Fair Pricing, Not Free



On the O'Reilly Tools of Change blog, they had an interesting post entitled, "Expectations of Fair Pricing, Not Free."

I'll be honest and say I have struggled with this one. It's probably because my heart tugs between helping ministries and running a business. I work for a non-profit ministry. I have to keep reminding myself that doesn't mean we aim to operate in the red. We have to make money in order to pay our bills and do some great things with the leftover cash.

About twelve years ago, I began my web site. I am a cartoonist as well as an illustrator. I intended to display my cartoons on a weekly basis. Most of them were about church life and Christian ministries. Soon, I heard from places like South Africa and Singapore. Churches around the world wanted to put my cartoons in their bulletins. I was happy to allow them to do that for free.

I even got business from the cartoons. I was very thankful for it. But today, I haven't updated the cartoon end of my site. In fact, I don't have a direct link from my main web site. It got old giving away the store. Yet, I still get email's from churches that have found the cartoons via an outside link. It's still popular in spite of me not promoting it.

I feel torn. I don't want to get rich off of the cartoons, though I wouldn't object if they paid their own way.

I'm debating whether I should ask future inquiries to pay up to two dollars in order to get a print quality version of the cartoon. If I did that, then perhaps it would be worth producing out some more cartoons. On the other hand, would churches pay for something they've been used to getting free? Would $2 really break the bank?

It's enough to make this poor artist ponder.

Illustration Friday: Instinct


CIG Bird Care and Training Part 4
Originally uploaded by speartoons

Part 4 opener for "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Bird Care and training."

This is a book I illustrated about ten years ago. When I heard the word for this week, I thought of the many times we try to train instinct out of animals. That's good when the dog piddles on the carpet. I'm guessing it's good to teach a parrot the theory of relativity too.

The copyright belongs to the publisher. Copyright Alpha Books/Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

Disgruntled Devil

Disgruntled Devil

A devil contemplates his life... or death... or whatever entity it is.

It began as a doodle over a Tuesday morning meeting. I drew the finished file in Adobe Illustrator.

Speartoons Sermon Notes 2/8/09


Speartoons Sermon Notes 2/8/09
Originally uploaded by speartoons

These were my notes from the Sunday morning service at Madison Park Church of God. Pastor Jim Lyon spoke on Heroes and Rahab.

Illustration Friday: Time


Illustration Friday: Time, originally uploaded by speartoons.

This poor worm is thinking his time is up!

I drew this illustration in Adobe Illustrator. The wig for the bird cost extra, but was worth it.