Business advise neededš³, reg estimate to illustrate
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I donāt know if I can add much to this thread, but Iāve been told, from various sources, not to give away rights to an illustration. Iāve been given a template of a standard contract which is a five year licence only. I donāt know if anyone can elaborate on this but Iām assuming selling the rights completely would come at an absolute premium.
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Just want to come in and say thank you for starting this thread. I do not have more to add, but find it really helpful to hear other people's advices and experiences. I am in the similar process with a protential freelance work.
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@burvantill 1Q20 Iām safely assuming means first quarter of 2020 (January to March). Iāve always seen it written as Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4, not the other way around.
Sometimes a businessā fiscal year starts on a different date than January 1. Like April 1, November 1.
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@peteolczyk said in Business advise needed
, reg estimate to illustrate:I donāt know if I can add much to this thread, but Iāve been told, from various sources, not to give away rights to an illustration. Iāve been given a template of a standard contract which is a five year licence only. I donāt know if anyone can elaborate on this but Iām assuming selling the rights completely would come at an absolute premium.
Thatās the theory, but the reality is a lot more complicated. Editorial illustration is normally a rights only, but rights are calculated based on scope of use (digital vs print vs how many copies are distributed) rather than time, or sometimes on both time and scope. In publishing thereās a lot of different rights: foreign rights, merchandising, film and television, etc... and these are normally listed in a contract together with the terms specific to each. That said, those are premium contracts.
Many solid and remunerative jobs are only possible on a āwork-for-hireā agreement, where you give up all rights - for example educational publishers almost exclusively work that way: so basically if you insist on a rights-only agreement youāre not an interesting partner for them.
I hear from my agent that many small trade publishers are starting to work the same way, and Iāve been offered those type of contracts for trade as well...
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@smceccarelli Thankyou for responding. Youāre right on time. Lol. I was getting the same vibe (that this is a self publisher). Her responses are so vague that itās a bit confusing. The sample text from the story she attached has another persons name on it as the writer.
@peteolczyk thank you for the timeframe info.
Iām going to tread very carefully with this and not commit to anything until I have ALL the answers I need. I think this could be a good learning tool because I donāt feel invested at all yet, so I wonāt inadvertently give too much of myself away because Iām stressed over not getting the job.
I will continue to report on our correspondence so that we may all learn from this. Hopefully she responds a little faster from now on
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@smceccarelli thank you for sharing that, your answer and this whole thread is incredibly usefulI. Iām still trying to get my head around the norms of business practice in illustration. Is there a such thing as a definitive guide or is it, because of its complex nature, an undefined and vague rule book.
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I just sent out my follow up response. I feel kinda okay about it. I've been doing research on pricing, and not feeling invested in this yet is giving me some mental freedom. I am not trying to coddle to client. I had to keep telling myself to NOT drop the price, I am worth it. I think I'm worth more, but that could be my arrogance talking. LOL. But considering that this is a SMALL publisher I was trying not to gouge too hard. I really would like this job, but not at my own expense. I feel that this is a healthy place to be. Thank you for listening, I will keep you posted on our further communications. Also, if you want to comment on my email to her, please do so. Any bit of critique or advise is welcome.
{Hello XXXXX,
From your responses I am assuming you want up to 5 black and white spot illustrations plus one full cover (front and back) illustration in black and white with graphic design for the cover. I will not be responsible for the layout of the book pages and their images. Since you want black and white I am still unclear on which medium that you saw of mine for this project. I have black and white art, in pencil, ink, watercolor and ink, and digital.
$750 is a little low from my perspective for a flat fee of 5 images and a full cover. I am thinking closer to $2000 for a 2 year licensed contract, at which point, if you would like to renew, we can renegotiate. For this I would provide rough sketches for one round of comments, finished sketches with values and character designs, and finished art, provided digitally.
I hope that we can come to an agreement, I am excited to draw little [characters name].
Thank you,
Lisa Burvant} -
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@J-L-Martin Thankyou!
I did download a portion of that handbook back in spring. I've been using it along with articles and blogs on the subject of pricing to narrow down a fit for myself. Some parts of pricing are very straightforward (my cost per image) and others are so arbitrary that its tough to pin down an accurate number without experience (licensing
). I am happy we have this forum to help talk ourselves through all of it. I think we would all need therapy if we didn't have SVS. LOL.Lisa Burvant
www.lisaburvant.com
Instagram & Twitter & SVS: @burvantill -
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@J-L-Martin
It was nice to have a basic guideline to start from. To get an idea of where I stood. Lee White mentions it a lot so I figured it would be smart to check it out. -
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When talking about a licensing time-frame, is 2 years a "standard" or is kind of all over the place depending on the publisher??
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@jdubz The article that I used as a reference tool for this response actually said 15 months. I felt that was a weird arbitrary number so I just said 2 years. Iāve heard of licensing being anywhere between months and decades. I felt 2 years was appropriate because I think this is a VERY small publisher and if the book does well then that time frame should be appropriate.... i think
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@burvantill Great thanks! That's one piece I feel like I have absolutely no handle on lol
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@jdubz
youāve joined the right club then 
