out the time it would take you to work on the illustration. Depending on how time-intensive the project is, you might consider charging more. If you charge Per/hour then you need to talk to the client give them an estimate of how many hours it will take to complete the illustration. Then if they have lots of changes it will cost them more. I ususally find that charging per project works best for illustrations and simple design jobs. Things like Brochures, Media Kits, Magazines where there is potentional for lots of editorial or design changes it is better to charge per hour. I know that our magazine pays $250 for a illustration that runs each month. It is not a technical illustration so it might not take as much time. Hope this helps some.

It varies from publication to publication.

Charging a flat rate usually doesn't work because some publishers have deeper pockets than others.

At the same time, you do need to decide a minimum rate which you won't go under.

Publishers/editors may also be prepared to pay high rates on request to experienced journalists than those out of college or starting out.