A lot of people ask me, “Do you want to make art full-time? Do you want to make a living from your art?” And my response is always the same; first, I need to answer this question, how much does ‘a living’ cost?
“How much does a living cost” is a very different question from what I think we might mean when we ask, “Do you want to make a living from your art”. In my experience, what most people mean when they ask me this question is: “Do you want your art income to match what you’re getting paid in your day job before you can quit your day job for good?”
But this is too simplistic. It puts a lot of pressure on my art. What people don’t ask is “Could you adapt your lifestyle so there’s less pressure on your art?”
Said this way, it’s not just about how much money I’m making from my art, it’s also how much money I’m spending with my current lifestyle.
Art and Lifestyle
So, here’s another question I’ve pondered more often: Is it possible to change my lifestyle so that the amount of money I really truly need to be able to live off my art is more achievable?
Do I subscribe to Netflix? Do I need to? How many times a week do I eat out? Can I do more home-cooking? Do I want to move to a place that has cheaper rent? Do I need that mortgage? These are massive questions and the answers are different for everyone. But, if I can do the work to find out what an ‘acceptable lifestyle’ costs for me, I get one step closer to understanding how much money I really need to ‘make a living.’
Once I know what an acceptable lifestyle costs, I can look at what’s possible to make from my art.
How much money does a picture book maker make?
I don’t think most people know this but the majority of a ‘full-time’ children’s book illustrator’s income doesn’t come from their art. In fact, children’s books pay very little in comparison to an editorial-style illustration career where the clients are ad agencies and media companies – organisations that have much more money than publishers.
When I did the numbers for my first book, Row Row Row Your Boat, the advance payment I got for it equated to $2.60/hour. And from what I’ve read and others who I’ve spoken to, this is not unusual. It’s a small sample size, yes, but there’s consistency.
Most ‘full-time’ children’s illustrators supplement their book work with other work: school events, writers’ festival appearance, teaching professional development seminars, plus a host of other things too. So while you might see ‘average salaries’ of 50-60k bandied around the internet for a ‘book illustrator’ career, no one seems to talk about how much is coming from the art part.
This post by Annabel Smith paints a pretty vivid picture of what income looks like as “A Writer”. As you can see, the act of writing makes up a very small proportion of her income. And, she’s one of the ‘successful’ ones.
So, if I really want to make a living from my art, it’s probably worth by starting with working out what I really need in order to live, first, then work backwards from there.