Minimum Fees in the Comics Field

The Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe makes recommendations regarding minimum fees within various fields – e.g. literature, theatre and visual arts – for several of their funding programmes. We recommend the following lower limits in the comics field.

Author readings (group readings): €300 (fixed rate); incl. possible dialogue/discussion, also applies to speeches, presentations

Author readings (individual readings): €400 (fixed rate); incl. possible dialogue/discussion, also applies to speeches, presentations

Additional fees for required preparations/follow-up: €160/day or €20/hour; additional effort arising for artists and presenters from concept involvement, trial phases, discussion preparations, prior meetings, etc.

Conducting workshop: €40/hour; not including preparation time or materials

Preparations/follow-up for workshops: €30/hour

Fee for individual exhibition (1-2 artists): €1,500 (fixed rate); per artist

Fee for small-group exhibition (3-9 artists): €500 (fixed rate); per artist

Fee for group exhibition (10 or more artists): €250 (fixed rate); per artist

Artistic and organisational project management: €280/day or €35/hour; organisation, coordination, curation, concept creation

Project assistance: €200/day or €25/hour; organisation, coordination (non-management function)

Accounting: €200/day or €25/hour; project invoicing, calls for funds, money transfers, target-performance analyses, incl. possible administrative accounting, etc.

Event technology: €200/day or €25/hour; sound/lighting/stage technician

Helping Hands: €120/day or €15/hour; e.g. set-up/take-down, cleaning, guide, office or supervisory duties, flyer distribution

Moderation: €250 (fixed rate); announcement, author introductions, programme steering

Moderation – topic-specific formats: €350 (fixed rate); e.g. discussion with specific author or on specific work

Additional fees for required preparations/follow-up for event moderation: €160/day or €20/hour; additional effort arising for moderators from concept involvement, trial phases, discussion preparations, research, prior meetings, etc.

Translations: €25 per standard comic-book page (32 lines with up to 70 characters; every speech bubble is a new line; see Empfehlungen für ComicuebersetzerInnen)

Text documentation: €200/day or €25/hour; editorial and editing work carried out for publication – e.g. readers, websites, print publications, etc.

Press/public relations: €200/day or €25/hour; PR concept generation, campaigns, press conferences, press releases, etc.

Graphic design: €320/day or €40/hour; creation of layouts, websites, etc. for print and web

Session fee: €200/day or €25/hour; discussions and determination of winners in jury sessions

Application processing: €200/day or €25/hour; inspection, assessment and evaluation of financial-support requests

This fee scale is to be strictly understood as a recommendation for minimum fees (plus VAT).

For certain projects with a complex setup, it may be necessary to exceed these recommended minimum fees, such as in the case of commissions coming from and/or related to advertising agencies, documentary films with professional postproduction or in accounting when there are complex bookkeeping requirements.

For on-going occupation with at least 20 hours per week over the course of six months, it should be reviewed whether the conditions have been met that are necessary for freelance work within fixed-term employment that is subject to social insurance contributions.