This book is necessary for anyone wanting to start their own company in the graphic design industry. It covers every aspect of the business & things that you wouldn't think of.

The graphic design industry bible on how to understand and execute the business of graphic design. Needs to be next to you at all times when beginning any kid of project. These best practices are the standard for running a design business.

Great book for pricing guidlines. Lots of good general information. Recommended if your getting started in the graphic field.

Finally, your search is over! This is the definitive must have for any graphic arts professional. Not to mention, anyone who is considering using a graphic arts professional. This guide is geared especially toward the entrepreneur in the graphic and digital arts industry. Anyone from a partner in a large agency down to the smallest 1-man show can gain invaluable information from this book.

I have a bookshelf full of generic small business guides and "how-to" books for business. This one takes ths cake. It's specific to the web professionals, graphic designers, illustrators, etc. I goes in-depth into:
* How to engage clients and how to write proposals
* How to price with current surveyed price points from GAG members
* Collection procedures
* Fair trade practices
* Detailed copyright law
* Sales tax
* Step by step procedural recommendations into each type of project (i.e. brochure, logos, etc.)

It's by far the best book I've ever seen on the industry. It's like a bible of sorts for the graphic arts professional and anyone interested in working with one. It has virtually everything I've been looking for condensed into one single source.

This is an excellent technical book, with a wealth of information between the covers. Most of that information seems "crammed" into the odd sized pages, and reads like a technical manual. For a handbook that's current and relevant, I can't think of a better one out there.

This guide is really a useful resource for a freelance artist like myself. It's most useful feature, in my opinion, is the legal advice it offers including templates for standard contracts for different types of work, as well as explaining in detail the pros and cons of the different ways that you can sell the rights to your work, many of which were not known to me. I find the pricing aspect less useful since all my work is on the internet, but they emphasize traditional media and have only a very brief treatment of "new media" (i.e. online) practices and pricing. Still, the legal advice is germane regardless of medium.

This book is full of very useful information. I recommend it to all designers and illustrators. The contracts and forms templates are great!

If you are working professionally at graphic design, this book is a "must have". Contracts, pricing scales...practices and standards or prices and trade customs are outlined here for illustration, graphic design, web design and so on...

Think of it as your manual for all the things they didn't teach you in art school (the business end).

You need this if you want to start thinking as a professional. There's templates for contracts and wording you would never think of as a newbie. It is, however, just a guideline when it comes to pricing. Illustrator Brad Holland said that pricing guidelines are "nothing more than a survey of what current prices are. It should be obvious that if you base future fees on a statistical average of what current prices are, you'll preserve the status quo. Many artists believe these guidelines are one of the reasons that illustration fees have stagnated for 30 years."

But, if you're new like me, you're clueless. Every bit helps.

I think the true title of this book should be "The Book No Professional Graphic Designer Should Be Without: Things Your Client Might Not Want You to Know About the Design Business". That pretty much sums up this book. Contains tons of info about copyrights, trademarking, legal issues, ethics and everything else a graphic designer, freelance or otherwise, would ever want to know about the art buying and selling business. Applies to illustrators and traditional artists just as much as graphic designers. The 'artist's business bible' in a nutshell. Created by the Graphic Artist Guild, a society established to promote fair, ethical treatment and legal protection for artists of all types.