[hue Posts: 128 Status: Offline I love kids' books!]

I was looking at some data of Graphic Novel (GN) payment vs Picture Book (PB), for artists with similar years of experiences, GN are paid better than PB. But Why?

I understand that GNs are often much longer than PBs, and artists deserve better payments if they are devoting more time and energy.

The question I am asking is from the perspective of market size. I would think when PB readers grown up, some of them become GN readers. A small portion would probably lost interest in reading, because of attractions coming from games or other activities. So the market size of GN is smaller than PB. If that is true, profits of GNs should be smaller than PBs. What am I missing here?

Thank you!

[Hopeful Posts: 227 Status: Offline I love kid books!]

Graphic novels are very "hot" right now.  There is a big demand for them currently.  The age range that graphic novels cater to is also quite large.

[Debbie Vilardi Posts: 7,013 Status: Offline Language is so cool! WWW]

Graphic novels run from chapter book to adult in age range. (There are even graphic style picture books.) And yes, they are super hot right now.

I also don't think anyone pays based on how many readers they expect a book to have. They wouldn't publish it if they didn't expect it to do well. The artist is paid for the amount of work they are doing.

[hue Posts: 128 Status: Offline I love kids' books!]

Thank you Debbie and Hopeful!

[christripp Posts: 1,212 Status: Offline WWW]

Perhaps too, if GN are paid better (which I hadn't heard before) then PB's, it could be the Publisher factors into their advance/royalties offer, the cost to produce them? PB's are very expensive, with hard covers and highest weight/quality paper to withstand the not so delicate tiny hands turning the pages and the full colour art. GN's tend to be paper backs, and lower weight/grade pages.

[hue Posts: 128 Status: Offline I love kids' books!]

Perhaps too, if GN are paid better (which I hadn't heard before) then PB's, it could be the Publisher factors into their advance/royalties offer, the cost to produce them? PB's are very expensive, with hard covers and highest weight/quality paper to withstand the not so delicate tiny hands turning the pages and the full colour art. GN's tend to be paper backs, and lower weight/grade pages.

I didn't know that either. I found the data here

https://litebox.info/2019/08/02/wage-surveys/
by searching keywords "Graphic Novel" and "Picture Book"

[christripp Posts: 1,212 Status: Offline WWW]

hue, what a neat link!!! Thanks

[andy-nordvall Posts: 12 Status: Offline I love kids' books!]

While I confess I have no first hand knowledge, it just seems GNs I've read have way more illustrations than a PB. So I'd imagine the amount of work involved is much higher.

[karen-b-jones Posts: 279 Status: Offline Will draw for money! WWW]

A graphic novel has more illustrations per page and probably takes longer to illustrate than most picture books. 

[catherine-darensbourg2 Posts: 1 Status: Offline I love kids' books!]

Graphic novels may be more likely to become storyboards for later full length movie properties, should they garner the right audience.  Picture books — such as “Polar Express” or “Jumanji” — may inspire a movie as well, but the demographics are also usually totally different.  There is a lot more to be said on the subject by industry agents and entertainment attorneys — I just happen to like the graphic novel format and niche it has in the industry.

[marla-lesage Posts: 383 Status: Offline Write. Illustrate. Revise.]

Graphic novels are a ton more work, so the artist should be paid more. Not necessarily true though. I got the same advance for my GN as for my PB  from the same publisher a mere months apart! It makes 0 sense to me as the GN will be a ton more work!

[andy-nordvall Posts: 12 Status: Offline I love kids' books!]

Agree. That seems crazy.