Creator Confessions: Getting Ghosted By Artists

Writing comics is hard. It’s even harder when your team won’t communicate. It happens more often than one might think, especially in the world of indie comics. It’s just the nature of the industry in this era of digital connection. Most communication is done online with people you’ve never met, sometimes whose faces you never see, and whose voices you often never hear. So, you’d be surprised how easy it is to just lose touch with someone you’ve been working with.

Some of it can be attributed to the cycle of freelancing. Artists are constantly looking for their next gig, even while they are actively working on your project. It’s not uncommon to hire an artist and then see them post on social media looking for more work. Because of this, it’s possible for artists to just get overwhelmed by their workload. At that point, it just becomes easier for them to ignore emails and messages rather than have to tell someone how busy they are.

Then there’s the problem of long-distance communication. It helps to hire artists you’ve either worked with in the past or that have a proven track record of delivering. Recommendations are especially helpful when you don’t know an artist. But oftentimes, writers and creators work with artists who are overseas in countries that might not have the best internet connection. In those cases, it becomes harder to track down an artist when they are not responding to you — sometimes even impossible.

That’s not to say all artists are like this. There are tons and tons who are totally professional, reliable, and take their work seriously. But when you’re starting out as a creator — especially if you’re working on a tight budget — you might be more willing to take a chance on an unknown artist who might not be the best at responding back to you. Creators and writers have tons of stories about being ghosted by the talent they hire.

There’s an interesting conversation to be had on whether or not you should pay upfront or deliver a deposit for work that’s not completed yet. There are pros and cons to both arguments, but the point remains. Reliability and communication are sometimes more sought after in an artist than the quality of their work. People want to hire problem solvers. Not problem causers.