Licensing art
Jul. 22nd, 2011 10:51 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
kiriska.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
artists_beware
Okay. Looking for advice about licensing commissioned art to the commissioner commercial use.
So I am potentially going to be doing a lot of art for a guy making a tabletop RPG -- he'll be using all of the art in a guidebook that will eventually be for sale. Since this is something a lot of people want to do and since I don't know enough about the project to really form an opinion about how likely it is to be commercially successful, I would rather not deal with royalty payments that may or may not ever happen and would prefer a lump sum one-time licensing fee per image.
The guy pointed out that a flat-rate fee per image (in addition to the cost of the commission itself) would add up quickly for him, since he would need dozens and dozens of images. I understand this, and I understand that this is a very indie project and that he isn't a big business with lots of funds. I do want to be as reasonable and fair to him as possible, but I want to be fair to myself as well, and in the event that this guidebook is wildly successful, I don't want to have given away usage of the art for little more than what the art itself cost.
So I'm not really sure what would be a good compromise. I was thinking about percentages, like maybe a 5% licensing fee on top of the cost of each image, though some of the smaller images would be something like $20, so 5% is only a dollar, which seems.. silly? I don't know.
Advice?
So I am potentially going to be doing a lot of art for a guy making a tabletop RPG -- he'll be using all of the art in a guidebook that will eventually be for sale. Since this is something a lot of people want to do and since I don't know enough about the project to really form an opinion about how likely it is to be commercially successful, I would rather not deal with royalty payments that may or may not ever happen and would prefer a lump sum one-time licensing fee per image.
The guy pointed out that a flat-rate fee per image (in addition to the cost of the commission itself) would add up quickly for him, since he would need dozens and dozens of images. I understand this, and I understand that this is a very indie project and that he isn't a big business with lots of funds. I do want to be as reasonable and fair to him as possible, but I want to be fair to myself as well, and in the event that this guidebook is wildly successful, I don't want to have given away usage of the art for little more than what the art itself cost.
So I'm not really sure what would be a good compromise. I was thinking about percentages, like maybe a 5% licensing fee on top of the cost of each image, though some of the smaller images would be something like $20, so 5% is only a dollar, which seems.. silly? I don't know.
Advice?
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Date: 2011-07-23 05:58 pm (UTC)No really, charge what it's worth to you to do it!
From my experience with small RPGs, they are in some ways easier than individual character commissioners because they aren't that picky and there's a lot of creative license. On the down side, be careful of an arrangement where you end up with way more work than you can handle because of a bulk fee (this hasn't happened to me but seems like it could happen).
So what I'm saying is, if you end up just adding a little bit to your usual commission prices, like only 5%, that may not be such a terrible thing, provided your usual commission prices work well for you. Yes it's not a lot extra on the other hand if it's a lot of images it's a lot of guaranteed work that should be easy to bang out (again, provided working with this guy is okay)