Nobody I know has a clear idea of what I do for a living (my kids think I play games all day), but I sell creative services. My specific expertise is identity design for tech companies and retail. But every now and again, I get a call for illustration. I don't make a lot from these assignments; their value is usually in the fun factor.

A publisher in the U.K. needed spot and color illos for some of their upcoming titles. Part of the gaming industry, they regularly require illustration, and I was referred by someone familiar with my work. I knew compensation would be low, but it sounded interesting--and maybe I could roll the images into other projects... So I looked at my schedule to see if I could slip-in a couple drawings here and there.

I traded e-mails with an art director, and the pay was indeed low--pitiful even. O.K. then, what about turnaround and usage rights? Bad too: the publisher had tight turns and got all rights. So I had to say no thanks.

It turns out the publisher had a stable of off-shore illustrators happily agreeing to the terms and--here's the kick--producing very good work. There's no real problem here. The publisher wins (cheap labor), the illustrators win (relatively big payday).

The thing in the back of my mind is when is the commoditization of creative services going to seriously erode my earnings potential.

No big deal... for now...

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