When to pay your creative team.

[Night Robin]

My question is when should I, as the writer, pay my creative team. The penciller specifically. Half up front, half upon completion? All up front? All after completion? A little after the completion of each page?

[thEbrEEze]

That's something you should define with your penciller before the pencil hits the paper. It could be anything you choose but you both have to agree on it. I've done projects with both up front pay and back end pay

[Fallenangel]

Yeap, different artists have different payment schemes...
My only suggestion would be, do not pay for anything that you have yet to seen or received.

From my point of view, as someone who did some commissioned art work in the past:
I prefer the half now half when you receive the final art, scheme.
I prefer a per illustration/page payment, especially if i work with someone for the first time...though opinions may vary.

Fallen.

[Night Robin]

I think paying by the page would be best if you don't know the person or haven't worked with them professionally before. I'd have a lot of reservations paying someone several hundred dollars up front not knowing if they'd deliver.

[Symson]

I echo that there is no hard fast rule. It' s whatever is comfortable between the two parties.

[Inkthinker]

Whatever decision you agree to, stick by your part in it! If you find that you're unable to meet your obligation for some reason, it's your responsibility to communicate that with the other party.

[Chris2.0]

Haven't been in this game for too long, but as a writer I've asked what the guys doing pencils for me wants...

With one guy it worked out to a 1/3rd of the money of character sketches and a test page. Then another 1/3rd after last page in low-res. Then final 3rd for the hi-res versions of all. So sort of protects both parties?

Other times it was 50/50 - 50% after character sketches and a test page, the rest after last page. But in all cases the artist keeps the hi-res TIFF images until payment has cleared and just sends JPEGs to check the work...

But as above - it all depends on the artists and your relationship with them - like how long you have known each other, track record, etc, etc...

[CyberLord]

I think paying by the page would be best if you don't know the person or haven't worked with them professionally before. I'd have a lot of reservations paying someone several hundred dollars up front not knowing if they'd deliver.

If the artist does not deliver there MUST be some recompense for the writer/publishers lost revenue. This may come in the form of money or a sacrifice of ownership. Whatever you think you need if art is not delivered on time, or up to expected (and communicated up front) standards.
As Inkthinker has noted any unexpected crisis must be communicated quickly to minimize damage to the other party. This applies to both sides. If the artist cannot deliver AND if the writer cannot pay! The artist should also put in some teeth if the money fails to show. The artist perhaps retains his artwork and the copyright so he can publish and recoup the loss of funds.
Bottom line: put some TEETH in your agreement!

[F0NG00L]

I say KISS. Draw a page, get paid for it. Rinse. Repeat. All this other stuff is too complicated and sets one or the other party up to get screwed if one or the other party turns out to be a flake. I'd never pay anyone anything up front unless they had already proven themselves dependable.

[Mase]

Checkpoints work well. It protects the Writer/Publisher from losing too much and keeps the artist motivated to complete the project.
I used this and it worked well:
- 10% up front. This can be used to cover any materials fees. Its a bit of a "good faith" payment to grease the wheels, but its not enough to break you if the artist flakes.
- 45% after the artist is 50% done.
- The remaining 45% after the project is completed.

As always, you should have a CONTRACT in place that specifically calls out all dates, amounts, and deliverables clearly so that everyone knows what's expected.

If its for a huge project, you can have more checkpoints.