iandsharman:

t-iii replied to your post: Purely out of interest…

Last I heard Marvel/DC were offering ~ £15 - £35 per page. But that’s pricing from 10+ years ago. Though I’ve heard novices charging £3-£5 per page recently for indie stuff. So I’m guessing around the £10 per page mark for a pro.

I’m a little confused by your logic here…you know what pro-rates were a decade ago…so you figure they must be less now?

To be honest, this is something I come up against a lot…you’re inferring pro-rates from what novices charge (and, you know, I’ve been a novice too and worked for that little!). But you really, really can’t. I know it’s a cliché, but you honestly get what you pay for - and experience and expertise costs.

What’s more worrying, to be honest…is that pro-rates haven’t actually increased in the last ten years.

My guess was made whilst trying to take into account that those were the Marvel/DC rates a decade ago - before the current economic situation. Which would likely mean that those rates would at very least stay around the same level from then until now as a result. It’s possible they could have increased during a recession, but it seemed unlikely to be a significant change.

Even with an increase, it seemed more likely that Marvel/DC rates would be significantly higher than average indie pro rates simply down to the practicality of the difference in funding for those creators/studios and the status associated with Marvel/DC. Whilst I agree that experience and expertise costs, the actual rates themselves seemed likely be reflect this to some small extent.

I’m not saying that this should be the case - only that it seemed likely that this would have an affect, and for the most part this is simply guesswork. Particularly as it seems easier to find information about current average rates for everything BUT lettering. Though I suspect the site that claimed $1000+ for colouring a page, might not be a particularly accurate source.

And whilst I mentioned what current novices are charging, I wasn’t inferring the pro-rates from them, simply pointing them out because after reading them I thought they seemed particularly low. As I mentioned above I was however guessing that they would be relative to the Marvel/DC rates.