artistsbeware2_archive | Entries tagged with contracts

lovelesskiax.livejournal.com

Hi guys! I'd like a little advice here as I'm not finding much online and this is my first time going about this.
One of my mom's friends is interested in hiring me to design a logo for her business. So far I have discussed an hourly rate for my work, how the process will go, and what she will receive.
What I'm in the dark about is how the copyright process works with a logo? Since I'm making it for her business specifically, should I include copyright fees and rights in the final price or should it be a completely different process? Should I also worry about getting an official contract signed up for this?
Any advice appreciated!

edit: more questions, sorry!
-do i have to get a contract written up by a lawyer, or is it still legally binding if i write one myself?
-what should the copyright fees for a logo be? do i choose it myself, or is there an average price for logos?

thanks again!

gluttonousangel.livejournal.com

This is my first time doing something like this, so I'm a bit nervous, haha. I'm currently in talks with someone on YouTube over providing them with music for their videos and I'm going to be getting paid for my work. I've never sold music before, so I'm trying to work out how best to benefit from the arrangement and how to protect myself, profit and rights wise.

This is what we're currently negotiating;

Payment is a one-off song-by-song basis, with full rights for use and editing transferred to the client, with the agreement that I receive credit for my work and the client receives sole profit from their ad revenue (agreed on)

However, if the client wanted to sell the songs in a soundtrack bundle, the profit would be split between the two of us (just suggested this; waiting to hear back from the client)

I'm also going to ask them to sign a contract, once we've agreed on everything and keeping a few physical and online copies of it, just to cover my ass, so to speak.

Is there anything else I need to do to cover myself and best protect my assess or am I doing okay?

thecreativepen.livejournal.com

I'm sure many of us have experience with this issue, and I'd like to get some input.

I get a lot of inquiries from people about helping them with logos, drawings, custom products, ect. And quite often, I get a blank face and "you're going to charge me?" or "you can't do this for free? It won't take long", when I bring up my rates. What's the best way to explain to someone that this is a business, and that time/effort/supplies do not come for free?

I really don't know how to confront this anymore, as people don't seem to understand when I explain the previous to them. And even if I don't have outstanding work, that doesn't mean that my free time should be used for an unpaid job either. I've invested hundreds of dollars in my Adobe bundle, camera equipment, art supplies, ect. I don't break even on those by giving out free art.

Also, in regards to contracts: I've decided to require a contract, or an email stating the expectations of the project for everyone, including friends. If you have any personal experiences working with friends, or how you did your contract, I'd really like to hear them.

kjorteo

Hello,

I am a buyer attempting to commission some artwork for a novel I've been working on, which is now finally nearing completion.

The novel is split into eight chapters, and I want each chapter to have a little bust-type sketch of one of the eight main characters on the chapter title page. In fact, I have already commissioned a set of busts for the cast for this exact purpose. They are already completed and can be seen here and here and they are lovely. Of course, I dramatically underestimated how early in the process I had this idea versus how long it actually takes to write a novel; these were made three years ago, and the artist has expressed interest in redoing them with the improvements and such she has made in her art since then. I personally thought they looked outstanding already, but if she wants to make them even better, then great! She was a pleasure to work with last time, and I would be delighted to do so again.

The problem that both of us are running into is that neither of us knows what the standard guidelines are for small-scale commercial work. When this novel is done, I intend to put it on some small sale service, such as selling it on the Amazon Kindle marketplace for $2 or so. (If it randomly catches fire and becomes such a smash hit that big-name publishers come in and want to take it, awesome, but I'm honestly not expecting that as a likely outcome.) Therefore, I would technically be profiting off the artist's work, which brings up all the licensing questions and such that neither of us really know. Unfortunately, the problem would persist even if I decided not to get those new updated versions after all; whether I'm using the old ones or the new ones, I'm still using her work in a novel I'm selling. (Besides, I really do want to see what updated versions of them would look like.)

She has asked around, but has not found anything yet. Her exact words from a note I just received:
"[W]hen I posed some questions to friends and groups that supposedly knew, they instead kept referring to larger, much more commercial endeavors than what you are wanting, which is much smaller in scale; I didn't get anything concrete for something specifically like this."

She said she would keep looking, but encouraged me to join in the search in the mean time. Which seems fair; it shouldn't be entirely on her to figure this out if I can help. Of course, the only place I can think to ask is here, so here we are. Ideally, how should my intention to put this novel on something like the Kindle marketplace affect the pricing and permissions and such for commissioning her?

luciannamarie.livejournal.com

Hello!

This is the first time I have posted here, so please excuse any mistakes I may make!

I have worked as a freelancer for some years now, with many recurring clients/commissioners. Besides my private furry commissions I have designed tattoos and drawn portraits, but have never really worked on a large, professional scale.

Today I was approached by the Australian company, TragicBeautiful, asking if I would consider selling the rights of one of my original pieces to be made into clothing and home-ware products.

I was obviously ecstatic, since the closest thing to this I've ever felt to this is being surprised by people messaging me to tell me they got my art tattooed on them.

I honestly know -nothing- about this. Or what I should do.
I have been researching licensing, but I don't know if that's a good idea, seeing that I am not very well known and the image in question does not seem to be easily mass marketable in my opinion.

But then again, I truly do not know what I am doing.

I come to you, asking what you would do in this situation and how I should go about this?

Will they supply a contract, and what kind of questions should I ask?
I am so shell shocked and I just don't want to make a mistake!

I would like my name and or website to be required on the sales page of the items with my designs.

Any advice would mean EVERYTHING to me!
Thank you!

paradedemon.livejournal.com

I'm currently a minor and I'm wanting to take Fursuit partial commissions.
I've noticed most people tend to not commission minors because of the legal contract issue.

Are there any ways I could show I really do want to be professional about this and complete commissions?
I want people to trust I will complete their partial in reasonable time at a good quality for the price (I've been thinking 250-300$ ) and I won't scam them

I was thinking to send WIPs at set intervals but I don't think that would really be enough?

(btw, if I've done anything wrong, please tell me, I'm fairly new to AB)

vellacraptor.livejournal.com

A friend, whom we will call K, recently wanted to hire me for a comic book. I told him if he gives me a portion of the profits, I'd sell it for 8$ per page, and if not then I'd sell it for 20$ per page. The pages are pre-layed out (though I'd probably have to do tweaking), and it'd only be inks. From what I understand I'd be fairly simple and around 28 pages. I figured since I wasn't getting the profits or anything after except my name on it if it went big, 20$ was a fair price considering most people charge 50$ per page at the low end of the pool.

He thought it was too expensive, said he could find someone cheaper, then after researching found what I told him about 50$ per page to be true. Still, since he'd be playing publisher, he wanted to try and get a cheaper price.

So my question is (considering he'd be selling the comics at around 2$ per book I believe) how much of the profits should I request? I think 10-20% of the profits is the average, but he's charging so low, I'm afraid I'll hardly get anything? Should I just stick to my higher price and not have to worry about calculating every book sold? Also, if I do decide to do the percentages, how long should it last?

Thanks!

UPDATE: We talked about it more...apparently he'd be taking the comic to comic con and selling it there, which would get lots of sales easily, and also selling it to a distributer. HOWEVER, with your advice and the fact that even with my limited knowledge I can tell K has no clue with what he's doing (and recent-past has made him somewhat on the bitter level as a friend, and showed his dislike/limited to no knowledge for legalities/professionalism), I am steering way clear of this project.

Thank you guys for all the help!

toxicfossils.livejournal.com

Hi A_B!

I'm looking for some advice on resale royalties. On Thursday, October 13th, I was contacted by someone through Freelanced.com who was looking for some artwork to be done for their business that is just starting up. They wanted a character designed as well as a logo of said character, so I am in the process of actually finishing up the logo today. I did, however, forget to discuss resale royalties with the client when he originally contacted me. I've never done work like this before (the only thing I've ever done is commissions on FA and DA - never commercial artwork) so I completely forgot about resale royalties and such. The character/logo is going to mainly be used for t-shirts and possibly brochures and flyers, things of that nature. (the business organizes off-road/motocross events)

How would I go about the whole resale royalties thing? Any help or advice at all would be wonderful, as I'm pretty clueless about such things D:

Thank you in advance!

Edit: I have finished the logo itself and I sent him an e-mail asking exactly what he was intending to use the logo on (t-shirts, flyers, etc) and asked for a few examples of said things, hopefully that's a good way to ease into the discussion of resale royalties and such? The client is very easy to work with so far and communication has been good, I'm just hoping he's willing to work with me as far as resale royalty percentages go. He was actually kind of reluctant to pay by the hour because he worried that it would take me something like 20 hours to finish the artwork. So I'm really overall nervous about even diving in to the discussion of royalties and such. =[

thaily.livejournal.com

I hate writing these things, but I hate people using artists are doormats even more and even though this guy is local to me, he has internet so no-one's safe.

It all started with a retweeted message that someone was looking for an artist in the area to design a mascot for a site and create 12 illustrations of said mascot for said site. The tweet came from the guy's intern but she's not the problem here so I won't mention her by name; I want to keep her out of this entirely, I've accidentally interned for people with how do I put this politely diminished moral judgment. I don't blame her, I only hope she doesn't pick up on his sordid (and I use the following word in the most liberal sense) business practices.

But I digress, the company in question is called Tenno Media, Peter Bierhuizen is the person this post is about. He appears to be the owner and sole employee, save for the aforementioned unfortunate intern who has since left. The site the designs would be used for is fitness-ferdie.nl

( Screenshots and translations )

So uh, in short; don't work for this guy. He only likes your designs until the first bill shows up, then things quickly deteriorate into ignorance, lies and cussing.

In a related note, if anyone wants to buy a frog adoptable, I have some available here :D

Edit: Thanks for the input guys!
Yeah there might have been a miscommunication, the "customer" was vague and told me to draw another 10 sketches "kinda like X". Had he gone "Oh that's not what I meant, I meant Y." the miscommunication could have been dealt with in a civil and mature manner. It wouldn't have been a problem. Unfortunately he immediately broke the contract by pulling out without paying, not to mention the condescending attitude and crass language.
I managed to stay civil even after he said he wasn't going to pay for my time, so I don't understand his outbursts at all. In years of doing commissions, he is only the second unhappy customer I've ever had, and it's due to his own lack of patience, understanding and basic manners.

I'll probably stay away from similar contracts for the time being, because they cost more time and aggravation than they're worth (especially when you're not being paid) and if I do take a design contract, I'll make them pay part up front like with normal commissions.

Lesson learned, I'm moving on to my paying customers ;P

Current Mood: busy

glacidea.livejournal.com

Guttentag, first time poster here. I was asked today for a commission I never have been asked for before. Now I am no stranger to commissioning and have been taking them for a few years now. I've had my fair share of screw-ups and becoming overloaded, making all the usual commissioning mistakes, but I've gotten into a good tempo now. Recently, I've been making and selling patterns, just to try something new. I made a MLP one and a dino and such. I just do it as a side hobby to bring in some extra money every now and then.

I received an email today asking to commission a pattern from me. I had never thought of taking pattern commissions before and so I am baffled as to what to do. I was thinking cost for how many pieces it would be, extra cost if I am unable to sell it normally, there should be something about commercial use, etc etc. I've never done anything like this before, so I would greatly appreciate advice and tips, plus pricing information and such.

I make plush, which is obvious from the above paragraph (examples here: loneplushieinfo.webs.com/ so you can judge based on my skill for like...pricing). My commission prices are usually in the 150 to 300 range and obviously a pattern won't be NEAR that much. So yes, just all advice and everything will be GREATLY appreciated <3

Current Mood: confused

matrices.livejournal.com

Hello! I love reading all the advice that this community has to offer, and I have a unique product that I have made and will (very soon) produce for sale. Hopefully I am not out of line by making a post like this here, I want to make sure that as the artist I am covered with a reasonable "terms of use" type of agreement.

I have created a fursuit head pattern to allow someone to create the base of a fursuit head from foam that they can finish up however they wish. I plan to package with the pattern a detailed written and illustrated set of assembly instructions, and I also intend to include a printed terms of use with every one I sell... and thats what I am here asking advice on. The terms of use.

I want to retain intellectual copyright on something that can potentially be reproduced over and over and over, and want to allow personal use only (the product used by an individual, or given as a gift), and prevent/disallow commercial use (people using my product to sell/make money off of), also prevent/disallow/limit reproduction and distribution of the pattern itself. If they DO want to make it commercially, I am willing to come to a license agreement, where I would make $X amount of money per item produced, for example.

Obviously I am not copyrighting anything except my pattern, and I want to protect myself. It is a pattern just like any sewing pattern or model kit. Now I'm not interested in hiring lawyers or whatev, I know thats the usual advice in some of these cases. I just need to figure some simple non-scary wording to cover my butt in the case of an individual or company decides, "wow this is cool, I'll use this pattern to make a hundred and sell them!" and then pull the "She sold it to me! No limitations implied" card.

I just pretty much need examples on what I should cover and perhaps how to say it.

In a seperate case, my friend

malytwotails and I are making an Anthro Plush pattern for Free personal use as well. How should we word a similar agreement to give permission to create the plush but only for themselves or to give as a gift, and not for commercial use.. despite it being a free pattern?

Part of an example she showed me (copy & pasted from elsewhere online):
"Free Personal Use: This pattern has been made for your personal use. You may download or print a copy, keep it on your computer or in a notebook, and create as many copies or variations on that project as you like, providing the use is personal. Personal use includes creating a project to give to someone as a gift but does not go so far as to cover selling the finished project"

I'd love some input on that as well! Thank you everyone for your time.

Current Mood: hopeful

millilicious.livejournal.com

Hello, all! I am coming to you with an inquiry as to what I should do (I'd like to take this commission on) as well as what prices I should be charging. I don't want to sell myself short, but I also don't want to sell too high.

I got an email from an interested commissioner asking if I would do book covers for six novels that he's writing. I've never done this before, so I'm not quite sure what the legalities and whatnot would be included. He states that I would get full rights to the pictures as well as he'd give me credit, so I don't have any inclination to think it's a scam.

( Emails )

Price List + FAQs

I'm also going to be sending him examples of my newer artwork (as all of the pictures he references above are from April) to see if he'd prefer a more realistic type style. Thanks in advance and please let me know if you need anymore information :)

pigeons.livejournal.com

I hope its okay to post this here. I really need some advice, since I am pretty stupid when it comes to these kinds of things.

I recently got this note:
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj89/An-Tan/comm.png

And unless I'm reading it wrong (which might as well be, since I'm not a native English speaker) they are asking me to design a mascot for a convention (based on a written description they gave me) and use said design to make two badges.
Now, if I am designing a mascot, chances are the design will be reused for merchandise and other such stuff. I doubt the original two images would be used on merch, since they will be traditional media. Now, if my design is to be used to make money, should I charge more for designing the character than I usually do? Should they buy the rights to the design off me, or should I ask for royalties?

On a side note, I already gave them a price offer of ~$30, before I realized I might be dealing with something more than a regular commission. Would it still be okay for me to go back and ask for more, or am I stuck with $30 because thats what I said at first?

I am very new to this kind of stuff, since this is the first time anyone has wanted to commission me for something on a bit of a bigger scale (usually its just drawings of people's OCs or character designs for personal use) so I would like some advice as to what I should do. I don't want to end up getting screwed over, but I also don't want to end up scaring off the commissioner or making unreasonable demands.

EDIT: Here is my dA account so you can get a better feeling of my art and how much you think it would be worth: http://katarrhe.deviantart.com/gallery/
& also my old, abandoned account, which has a lot more of my work up: http://00x181-033-4-9953xx3.deviantart.com/gallery/

mandyseley.livejournal.com

Please excuse me if this has been covered before...I couldn't find it, but please do redirect me if I just missed it!

I recently opened for commissions, and my second offer is from a friend of mine who's looking to commission an illustration for a published work.

The work is an RPG rule set and framework, similar to D&D. The base rulebook itself is already complete and available online in .pdf format (the illustration would be for the print version), and they are already partnered with Game Parlor for publication and distribution - so although it's a small, independent publication, I'm less concerned about this being "legit" and more questioning "how do I approach this?"

Price has not been established, though already the commissioner understands that a 300dpi illustration suitable for printing isn't going to be "cheap." He's willing to compensate me fairly, he's waiting for me to quote a price that I think is fair. What do you charge for a work that's going to be printed in a book and sold for profit?

Are there specific legalities I need to be concerned about while I'm negotiating the terms of this commission?

Any input would be highly appreciated.

lobotomysoup.livejournal.com

I was interested in selling home made knitted scarfs and hats, eventually moving up to blankets and what have you when I get larger needles.

I've been watching on here and often I've seen in the past advice on acquiring a TOS. I must be super slow, because after an hour of searching, I could not find these comments. As I am new to selling things online like this, I wanted to set up a TOS, for both me and the customer. I want them to know whats going on as much as I would want to, and I know reading over something like that would help.

What exactly should one put in a TOS though? I'm not fully sure.

I am sorry if you'd rather I not ask this here, but I know that you guys have it down pat what to do. I saw that advice asking is still ok, but did not see an update on the profile or a mod-post on what is exactly permitted.

I did google it, by the way. Didn't come up with any kind of helpful guide or anything.
Thank you in advanced.

Edit #1 - Oh man, thank you for all the advice. I have to actually sit down and put something together, so I'll upload my idea after its finished.

Current Mood: uncomfortable

rhari.livejournal.com

EDIT: Sounds like I'm good to go :3 Gunna ask him for a deposit, get in on that money up front idea, and then get that contract rollin. To protect him an me. :3 Thanks folks!

Hey A_B

I don't know if this is outside your bounds (obviously we'll know if this gets posted, or if it does not) but, I wanted some input.
Now, I don't usually write up terms on commissions, however, the situation has come up where a commissioner wants a Series of images and is willing to pay out a large chunk of money. This person has commissioned me before and has paid me upfront, and graciously tipped. I have been more than willing to take his commissions and to work with him happily.

THIS HAS NOT CHANGED.

What has changed is the amount of money, and time.

He would like a series of 7 images and has offered to pay me $500 to do it, to be completed for May 1st.
I want something to protect me, so I could at the very least so I could drag him into a Civil court room if it came down to it. I'm no good with words, and I know there's a friendly bunch of internet lawyers out here who could probably help me come up with something, to say the least. Just an agreement, signed and dated by a notary in both cities. Photocopied so we both have one.

What should I do? How should I phrase it? What can protect me if he's wants to back out and I've finished work on one or all of the pieces?

Annnnnd if you know who is reading this, I posted because I wanted input. Not because of anything you've done, or haven't. :3 It's because of all the things I've seen happen to people, and that big projects have flopped on me before.

I "know" the commissioner fairly well. (as much as you can know someone over the internet) but I've seen people been scammed by friends in the past. I do not want it to happen to me.

Looking forward to this project, but apprehensive about the costs
Rhars

Current Mood: bouncy

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"Artists Beware"

We have moved to https://artistsbeware.info/

Entries tagged with contracts

Advice with Logos

[Looking for advice] Selling music/rights of use?

Responding to "freeloaders"

Pricing for small-scale commercial work

Looking for Advice! To sell rights or to license?

Minor Commissions

Advice: Royalties/Proceeds?

Advice: Resale Royalties?

Mascot design and illustration for Peter Bierhuizen, Tenno Media

Pattern Commission Advice

Craft Patterns: What should I include in a terms of use agreement to protect myself?

Need advice - Book covers

Designing a character for a con?

Commissions for Publications

Questions about TOS

Big Commission, Want some Protection.