How to become a book cover designer in 5 steps While this gets better over time, starting off will require a lot of hard work. While you are free to control your own schedule and work environment, beginning your career as a freelancer will mean having to work extra-long hours and balancing several jobs at a time in order to make sure you get (and retain) clients. You’ll also be responsible for budgeting your own time off, paying for your own benefits (such as health insurance), and setting up your own retirement fund. Unless you do the leg work, clients are not guaranteed - and neither is your paycheck. You’d be responsible for getting clients, doing the work, following up on request and payments, and every other business decision. Freelance: Cons Bearing the full loadĪs a freelancer, everything falls on your shoulders. If you're looking for more insights on the benefits of working as a freelance designer, check out Sarah Lahay's story about how she is able to follow the circus around the world. While you still need to fulfil the expectations of the authors you are working with, you don’t need to follow anybody’s instructions on your particular design - you have full control over every single creative choice. This also means you get control over your work environment - so you are free to play your music as loud as you want! Creative freedom This will be particularly beneficial if you already know that your most productive and creative hours aren’t necessarily 9-5. Since you don’t have to commute or answer to a boss, you are free to work according to your own preferred schedule. You are your own boss with no one to answer to, and you make all the business and creative decisions - but your business’ success is entirely up to you. Working as a freelancer means that you get to work for a wide variety of people instead of having one single employer. Because working in-house means commuting and following the schedule of a regular work day, you’ll have to move unless you already live in a city like New York or London. Most of the big publishing houses (and even small ones) are located in big cities. If you want to work in-house for a publisher, you might face stiff competition and a harder entry barrier that may at the very least require a university degree just to be considered as a candidate for the job. Although not everybody will pursue the same industry, this means that the competition for design jobs is anything but easy. In-House: Cons Entry barrierĪccording to statistics shown by Data USA, there are approximately 786,017 designers in the workforce and, as of 2016, almost 40,000 students graduating each year with design and applied art degrees. You might have to give up some creative freedom in the process, since you will have to answer to creative directors, but you’ll always have work waiting for you when you get to the office in the morning. Client reliabilityīy working in a publishing house, you won’t need to go looking for clients. You may also get benefits such as health insurance and a company-sponsored retirement fund. You can take vacation or sick time off and don’t have to worry about not getting a paycheck just because you didn’t work for a few days. Their success means your success - and a reliable paycheck. Benefits and a steady pay checkĪs an employee, you’ll receive the benefits that come with working for a big company. For book cover designers, the most common business would be a publishing house, which can range from a small, independent publisher to one of the ‘Big 5’ publishers. In-house designers have been hired by a business to design exclusively for that business alone. Let’s explore a few of their characteristics. Both have their pros and cons, so it’s important that you are familiar with them in order to make the best decision for your own future career. The most popular career paths for book cover designers come in two molds: in-house or freelance. What's the difference between in-house vs freelancer book designers?
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