Graphic Artists Guild Handbook: Pricing & Ethical Guidelines, 15th Edition is like a ginormous chocolate cake. You know you won’t be able to eat it all in one sitting, but you look forward to every bite.
This is because this handbook is packed with a lot of information for graphic artists, illustrators, and those who need to hire a graphic artist or illustrator.
And when I say a lot of information, I mean a lot.
Here is just some of the information covered in this book:
- Legal Rights
- Technological Issues
- Standard Contracts
- Salaries
- Trade Customs (for multiple fields such as animation, graphic design, cartooning, and others)
This book is 431 pages long, and each page is loaded with information, knowledge, and advice, making it one of the most informative books I’ve read in a long time.
If you’re an artist looking for a book to teach you about contracts, trade customs, or pricing, this book is for you. It is definitely worth the price, as each time you read it, you’ll absorb some new information.
I’m a teenage artist and I consider myself to be a student, so I don’t have an immediate need to understand everything about contracts or salaries. As I learn about art I can also learn about how to sell art and about how I can become a freelancer. And the Graphic Artists Guild Handbook is a great resource for doing this.
That being said, this book isn’t very beginner friendly.
Many of the terms used in the book are foreign to me, and I would need to do some additional research and learning in order to understand all of the information provided.
I don’t see this as a bad thing though, as I know that I’ll be returning to this book a lot.
I enjoy learning, and so I look forward to each new piece of information I glean from reading and rereading this book. I also love knowing that if I slowly work at it, I’ll begin to understand the ins and outs of the business behind art.
I look forward to reading and rereading each section, and I think this book is a resource I’ll be using for a long time.
If you’re interested in the business side of being an artist, then this book is worth every penny. It has so much information, and you’ll learn something new each time you read it.
One of my favorite features of this book are the sample contracts, located at the back of the book.
There are a total of 23 contracts at the back of the book, and as someone with little business skill or experience, reading through them has been an eye opener.
On top of that, there’s also a section on negotiations, which I found to be very useful. I don’t have any experience with negotiations, so I’ll be reading that section quite a few times.
So I think that the best thing to compare this book to is a huge chocolate cake. You can’t get through it all in one sitting, but every bite you take is incredible.
