In the last newsletter, I wrote about the "sunny skies" of assignment work becoming more available, but with some "clouds" in those same skies. Well, some of those clouds have become storms. I wanted to write about them again to be sure that individual artists (those without agents) are informed so they can protect themselves and be proactive in a challenging environment.

Change is a given, and often, in the long run, is a good thing. It's been a difficult couple of years for both artists and publishers because of changes in the numbers of book purchases, educational programs and the rise in costs of publishing in general. Cost cutting has brought about a couple of policy and procedure changes in the last year that are particularly problematic to artists.

One unsettling publishing trend that artists should look out for involves a new contract payment policy by a large publisher in which one third of the artist advance is not paid until PUBLICATION. In other words, if you were paid a $9000 advance on royalties, you would be paid one third ($3000) on signing the contract, one third ($3000) at the approval of the finished original artwork, and one third ($3000) a YEAR or so later when the book was finally published. I became aware of this policy when negotiating a couple of contracts early in the year, and was shocked at the injustice. Advances normally are rather low anyway, and barely cover the time it takes for artists to complete the work. In the lower and middle advance areas, this presented a major financial dilemma for artists who frankly would not be able to afford to illustrate a book.

I am glad to announce that more recently, due to some proactive measures by many of us and artist organizations, the objectionable policy has basically been rescinded. But watch out for this problem - you may still have to negotiate this out of contracts individually.