After a having a series of conversations and reading comments in some blogs of Spanish illustrators, I thought it could be very positive to be able to compare their impressions about the business side of the profession. The fact is that there are lots of blogs from Hispanic illustrators around but they hardly talk about this subject which I also consider important for the development of an artistic career. This article tries to do a general overview of the current situation of the Spanish illustration publishing business.

I have invited five young illustrators whom I consider some of the most talented artists in the Spanish illustration world today. Their average experience in the profession is 4-9 years, which I consider enough to go a fair impression about the profession. I gave them all the possibility of answering anonymously in order to answer with plain sincerity so this could reflect the reality as faithfully as possible.

Three of the illustrators, named as A1, A2 and A3, decided to answer anonymously.
The rest of illustrators interviewed are:
-Roger Olmos (RO).
-Xavier Salomó (XS).

In order to make a fair valuation I tried to select the questions as objectively as I could. Also, I am currently passing this same interview to 5 international illustrators so the results can be compared.

SPANISH ILLUSTRATION: FIVE ILLUSTRATORS INTERVIEWED

-How old are you?

A1-34.
A2- 30.
A3- 35.
R.O.- 32.
X.S.- 31.

-How long have you been working professionally in publishing illustration in Spain?

A1- 4.
A2- 5-6 years.
A3- 4 years.
R.O.- About 8-9 years.
X.S.- 5 or 6.

-How many works have you published in Spain?

A-Around 20.
A2- More than 10 books, it’s hard to say about other works.
A3- 4 album books, 1 illustrated book and 4 school books. And this year 2 album books are getting published.
R.O.- Around 20 serious publications.
X.S.- Between illustration books and albums, around 30. Besides, several school books.

-Do you make a living from publishing illustration?

A1- Yes.
C.S.-More or less.
A3- Yes.
R.O.- Yes, but with a lot of work.
X.S.- Yes.

-Apart from publishing illustration, do you work in any other things such as publicity illustration, Web, design or just any other job?

A1- Not now. Maybe in the future.
A2- I only work in illustration but for different media.
A3- No, just illustration.
R.O.- Yes, before I used to work installing air conditioning and as a welder, but it’s been four years since I started to make a living from illustration. (Publishing, publicity, television, CD covers..)
X.S.- No, if I get work from publicity agencies I take it if is well paid, but 99% of my income comes from publishing works.

-Which percentage from your publishing works is for literature and which for school books?

A-50%, more or less.
A2- I just did two school books, it was my first paid work.
A3- 70% literature, 30% school books.
R.O.- 6% school books, 94% literature.
X.S.- I keep doing less school books and more literature. Currently, 75% literature, 20% school books and 5% from other works (CDs, etc.)

-Do you still live with your parents?

A- No.
A3- No.
R.O.- Of course not.
X.S.- No, and I pay a mortgage every month, and taxes!

-Do you have kids?

A1- Yes.
A3- Yes.
R.O.- Yes. And 2 cats: Domino and Rama.
X.S.- No.

-Is your income enough to cover extra expenses, such as investment in marketing and publicity, research books and magazines, trips to illustration conventions, etc.?

A- Yes.
A3- Yes.
R.O.- Not really… I’ve got other interests apart from illustration that are also expensive.
X.S.- Yes.

-Are you registered as sole proprietorship?

A1- Yes.
A3- Yes.
R.O.- I keep registering up and down. To pay three months while you only get paid on the fourth month is nonsense, isn’t it?
X.S.- Yes.

-Do you work with any agent or agency?

A- Yes.
A3- Yes.
R.O.- No.
X.S.- Yes.

-Do you usually work under contract? If so, who provides the contract, yourself or the editor?

A1- In literature illustration, yes. The editor provides it, but if I don’t agree I provide with the standard contract agreed between FADIP and the federation of editors but sadly nobody accept it 100%.
A2- The editor.
A3- Yes, under contract and always provided by the editor.
R.O.- Yes, many times, most of them provided by the editor.
X.S.- Always under contract, provided by the editor but I usually negotiate it.

-¿Do you have any clause in your contract that projects your rights under events such as accident or illness?

A-No.
A3- No.
R.O.- I don’t think so…
X.S.- Since I’ve been sole proprietorship I have never been on sick leave. Knock on wood!

-Do you usually get a deposit from your work? Which percentage?

A1- Yes, in literature. Around 1000 €, is a deposit for 4 or 5% of ceding the rights of reproduction.

A3- The payment is usually a deposit for the author copyrights. Sometimes this payment is divided and I get paid in three or four parts.

A3- Yes, 30 to 50%, although normally I prefer to get paid at the end.

R.O.- Yes, it’s a quantity that later gets deduced from my earnings for the author copyrights.

X.S.- Always. The percentage depends on the book.

-Do you usually negotiate the price of your works?

A1- Yes, almost always.

A3- Sometimes.

A3- Yes, of course the agency does it under my considerations but it’s always me who has the last word.

R.O.- Yes, although sometimes is take it or leave it, then I take my choice.

X.S.- Almost always.

-In a scale from 1 to 5, how do you value how satisfied you are about what you get paid for your works?

A1- 2,5.

A3- Sometimes 4, but in school books around 3.

R.O.- Sometimes 1, sometimes 5, depending on the client.

X.S.- 2.

-Independently of the kind of publishing project, which is the average fee for your hour of work?

A-12-15 € per hour.

A3- Well, I have never calculated this. I’ll tell you a average I charge around 70 € per page and I usually do it in half a day. Sometimes the average for publishing projects is about two pages per day. For an album book is not like this.

R.O.- No idea, but surely not much…

X.S.- Uff… I’d rather not know. No, sincerely, sometimes I have calculated this and I got depressed.

-Do you usually cede the author copyright of your works?

A1- No. Just the temporary reproduction rights.

A3- Some rights are in transferable and other ones you can negotiate them. I usually cede the reproduction and distribution rights.

A3- For school books, I’m not interested in keeping any rights, but for an album book I never cede the copyrights.

R.O.- Copyrights? never, I’m always the author but I do for the reproduction rights.

X.S.- How? I don’t understand this question… Yes, if you mean if I don’t keep the rights, I just worked once with a publishing company which kept my rights and I never worked with them again, even when they offered me different works but I didn’t accept it for this reason, for not having rights on your own work. The concept “collective work” is something I can’t understand, but they really tried!

-What about the original works?

A1- No.

A2-The original works are always mine, unless I sell them or give away.

A3- Neither, I always send digital files.

R.O.- No, unless they buy them.

X.S.- They always send back the original works, of course!

-Have you ever published outside Spain? If so, did you get paid for the rights?

A1- Yes. Yes.

A3- Yes.

A3- Yes, I work for other publishing companies and I do get paid for the copyrights.

R.O.- Yes, several countries and yes I did get paid.

X.S.- Yes, I also wort for France and yes, I got paid a deposit and copyrights.

-Is any of your works been re-issued? If so, did you get paid for it?

A1- No.

A3- Yes.

A3- Yes, hopefully, and I also got paid for the copyrights.

R.O.- Yes and yes.

X.S.- Yes and yes.

-Have you ever had trouble to get your work paid as a consequence of the lows sales or any other circumstance?

A1- Yes. Because of the lack of respect to my work and a bad publishing management.

A3- No.

R.O.- Yes, basically bureaucratic problems and signatures from people who are on holidays or they just didn’t do their job and you have to wait for another month and such. And also, on the Internet I once discovered a book of mine which had been sold to a foreign publishing company without my knowledge. A message for the publishers: “Now with the Internet it won’t be so easy so you better watch out!”

X.S.- No.

-Have you ever been asked by the publishers to invest in a project in order to see it published?

A1- No. And if they did I wouldn’t do it.

A3- No.

A3- No, never.

R.O.- No.

X.S.- No, never.

-Have you ever used the “Libro Blanco de la Ilustración” to set your prices? If so, how was the experience? Note: “Libro Blanco de la Ilustración” (White Book of Illustration) is a guide published by a Spanish association of illustrators to be used as a guide line for professional pricing.

A1- Yes. Not very good. Most of my clients consider the prices from the book much too high.

A3- No.

A3- No.

R.O.- I didn’t even know about the existence of this book…

X.S.- I’m a member of l’ APIC, I’ve got the White Book, I have taken it in consideration many times and I have also talked to the association to solve doubts and problems.

-Who set the deadlines for your works and which is the usual timeline for each illustration?

A1- The client. If I see it foolish I propose another deadline. La media is 1-1.5 days for very elaborate pages -illustrated album kind- and 1-1.5 hours for more simple things such as school books.

A3- Depending on the case, you can negotiate it.

A3- It’s a negotiation depending on the coincidences in the schedules, from the publishing company and mine. For a publishing book, depending on the quantity, but it’s about a couple of days per page.

R.O.- Depending, they always set the deadlines and then I ask for more time or just say OK. An illustration usually takes one to four days, depending.

X.S.- Depending on the project and the editorial. Also on the illustration. For the book “El Camino que no iba a ninguna parte” I worked for 6 months. For another book, I finished in 15 days.

-Which are the shorter and larger deadlines you have had for a project?

A1- The longer was two months for 11 illustrations for a pocket book. The shorter was 15 days for 10 illustrations for an album.

A3- For one book, from two months to two years.

A3- Short: 3 months. Long: a year and a half.

R.O.- Once, a 60 illustrations book in 2 months, 2 pages per day! The best was 6 months once.

X.S.- 10 days, 6 months.

-Which is the higher sale for any of your books?

A1- Around 3,000 issues a year for one work.

A3- I don’t remember, I guess more than 1,000, which is not much.

A3- A publication which was reissued with 10,000 copies.

R.O.- 3,000, sold in less than a year.

X.S.- For a biography book of Mozart, 25,000 copies sold!

-Did you ever have to change your personal style to satisfy the requirements of the publishers so much that you felt you were losing your identity as an illustrator?

A1- No.

A3- Yes, but only to an admissible point.

A3- No, I’ve always had freedom in the proposals.

R.O.- Almost once, but I finally managed to get adapted to find something of my own in the work.

X.S.- No. I have often refused projects where I didn’t see myself illustrating such texts.

-Have you ever taken part on a public promotion or exhibition organized by the publishing company related with to any of your works?

A1- No.

A3- Yes, presentations.

A3- Not in Spain, in Mexico.

R.O.- Yes, presentations of new books… such things. I hate to paint in public, I just can’t do it.

X.S.- Yes, I have done several presentations, lectures for schools, libraries…

-Which media have you seen your works promoted by the publishing companies?

A1- Press, Internet.

A3- Press, Internet.

A3- In Spain only press and Internet, in Mexico TV and radio.

R.O.- In all of them.

X.S.- Hopefully, in all of them!

-Which publishing company have you felt more satisfied with?

A1- With a very very small one.

A3- With FCE in Mexico and Anaya in Spain.

R.O.- Random House Mondadori.

X.S.- SM, Editorial Cruïlla, Combel. In France, I’ve worked with Bayard and the treatment is excellent.

-And less satisfied?

A1- With a bigger one.

A3- With Trillas form Mexico, Richmond USA, Scott Foresman USA.

R.O.-With one I won’t tell.

X.S.- Parramón. Not in a human level, but because of the contract.

-In terms of quality, do you think that the publishing illustration in Spain is under other countries such as USA, Germany and England?

A1- Yes, the evidence is that we barely export and on the contrary we import like a lot. Sometimes it happens that Spanish works are published in foreign countries and later bought by Spanish companies which didn’t trust in the first place.

A3- No.

A3- Not at all. I think this is a county of artists illustrators.

R.O.- Yes, before, but now we have wonderful illustrators in Spain, and we’ve always had, but the publishing companies didn’t risk with them. Now they´re starting to open their minds… hopefully.

X.S.- Not at all. But we do have less possibilities to shine because there are not very many album projects with enough time.

-Do you expect to work in publishing illustration for many other years?

A1- I hope so.

A3- Yes.

A3- Yes, definitely.

R.O.- I don’t think about the long term future, it makes me feel stressed.

X.S.- I think so.

-Do you belong to any Spanish association related to the rights of the illustrators?

A1- Yes.

A3- APIC.

A3- No.

R.O.- Yes, APIC.

X.S.- Yes, APIC (Associació professional d’Il·lustradors de Catalunya).

-And to any forum or community on the internet?

A1- No.

A3- Neither.

R.O.- No.

X.S.- No.

-Would you be interested in taking part of an Internet association or community to try to get the illustration conditions and rights better in Spain?

A3- Well, I’m not sure if i could because I live in a foreign country but if it was possible I would do it for sure. I’d like a lot to take part of an association or group with the same interests.

R.O.- Well, yes, anything to get our situation better is welcomed!

X.S.- Yes, of course!

-What would you like to change in the illustration world in Spain?

A1- To see more respect for the authors and the number of publishing was less, so the quality could be better.

A3- More confidence in national projects and more promotion. More personal risk and open minded projects. Better quality in the printing. Better paid, respect and recognition to the illustrator’s work.

A3- The payments, that they were just from copyrights, zero retentions.

R.O.- The fees, they’ve been frozen for years!

X.S.- More time for projects, better paid, more rights, more exportation, less publications. The illustrator needs incentives and to see their books to have a long life.

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I humbly expect this article helps to all Spanish illustrators to take your own conclusions so , maybe, decisions be taken and actions be taken in make the situation better.