CartoonChurch licence price rise
First increase since 2005
The aim of this post: to write about my prices going up, without sounding either overly apologetic or salesperson-like.
There’s no easy way to decide how much to charge for something. Whatever you choose, some people will tell you that it is way too much for them, and others that you’re giving what you have or do away. I’ve had both reactions numerous times to my CartoonChurch licence prices.
A CartoonChurch annual unlimited-cartoons church licence has been £35 since 2005, when I launched the site. There was also a lower option for those who wanted more limited use, but I decided that having several rates was too complex (and I needed to make a living). It seems absurd not to have put the cost of a licence up for 11 years, but I’ve always wanted the price to be one that a church could afford without calling an extraordinary meeting, laying off the cleaner, cancelling the extension project, etc. But, having gone back to full-time cartooning, and having made significant improvements to the site, now seems like a good time.
So, from March onwards a year’s church licence will cost £42. This is still quite a lot below the 2005 price when inflation is taken into account (inflation calculator). I hope that this is still good value. For a small fraction of my commercial rates you get a good selection of my best work to use in any way you want, now including colouring pages, which you can print off any many times as you like (a lot more of those to come by the way). The single-use licence will be going up from the beginning of March too.
The good news: until 29 February you can still buy a church licence for £35 – you can find information about doing so here.
A huge thank you once again to everyone who supports what I do by buying a licence.
That sounds eminently reasonable to me, Dave! I find setting prices, quoting and invoicing to be the most nerve-wracking parts of my job — I often worry about whether people will think I’m being unreasonable (or too cheap, but usually the former). I’m sure you worry about that too. This isn’t an increase anyway, as you rightly say. It’s just calling a halt to what has been an annually-decreasing price in real terms. Hope lots of people buy new licences on 1 March. I would buy one if I had a church newsletter to use the cartoons in… though come to think of it, I do know someone who does. I shall have words. 🙂
Thanks Tim. Yes, you sum up my position perfectly. Yes, quoting really is the most difficult thing.
I’m considering another licence, or perhaps a kind of a membership, for people who don’t have any place to print cartoons, but might like to use them in other ways, so colouring in the colouring pages, using cartoons in talks, or doing personal projects like making a greetings card. Any thoughts on this (from anyone) welcomed.
Do you have any plans to do anything similar for your cycling cartoons? Perhaps not for printing in church magazines, but I was more thinking for things echoing your last comments (personal use, card-making etc).
Hi Peter. It’s a tricky one. Certainly I could include them in something like I’ve mentioned above for using in talks and suchlike where the web version will do. Putting the high resolution ones up in an un-password-protected form is something I’m rather reluctant to do, as the instances of people misusing them has been much higher. And password protecting them could cause complication with having multiple sites. So current answer: I’m not sure.