Breakdown of an Illustrators' Salary in 2024

What I earned and lost (maternity leave edition)

Happy New Year everyone! As we say goodbye to the holiday season, we say hello to the dreaded tax season. Hurrah!

Last year, I created an in-depth analysis of my salary as an author/illustrator. I went over my multiple income streams, my expenses and my game plan for 2024.

We are going to be doing this again, but this year’s numbers will be quite different since I was on maternity leave for more than half of the year. This meant that I took on fewer jobs, had no work travel, and barely had any expenses. So while this year won’t be super reflective of what my usual profit/loss looks like, I think it will be helpful to see how things changed.

More importantly, I wanted to talk about how I planned for my mat leave as a freelancer.

Surprisingly, I was able to reach my six-figure income again this year. I hope that seeing my strategy might help other freelancers with their career planning for the year, especially in a time of such job insecurity in the arts industry.

Let’s go!

OVERVIEW

Although I didn’t reach my 2023 net income, I came pretty close so that’s a win! If you recall from my last post, it’s still over 40% less than what I earned in 2022, but we can also chalk that up to mat leave.

Despite not having my usual biz expenses (work travel, art supplies, and so on), my expenses in 2024 were still 25% higher and almost entirely due to my professional hire fees (more on that below).

Note that I haven’t included my taxes paid in my 2024 chart: I work under my incorporated business, and I usually pay quarterly tax installments. However, because of my mid-year move to the US, my accountant and I decided not to do that this year, and I’ll just pay the tax lump sum in April. Because of this, I don’t have a good idea of my taxes owing until it’s time to file with my new US accountant. I might come back and update this post once I have that tax info and my true gross income for the year.

Honestly, my 2024 taxes will be super complicated; what with the move and dissolution of my corporation (I am shifting to sole proprietorship, let me know in the comments if you want me to talk about this!) but that’s a headache for another day.

INCOME

Let’s start with a brief recap of my 2023 income! In response to fewer book deals, I had diversified my revenue streams quite a bit to give a bit of a safety net. Some highlights:

1. Because of That’s Not My Name's Forest of Reading nomination, I did a ton of paid school visits across Toronto and was able to get some book sales out of it too.

2. I had consistent ‘passive’ income coming in from my Patreon, Youtube, affiliate links, and book royalties.

3. I was hired for one freelance character design gig from Disney Jr.

However, in 2024 I lost some of those income streams:

1. Patreon was my biggest ‘loss’. Once I found out I was pregnant in late 2023 I decided to close down my Patreon because I knew I wouldn’t have the capacity to work on it fully and be able to deliver the level of quality content that my community deserves.

2. The animation industry has been facing extremely tough times filled with layoffs and a hiring drought. I sadly know people who have been unemployed for almost two years now. While I can usually rely on seeing 1-4 freelance animation gigs come in, last year I saw ZERO.

3. I removed all the ‘sponsored’ affiliate links on my YouTube videos (coupon codes and custom links) so I lost that revenue stream. I did have Amazon affiliate links set up, but I earned a pretty negligible amount so I didn’t include it.

Now we go over my 2024 income:

Let’s go over each one from highest to lowest.

Royalties

(This includes royalties from my picture books, new translation/licensing deals, and the Public Lending Right program)

This was a huge shocker. This has been the first year where I earned more from my passive book royalties than actual client work.

Remember, you only start to earn royalties after your book earns enough to ‘pay back’ the initial advance the publisher paid you.

As a reminder, out of the forty book projects I have worked on, only half of them are ‘qualified’ for royalties. The other books were work-for-hire contracts; either they were negotiated when I had my first agent or they don’t earn royalties as a rule (like book covers or IP projects).

And after TEN years of this career, only four books have actually earned out their advance so I could start getting royalties.

These books are:

Kid Scientists: A non-fiction chapter book which is part of a successful series with multiple translations.

I Am Perfectly Designed: A celebrity book project

Bilal Cooks Daal: An award-winner!

And finally, last year That’s Not My Name! earned out its advance!

Since this was my first author/illustrator title, I got to see what a cheque looks like when you aren’t splitting the royalties with the author. And let me tell you…. wow!!!! Why wasn’t I writing books earlier???

This is me telling every illustrator out there to start investing in their own stories and pitching them!

At the end of the day, earning-out a picture book advance is still super difficult (I know for sure Lost Stick is going to take a while), but I am going to be focusing my efforts on author/illustrator projects so I can hopefully work up a nice library of passive royalty cheques.

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Book Advances

I worked on four book projects this year! All of them were signed on in 2023 (and payment spread between 2023 and 2024). Sadly 2024 has been extremely quiet for bookwork.

In the past, I would see close to 10 client inquiries in a year, this year I only received one (for a book cover, which is also a much smaller project.)

I have talked with many artists and it seems that everyone is seeing a downturn in project inquiries which might be attributed to the economy, internal layoffs, book bans, and the rise of AI. It’s becoming increasingly important for illustrators to diversify their income, or supplement with a day/part-time job for stability.

This is another reason why I am focusing on author/illustrator projects; if I am not being reached out for work, I might as well direct my efforts on pitching myself instead.

These are the books I worked on:

1. Excited for Eid, Friday Fun, and Radiant Ramadan

These books are part of a three-part board book series from Little Bee Books. They paid less than what I usually see for board books, however, I decided to take it on because I loved the subject matter, felt like it had potential for future royalties, and I knew this would be a simpler project that I could illustrate during my pregnancy. I illustrated the first two books before I went on leave, and since November I’ve been working on the last book. It’s definitely an easier gig to ease me back into work-life!

2. The Salt Princess

This is an author/illustrator title! This also paid a little less than what I had seen for my other authored books, but it had a fixed/standardized advance since the book was part of a larger series written by other authors. I am SO excited for you guys to see this book in April :))

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Maternity Benefits

If you are a self-employed freelancer considering starting a family, I highly recommend you start planning for your maternity/paternity leave early. This includes planning for uninterrupted time in your schedule, understanding your local parental leave options and setting aside savings.

Because I am self-employed, I don’t have an employer who takes care of my maternity benefits, gives me a break and a job to return to. I gotta do all that myself!!!

I knew early on that we wanted to be parents, so I researched my options in 2022.

In Canada, my business was incorporated and I paid myself a salary. With the help of my accountant, I registered and started paying EI premiums so that I could take advantage of unemployment benefits whenever I became pregnant. I also started to build up my savings, and we planned to move into my parent’s place for some time to save on child care and other bills.

In Canada, you can get 12 or 18 months of maternity benefits (55% of your earnings up to a maximum amount of $668 weekly.) You get paid the same amount either way, it just gets stretched over the number of weeks chosen.

Unfortunately, because of our US move, I was only able to take advantage of the program for six months instead of the full year, so it was still important to have savings in place. I’m also grateful that my husband had a really great parental leave policy at his workplace.

Once I found out I was pregnant, I stopped taking on any new projects and I declined school visits after my fourth month. For both of my book projects, I let my publishers know about my condition early on. Although I was due in July, I wanted an early mat leave starting in March. My art directors and editors were so accommodating, and we pushed up all the project timelines so I could wrap up my books before I left. This meant rushing to meet deadlines, but we managed to make it work. I made myself available for emails throughout my third trimester, but I peaced out after baby arrived lol.

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Author Visits

Doing school visits was one of the highlights of my year in 2023. I absolutely love sharing my love for books with children, and I was fortunate that I did thirty-one visits last year.

However, in 2024, I only did seven visits.

Some things to note:

I turned down a few visit requests if they were close to my due date.

I also had a few visit inquiries that didn’t pan out. After my move, four Toronto area schools reached out; I offered virtual visits, but they were looking for in-person visits, which is totally fair.

But that still doesn’t account for the HUGE decline, so what caused it? Here are some theories:

1. I’m not the bees’ knees anymore.

   I was invited to a lot of schools because of my Forest of Reading award nomination in 2022, so naturally the buzz would die down by the time we got to 2024. However, Lost Stick was also just nominated this fall! I would expect a similar number of requests to start trickling in, but it’s been unusually quiet.
   

2. The rise of book bans/censorship.
   Whenever society makes progress, you can expect a responding backlash (two steps forward, one step back and all that).

   Unfortunately, we’re witnessing a rise in hateful ideologies in response to the strides being made toward equity and inclusion. And as corporations and systems of power scramble to protect their interests, it’s BIPOC creators who are bearing the brunt of this pushback—facing increased barriers, hostility, and erasure in spaces where their voices are needed most.
   We are seeing this in the animation industry, where shows created by marginalized creators are the ones that get canceled or shelved first. DEI positions across industries are being laid off. And in publishing, we are seeing a rise in book bans, which again disproportionally target BIPOC creators and stories.

…Authors of color – particularly women of color – were far more likely to be banned compared with white authors. Authors of color wrote 39% of the banned books in our study. Women of color alone penned almost a quarter of them. That’s even though authors of color make up just 10% of U.S. authors and write less than 5% of the most popular books in the U.S.

The Conversation

Marginalized authors are increasingly wary of the backlash their work might face, leading to self-censorship. I wouldn’t be surprised if it leads to clients and publishers who hesitate to support certain projects, which could lead to even fewer opportunities for BIPOC voices to thrive.

This also brings me to my next point.

3. Palestine
   Is it possible that I’ve missed out on some opportunities because of my vocal stance against the brutal and inhumane destruction of Palestine and the children of Gaza?

   I can’t say for sure, but in one of the few school visits I had, I was explicitly told to not mention Palestine at all. So who knows?

   

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Miscellaneous Income

To sum up my other various income streams:

1. Youtube AdRenenue
   This dropped down from last year because I have not been consistent with posting content… there was no time to edit or film anything!

2. Misc Illustration
   I haven’t been contacted for illustration gigs much either this year, but I also wasn’t able to put in the work for outreach. Of the two gigs I got, one was contracted in December so I wasn’t paid for it in 2024. The second was a gig with a big brand but unfortunately was canceled halfway through. I was thankfully paid a kill fee, but it’s disappointing that this was the extent of my illustration income this year.

3. Gallery Sales
   I sell a few prints and originals through Gallery Nucleus, so this is always nice little pocket change.

4. Guest Speaking
   A new offering; I’ve been really interested in doing speaking events recently! I had done a few virtual guest sessions with some SCBWI chapters and university illustration departments.

Expenses

Here’s a rundown of my expenses!

Professional Fees

My expenses were higher in 2024 because of some major services I paid for this year. Along with my accountant, I hired a professional web designer to give my website a refresh— can’t wait to unveil it later this year!
As the saying goes, something you have to spend money to make money, and I hope these investments into my business grow into something!

Education

Once I stopped working in April, I realized that I hated sitting idly. I decided to make use of my third trimester (and eventually my early nursing months) to take an online course. I became interested in the world of surface illustration, and I want to try to pursue this as a new revenue stream this year.
As a side note, I had bought a pretty expensive course which really wasn’t worth the price tag in the end. These online courses gurus are scammers and I won’t shut up about it!!! This radicalized me and made me more determined to create an educational course with actual high-quality content one day.

Office Subscriptions

Adobe, Quickbooks, Google Workspace, Squarespace, Epidemic Sound, Canva & Apple iCloud Storage.

Marketing and Publicity

Entry fees for art competitions and promo postcards/stickers.

Car Mileage

This pays for gas, toll fees and mileage. Because I had very few school visits, my mileage dropped a lot from 2023.

Merch/Book Orders

The cost of buying the wholesale books from my publisher, or merchandise. Since I knew we were moving soon, I only did one small order for a school visit.

Art Supplies

All my painting supplies, notebooks, etc. Unlike last year, I barely spent any money on supplies! I had almost everything I needed, and then I stopped working. Since I am shifting to digital illustration this year (easier with a baby), I likely won’t spend much this year either.

Not included:

Home Office Fees

I lived in four different houses this year with all the moving around lol so I can’t be bothered to calculate this. Normally I’d calculate this based off of the square footage of the studio room in my house. This includes Electricity, rent and wifi.

Taxes

Like I said at the top, not looking forward to tax season. I would hope this will be the standard 30% of my income, but let’s see!

Travel

No travel again! Hoping to do one convention this year though :’)

MY GAME PLAN FOR 2025

Although my maternity leave is over, I am still figuring out how to balance parenting with client work. 2025 is going to be another quiet year while I prioritize my family and plan for the next chapter of my life and career.

I have absolutely loved doing traditional media for my books for the past two years, but I know that it just isn’t feasable with a baby (and soon a destructive toddler) running around. I’ve decided to work exclusively in the more flexible and portable digital media for my art for the time being. This way I can squeeze 20-minute stretches of work whenever I can, whether on the desk or while nap-trapped.

Since drawing is so difficult, I am trying to focus more on ‘admin’ work. Working on the laptop/iPad is just so much more manageable right now!

Here is what I have planned for the year:

• Wrapping up the last My Neighborhood board book.

• I pitched my fourth author/illustrator book in December and got a book deal! This will likely be the only major book project I work on in 2025, and I wanted to make sure it was a solo project where I know I have more flexibility in the schedule.

• In the meantime, I want to try to write some more book manuscripts to pitch when I am ready to go back to traditional media!

• I have been working hard on a rebrand, and I want to be more intentional with my new content moving forward.

• I hope to invest more time into my social media and Youtube Channel.

• Now that I am in Dallas, I hope to engrain myself within the local art community! <3

• Speaking of education; this year I really want to finally make an online course!

• I also hope to do more guest speaking, if not school visits.

• I am trying to build up a surface illustration licensing portfolio; I don’t know how much work will come from it, but it could potentially be another passive income source.

I don’t know how much I’ll be able to achieve this year but I am trying to be easy about it and let my career take a backseat for a bit while I focus on raising a baby.

This year marks a decade of being an illustrator, and I don’t know what is in store for me, but I hope I can continue doing this amazing job for another decade.

As always, thank you guys for all your love and support. I hope you all have a wonderful year, and I’d love to hear how you are prepping for 2025 and what your goals are!