Customer Reviews

Starting Your Career as a Freelance Illustrator or Graphic Designer

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I really liked this book a lot. It was a very good first-hand book written by a small business owner about his experiences starting, managing, and prospering as a freelance illustrator and/or graphic designer. His writing style was not exactly stellar. But it certainly was clear. The 20 chapters included in the book fell into the following 4 topics:

1. STARTING THE FIRM
>>Where Do You Start?
>>Off on the Right Foot
>>Creating a Plan for Your Business
>>Developing Your Financial Plans
>>Forms, Charts & Templates
>>Pricing Your Work and Getting Paid

2. MANAGING THE FIRM
>>Why Should You Freelance?
>>Setting Up Shop
>>Managing Your New Studio

3. RAINMAKING FOR THE FIRM
>>Bring in Clients
>>How to Get Noticed
>>What Goes in the Portfolio
>>Marketing on the Web

4. POSSIBLE MARKETS
>>The Magazine Market
>>Selling to the Newspapers
>>Working with Advertising Agencies
>>Selling to Book Publishers
>>The Greeting Card Market
>>Working with Art and Design Studios
>>Selling to Small Business

Since I am not an illustrator or a graphic designer I did not have much use for the fourth topic. But it was interesting to read about. I regularly counsel wanta-be entrepreneurs about how to start a small business; I'm a volunteer SCORE counselor. And the material covered in the first three topics above are exactly what I talk about with my SCORE clients. I highly recommend this book to anybody wanting to start their own small consulting practice. It does a wonderful job discussing the topics.

My biggest complaint with the book is the tendency of the author to recommend outsourcing so many functions: accounting, taxes, and Web site design and construction. I think these things should be fully understood by the small business owner and probably done by the owner herself. When the business grows to have a few employees, then the employees can do those tasks if the owner wants to do that.

I would have written the section on choice of business structure differently. Keep in mind that LLCs can be either single member or multi member. An LLC can elect to be taxed as a sole proprietorship (single member), a partnership (multi member), or a C Corporation. Also, a multi member LLC will have to file a partnership tax return. A good book on the subject that I recommend you read to supplement this book is Structuring Your Business (ISBN: 1593371772). I highly recommend forming an LLC and electing to have it taxed as a C Corporation. Just give yourself a bonus at year-end so the corporation retains no earnings. If your business is a corporation it is less likely to be audited by the IRS. 5 stars!

If you get overwhelmed by the image you may have of what the life of a freelance illustrator is like, read this book. It is encouraging, while also being very practical. It tells you that you can start a career as a freelancer, but with a few practical IFs attached. Follow his advice and answer his questions honestly. Then ,if practical, take a deep breath, jump in and have a blast at FINALLY doing something with your life that you LOVE.

This book is really a must-read for anyone at any age thinking about pursuing illustration as a living. It's a very competitive field, and you'll need more than a cute apartment and winning smile to make it. If you read it and decide not to become an illustrator, it's the best $15 you ever spent.

Well, if you're looking for a book which explains with simple words the world of freelance illustrators, with tricks and tips, examples, wisdom and a bit of jokes, you've found it!
And it's fine also for other similar careers.
I definitely can suggest it.

This is simply one of the best books for starting a freelance art career that I've ever read. This book gives you very practical information about almost every detail of freelance illustration and graphic design. You'll find information on creating business and financial plans, setting up and managing a studio, billing procedures, creating a portfolio and marketing yourself to potential clients. I find a lot of books of this nature don't talk about the raw mechanics of business so much as they offer token inspiration and motivation. If you're interested in a book that will actually give you useful information about the business side of freelancing this is the one to buy.

The only areas where it seemed to be a little on the thin side were dealing with taxes and the legal issues concerned with working for youself. Other than that it was wonderful.

For someone planning to start their own business this will give you insight to all the little and big details to that you should prepare yourself for before diving in head first.

My interests are much more in illustration rather than graphic design, so I frequently had to scan past a lot of the material that a graphic designer could use. There is a lot of great information here on the real nuts and bolts of running a home business - especially an artistic one - but I think anyone who wants to run thier own business could use a lot of the information and tools in this book to manage their time, money, and goals in an effective way. I have benefitted greatly from the use of this book and would happily recommend it to others.

At first, I had heard that this author talks "down" to the illustrator when he is explaining things, but this book I actually found very helpful, true to life and there weren't any sugar coatings. I enjoyed how he wrote and he put things into perspective, he didn't talk down.

Some useful information but a bit dated today. I expect an author about graphic design and illustration to have a better looking website and book cover, but hey that's just me. If you can get this book cheap I would snag it up. There are some good points Michael brings up.

I love this book! It's great for those just starting up and has covered each aspect of becoming a freelancer. Each time something has come up, I referenced this book and found the answers! Highly recommended!