Need some advice on an "offer"

KathrynAdebayo

Perhaps a consideration - is this exposure (with possible royalties) more or less valuable than full royalties on your own personal project that you put out into the world yourself? Also, working on your own timeline and with your own quality standards can be very different than submitting your work to somebody else... I have not been in this situation myself, but I wish you all the best on your decision!

Nyrryl Cadiz

@Pam hell no. He doesn’t even bother to offer to pay you in the future? And for what? Exposure? First of all, how many followers does he even have? 1 million? Or zero? Even the exposure part is uncertain. Don’t do it. If you want to make portfolio pieces, you’re better off making your own products and selling it yourself. Please excuse my bluntness.

Nyrryl Cadiz

@NessIllustration very well said

Nyrryl Cadiz

@Pam if they’re that serious in this project, then, they’ll come up with the money for your fee. They can’t just start a business and expect another person to make the product for them for free.

NessIllustration

@Pam Yeah all things to consider... Personally, even if I can negotiate royalties I wouldn't do it for a new company with no track record... You don't know if they're able to sell anything. The very fact they're offering you to work for exposure when as a new company, they likely have no network, no followers, no nothing, is real iffy to me. It doesn't bode well if they don't realize that as a startup, their number 1 challenge will be getting exposure for THEMSELVES. I don't know, they give me the vibe of people who think they can just put something on the app store and people will flock to it just because it's there. "Make it and they will come" is the biggest lie on the planet. I'm not sure they realize this and if they don't, they won't last long enough to send you a royalties check...

Pam

@jimsz said in Need some advice on an "offer":

re is always someone who is wanting to have an artist work for free.
This is simply a self-publisher using an app instead of a printer. I always ask myself "why did they ask me?", is my work so amazing or unique that is would make the project stand out or am I the next one he came across as he tries to find anyone?
if he is looking to create a AR app, He should have a development app that you can see.
It comes down to are you willing to do a great amount of work for no return? That's your decision. If you do decide to pursue this make sure you have a contract that spells out the reproduction rights, ownership if the project actually happens but also if half way through it is killed

Thank you very much for the answer, I really appreciate it. I guess I'm just going to say "Thanks but no thanks", somehow I had this in mind but I tend to doubt myself in these kind of situations. Yeah, I'm definately not willing to spend more of my time in this.

Pam

Thank you for all the advice @NessIllustration . I'm grateful to know about this community since I had no one else to ask about it.

I will consider telling him a price range for what this person wants, a bit hard to calculate since he isn't asking for anything specific. But probably my answer will end up being a "No thanks".

Pam

@jdubz said in Need some advice on an "offer":

@Pam Unless I'm reading this wrong, exposure is the only thing being offered. 100% hard NO in my opinion.
In 99 out of 100 times, never ever work for "exposure" alone. That 1 case you might say yes is if let's say someone like Taylor Swift knocks on your door to illustrate her book. Someone like that has a big enough reach that would result in a bunch of work.
What is the potential reach this person has to actually move the final book?? If it's possible they could actually sell several hundred copies, AND you don't have anything better to do, I'd ask for something like 30% of all sales. Plus, a limited license agreement. If they balk at that, I'd feel pretty good about that kind of door shutting.
EDIT: or all the stuff Ness suggested lol

Thank you for your suggestions, I understand, I will have this in mind in the future just so I don't have doubts about these kind of offers. I really appreciate your advice and will try to negotiate a payment. If I don't get anything it's not a big loss to let this "Opportunity" go.

Pam

Thanks for the advice @jdubz

I see, there are still a lot of things that I need to learn about licensing, but I will try to talk about a payment agreement with him in case this person is willing to pay in any case. Thanks, I won't consider exposure as a compensation for these kind of projects in the future.

Pam

@KathrynAdebayo said in Need some advice on an "offer":

tion - is this exposure (with possible royalties) more or less valuable than full royalties on your own personal project that you put out into the world yourself? Also, working on your own timeline and with your own quality standards can be very different than submitting your work to somebody else... I have not been in this situation myself, but I wish you all the best on your decision!

Thank you for your answer to my post. You are right, this exposure is not any more valuable than having full royalties on my personal projects, I got caught up because this idea was attractive and forgot to see it from that perspective.

Pam

I appreciate your bluntness @Nyrryl-Cadiz , you are right, I'll talk to him about a price range for what he is asking for and see the response. Thank you.

NessIllustration

@Pam It's always worth trying I was recently hit up for a book for a local publisher at super low budget and told them "I can do it for minimum insert more than twice the amount they were offering. I was full expecting to hear "nevermind then" but to my surprise, they said they'd look into it and try to find more money. You never know!

sigross

@Pam have you asked him what other apps he's worked on and have any of them been financially successful? When I watch Dragon's Den or Shark Tank people who come on making a mobile app need to plow in 100-250k just to get the thing off the ground. To develop an app like Uber costs around $115,000 (Android and iOS) - that's just the tech. An AR Children's book app isn't going to be simple. But if he's made other apps and got a proven track record might be worth a look.

Pam

Hello @sigross

Unfortunately this person seems to be just starting to get into the making of apps for AR, so he doesn't seem to have a portfolio to prove his apps have been successful.

Pam

That's right, sometimes things can turn out different than we expect @NessIllustration .

I'll see what happens in this case. Thanks!