artists_beware | a freelance horror story

Hey guys I know this is typically a group for more personal commissions, but I have a story to share that I think all aspiring artists should know before they get out there and start selling their work in a commercial sense.

submitted for the approval of the midnight society, I call this story

So I was recently commissioned to do a novel cover illustration. Yay! Hurray! My first (well... like third) real gig! This is aaaawesome money money money!
I finish the thing in record time, despite the fact that I sat in front of my computer for two days corresponding through e-mail doing edit after edit after edit

(lesson number 1: when doing up a contract, specify in said contract how many edits the client is entitled to. I spent 2 days of my life editing and got no bonus from that. The client could have essentially gotten me to do 5 images via strategic "editing" and I would have had to do it because I didn't specify otherwise)

the client loved it! Hurray! Client is happy, time to get paid now, m i rite? Oh wait... wait a minute, we never talked about how much I was getting paid for this... how much am i getting paid for this?

(lesson number 2: before drawing so much as a line, discuss what you are being compensated and ensure that you feel you are getting what you deserve/it's worth your time)

500$. eee... i feel sort of like i deserve a little more. I am going to talk to the client about this.
"dear client, I understand I didn't sign a contract with you, I don't expect to be compensated any more than this, however I will warn you that in any future projects, I am going to charge a bit more." [a lot of changes made, it was way more professional sounding than this]
marketing guy who has been hired by client: DO NOT SPEAK TO CLIENT! YOU ARE NOT BEING PROFESSIONAL, CONTRACT IS BETWEEN MY FIRM AND YOUR AGENT, NOT YOU AND THE CLIENT

(lesson number 3: determine who it is that you are working with, make sure it's clear. I was being told all along that the client was the authors, tuns out that they were the client of my client. I am still confused by this to this day since it was them I was talking to all along about editing and stuff, but oh wells! This would have been made clear if a contract had been drafted)

me: contract? wwwhhhhaaaaaat???? I didn't sign anything
marketing guy: oh yes, and also, cover illustration credits are being given to my firm, plus your name at the end.
me: WHWHHAHAHHAHAHAHAAAATTT??? But this is how i gets more jobs! I want people looking for me through ME not through your firm! what is going on here?

so I was just sort of like "eh, whatever. jobs over, 500$ is not bad, I am going to just post this stuff on my website and hopefully attract the attention of more potential buyers
marketing guy: by posting this image on your website you are infringing on the copyright of the image which is held by the company
me: WHAHAHAHAHAAAAT?

(lesson number 4: before getting into this stuff, know what your rights are as an artist, know what the clients rights are. understand what the different rights mean. for example, if a client specifies in a contract that they are buying out all of the rights to an image, that makes the image theirs, you cannot repost it, you can't even use it in your portfolio, it now belongs to them, and they can edit it and everything. if you sell them one-time rights, it's still yours, you can put it wherever you want. there are other types of rights too, look em up on the internet and make sure you watch for them in contracts so you don't screw yourself over.)

since of course I didn't sign a contract, the full rights to the image were still mine, so I simply removed the title of the book from the jpg name and continued to post them all over the internet.

so as you can see, this has been a giant mess. a mess that could have been avoided if i had just done a little research. I am going to try to save you all some future heartache. CONTRACTS! CONTRACTS CONTRACTS CONTRACTS! know them, love them, do not draw a single thing before you've agreed to, signed one and made hundreds of copies of it so you can pull it out and shove it down people's throats if they question it at all.

ARTISTS BEWARE! DON'T DO FREELANCING STUFF WITHOUT DRAFTING UP A CONTRACT FOR YOURSELF!
love, always, beavotron.