Flatting: A Crash Course Part 2

Welcome back to another action packed edition of The Tribal Council! Last week we started taking a look at a subject that I know very well: Flatting.  How about a little recap?

Thanks to Brian & Kristy Miller and their book Hi-Fi Color For Comics I’ve been flatting pretty close to full time for over a year now. What is flatting, you ask? It is filling in solid flat color break downs behind line art. It is very important to the process of creating a comic book because it really kicks the production into high gear! More production, more books, more money (and who are we kidding…all artistic integrity aside…that’s what it’s all about, right?).

So this week our journey takes us to the next logical question when talking about flatting.

How is it done?

I’m not going to try and recreate the wheel here explaining all the step-by-steps of flatting.  Brian already took care of that much better than I ever could in chapter two of Hi-Fi Color For Comics.  If you want to know how it’s done…I’ll refer you there. What I want to talk about is a little more on the business side of flatting. Full disclosure here, I don’t have any sort of business degree. No accounting. No math. Come on…I’m an artist. I can barely remember what I had for lunch today…let alone remembering to keep track of a bunch of business and numbers. But if you’re looking to take your flatting to the next level and start charging people for it here are a few things that I’ve learned are important to keep in mind.

Finding Customers: This is surprisingly tough to do. For the longest time I only had a couple pages coming in a week from Hi-Fi. Even after having some crazy pages under my belt I was getting NO kind of reaction from anyone. Just be patient. Flat some pages. Get yourself a portfolio web site (nothing crazy and flashy here: DeviantArt, CarbonMade, etc is just fine).  Then seek out some forums where colorists are likely to be frequenting (www.huedoo.com is a GREAT place to start!) and post your links. If you find out about a colorist or a coloring studio send them a polite email with a little information about yourself and a link to your portfolio. I guarantee  you’ll have work before long.

Getting Paid: You’ve done some pages and are ready to start cashing some checks! Way to go! But wait…how is that money going to get to you? The answer is it’s not unless you send out an invoice. I have yet to work with a colorist that doesn’t want an invoice for ALL work done.  Especially the coloring studios that may work with two dozen or more flatters. Write out a clear, easy to read, numbered invoice and send it out. If you don’t have the means to create your own custom invoice there are plenty of template in Word or Publisher that will work great. And when that invoice goes out make sure you track them. If you want to go large you could get something like Quickbooks to track all that…but if you’re low tech like me an Excell Spreadsheet works JUST fine. Just don’t forget to update it (customer name, job number, date, value, etc) You’re going to want all that information later if there’s a problem. Better safe than sorry.

So your invoice is out. Now…how is that money going to come in? Probably…PayPal. Most of the studios will pay you with a check through the mail but almost ALL of the freelance artists are going to want to pay you through PayPal. Yes, you lose some money to PayPal fees but you just have to consider that as part of the cost of doing business. But be flexible. If your customer asks how you’d prefer…let them know that you’ll take their money in any form they’re willing to give it in. This might mean a few trips to the post office or bank….but that’s better than losing a client.

Taxes: I get asked about taxes ALL the time but I’m not going to pretend I’m a genius about this topic. What I can tell you is you’ll sometimes be asked to fill out a W9 but mostly your jobs will come is on a contractor basis and you’ll be paid “cash”. This is where you’re excellent record keeping abilities we spoke about earlier will come in handy. Keep those record and then at the end of the year that all goes down on your taxes as Self Employment Tax. (remember your write offs! Phone, internet, computer, software) Beyond this I’ll just recommend that you contact your local tax professional. There’s just too many rules.

DON’T MISS YOUR DEADLINES! You’ve worked and struggled to get some colorists to look at your work and finally sold yourself to them. Congratulations! Now don’t blow it. Get to work. If your customer tells you they want those pages by tomorrow you better be sure that you get them over tomorrow (or sooner). If you don’t think you’ll be able to handle that many pages let your client know as soon as possible. And be prepared to say NO once in a while. Colorists would rather you turn down work than to take it in and miss the deadline because you’re overbooked.

Be Easy to Work With: I think this might be the most important thing I can tell you. If you’re someone who is nice on the phone, nice on emails and is flexible to the customer’s needs (just like in ANY service industry) you’re going to succeed. If you’re a pain in the butt to work with…the colorists is just going to dump you. There’s a lot more flatters out there that will be nice.

Why You Should Care

If you’re interested in coloring or getting into the comic book industry you’re going to have to deal with flatting.  It’s something that is relatively easy to get into and makes a great stepping stone into the comic book industry. And if you’re a colorist please consider hiring out your flatting.  I promise you that it’s worth it.  The time you save  (and can therefore use toward the next paying page) will be worth it. It pay for itself.

So thank you following along with me on this trek through flatting. I am by no means an expert on all areas of flatting (I’m looking forward to the emails telling me how clueless I am about it) so if you have any comments, thing to add to this or find fault in anything here please feel free to leave a comment!