Sunday Mailbag: Getting Paid?

Q: I’ve read many of your posts in the past about accepting payments as a freelancer. From what I understand you only accept a “check in the mail”? I think you mentioned on your blog that it’s the “safest” way to get paid. But don’t you fall in the trap of receiving a bounced check? How does your “payment to making/ finishing artwork” process go? Is it – You agree to a price, they send a check, you start the work, only continue working on the project until you receive the check and if the check doesn’t turn out to be a rubber check, you finish the work? 

Getting paid through a check has its risks with an artist spending time on a job and then only to receive a bounced check which he/she will end up paying an overdraft fee. So you risk wasting time and $35 for the overdraft. Is this just something that’s a part of being a freelance artist and you just live with it because there are always risks no matter what you do? There’s no doubt that there will be people who would lower themselves to such a level so it’s no surprise if that kind of stuff happens from time to time. Hopefully very rarely.

A: Later this month this blog will pass it’s 15th birthday, so I guess the fact that some of my advice has become outdated should not surprise me. My belief that accepting checks as payment is the best way to get paid is certainly outdated.

These days most clients pay via electronic payment, which is FAR more secure than it used to be. Banks are now set up expecting a large proportion of their customer transactions via electronic funds transfer (EFT) and make it easy to do for their customers, especially businesses. In fact I pay most of my business bills and expenses electronically these days. I now prefer electronic payments for my work, although using services like PayPal or Square means you give them 3% or so of the payments. Most bigger clients have their own proprietary payment systems in place, and I need to register as a vendor with them and in some cases submit invoices via their systems. This is true for DC Comics, Scholastic, Sports Illustrated Kids and many other publishers I have worked for. I do have a few clients that still send checks in the mail, but probably 90% of my work is paid for via EFT.

You asked about my payment process. This depends on the type of client. The bigger and most established they are, the less I am concerned about getting paid. When I do work for a big company or for a client I have done a lot of work for, I do not require an advance payment. If it’s a new client and they are an established company but maybe not exactly a Fortune 500, I may require some form of advance on the agreed on fee to start the work. Then I bill the balance after completion. When you move farther down the scale, more of the payment is necessary in advance. For personal commissions from private individuals, I usually require the full payment in advance.

As far as bounced checks, certainly that is always a risk, especially if you do a lot of work for private individuals.I’m not even counting scams here, those are pretty easy to spot. Payments from people are usually made in good faith though, but if it’s really a concern for you then you should require full payment in advance and then a waiting period for the check to clear before you begin work. If you explain this to your client, and apologize that it’s not that you don’t trust them but past experiences have forced you to adopt this policy, you will find you only have a problem with clients that expect their check to bounce. Not doing a job for that client is a good thing.

Thanks to Jane Myers for the question. If you have a question you want answered for the mailbag about cartooning, illustration, MAD Magazine, caricature or similar, e-mail me and I’ll try and answer it here!