All posts in the ‘ The Rest ’ Category

Last Sunday night I, like the rest of my Twitter feed, watched something unbelievably cool. The rover NASA had cradled in a spacecraft, loaded on a rocket and lofted into space back in November, 2011, overcame considerable obstacles and the high possibility of failure, and safely landed on the surface of Mars.

Mars!

An entirely different planet!! Mars!

Which of course made me think: this … Read More

I’ve got three, that’s right three, classes and workshops coming up in August and September! If you’re a creative freelancer you won’t want to miss out. I’ll teach you how to negotiate with confidence, how to set up your business so you’ll get paid and how to read a contract.… Read More

Talking to so many independent creators, I hear a lot of interesting ideas about how copyright law works and what it does. Very interesting ideas.

To be fair, law is not known for its clarity. And thanks to the internet’s obsession with copyright, it’s not always clear what’s helpful explanatory information and what’s one person’s bizarro idea of how the law works.

Here are … Read More

There’s been a lot of talk recently about how Kickstarter is a game changer! The Answer for independent artists! A magic pill able to make anyone rich!

This is BS.… Read More

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ve heard that Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal fame got a nasty cease & desist letter from an attorney representing the website FunnyJunk. The letter, aside from being rude and priggish, demanded $20,000 for some unarticulated harm. Inaman has responded by raising over $100,000 for charity.

(If you have been hiding under a rock, or aren’t a … Read More

You can plan a negotiation to the T, being careful to consider your interests and options, investing time to understand the other party and their needs, even making sure you have a few back up plans ready to go should things not work out.

You can do all of these things, and more, only to have the entire negotiation go cattywampus because of a last … Read More

There’s been a lot of talk recently about how freelancing and independent art “should” work. From discussions about intellectual property rights, to ethical business practices, to dealing with clients who don’t pay their bills, it seems that everyone has an opinion on how it “should” be and there’s not a lot of agreement on how to get there.

These conversations are important because they have … Read More

Emerald City Comic Con is the start of convention season in our house so I thought I’d take the opportunity to write about how you can use conventions to improve your negotiations and expand your career.  Conventions provide a ridiculously wonderful opportunity to gather information about your industry and make important connections. That’s right: networking!

If you aren’t a cartoonist or even mildly interested in … Read More