A small publishers payment system for artists

[mroberon1972]

I was asking a question in the art forums, when something I was told there gave me an idea:


For small publishers, the startup cost of purchasing art can be too high to be possible at first, what about a combination of the percentage payment, up to an amount reasonably higher than that of a flat payment?

Example:
If a normal B&W art unit would cost $15 up front, then offer to pay 50% to 100% more, but in payments based on 20% of the profits until paid off.


This prevents the problem of tracking the artist for royalties even years after the fact. Also, the artist gets his income faster then a normal percentage, and also makes more in the final total than he would if he took a flat fee.


Any thoughts?



Mr. Oberon

 

[jmucchiello]

For small publishers, the startup cost of purchasing art can be too high to be possible at first, what about a combination of the percentage payment, up to an amount reasonably higher than that of a flat payment?

Personally, if you aren't willing (or able) to pony up the money for a few pieces of art, go without art. My plan was to startup without art and be able to pay for art is project 2 from profit from project 1.

Don't ask your artist to jump through hoops to get paid, even if it is more than he would have gotten. Unless the artist has a stake in the project (say as conceptualist for a game world), let him move on to new projects without having to call you every few months asking is he should expect a check or not. And you can probably maintain a friendlier working relationship with someone whom you pay upfront.

This will also make it so you don't have to spend time doing accounting on the artwork in your product.

 

[Dana_Jorgensen]

Try looking for alternative sources for original art. One source of cheap art that I've used in the past has been art majors in college. They tend to be inexpensive initially, since they're looking to build up a portfolio of published work that will give them a leg up on earning a better than starting salary once they graduate. I've used this method, to the point that for awhile, I was working with the professors and sponsoring a number of class assignments for a graphic arts program. The professors got a specific assignment and deadline they could throw at their students with judgment passed on the final works by a third party, I got artwork I needed at a low cost, and students got published work to list in their resumes and portfolios.

 

[madelf]

Another possibility is to try and use pre-existing art. I have allowed secondary use of art that I already had done, and on hand, for as little as $5 per drawing (for small black & whites).

It make take some digging around, and it may take talking to a few different artists to get what you want, but it could save quite a bit on your art budget without leaving the artists waiting. And we often end up waiting long enough even when payment is supposed to be upfront.

I'd say try putting up a post with your art requirements and see if you can get some people to sell you pre-existing art at a discount. It might not be as good as having all original artwork specific to your product, but it might be better than having to go with no artwork at all.

 

[meatpopsicl3]

Another Alternative

I was asking a question in the art forums, when something I was told there gave me an idea:

...

At 3ednd.com, we avoid royalty payments like the plague -- anything that requires maintenance more than once every 2 years (except products and the website, of course) is shunned.

Royalty Payments take time, and by far the biggest expense you're going to have is Your Time -- and Royalty Payments inevitably cause disputes, which takes more time, and leads to poor relationships with artists, which leads to causing you to spend more time looking for artists to replace the ones that don't want to work with you anymore because of payment disputes.

I've never done Royalty Payments at 3ednd.com so that I could avoid all this completely.

Here are some alternatives:

1) Don't buy the copyright. That's right, you heard me, don't buy the copyright to the art. I know it sounds like heresy, but hear me out. Lease it instead -- that's what we do at 3ednd.com, we use an Artist Commission Contract that allows us to USE the artwork for 2 years and can be renewed every year for the same price. Artists will often respond _really_ well to this because it allow them to re-sell their work after you no longer want to use it. by doing this, you can often negotiate for a lower price.

2) If you don't have money, offer what you do have. Is the artist looking for exposure maybe? Well, if your website has a lot of traffic, offer to put the artwork on the top of you homepage for at least a month -- this is good for your product, and good exposure for the artist. Again, many artists who are just starting out will gladly lower their prices if they know that their work will be seen by 1,000 - 2,000 people per day.

3) Offer to put links on your site to the artist's website (if he/she has one) where people can see their work and even buy it (if the artist has all that in place). Offer to put her/his site URL right in your publication (or even IMG link around the art itself) -- PDF lets you do this, so take advantage of it.

From my own personal experiences, I've contracted with 2 different artists over 3ednd.com's run since Dec 1, 2003 and have developed very good relationships with both of them, and they've both said they'd work for 3ednd.com again in a heartbeat -- so I know these alternatives work.

...hope that helps.

 

[Warden]

We've noticed that there are a few artists out there looking to make a name for themselves and are willing to work with a percentage but it's normally by associating themselves with a project which they feel will grant them the most exposure or is similar to their own personal gaming tastes. For some projects, we have had no problem getting hold of artists, for others, we're still coming up dry.

Emerald Press offers a percentage but we do not ask for much artwork because we are only PDF: at least one piece per chapter with encouragement to produce more should the artist choose to. All artwork is their property, we're just asking permission to use it in our published work. Most artists do the work for the same reason as the writers, editors, layout artists, and such: they just want to get noticed. Finding the right artist for the project combined with the heart to do the work for passion rather than pay might be the best -- if not, only -- way to go.