@Whitney-Simms said in Pricing Your Work:
Great episode! And thanks @davidhohn and everyone else for the additional info! The struggle I’m having recently is explaining limited use licensing. My friends husband is starting a business hoping it will be something that ends up like salt life or tapout. It’s for a pretty specific market. However he’s not an artist. Which seems weird to me why he would want to start up something like this. But he’s hiring mutual friend for the images and I may try some for women’s. I would rather do a flat fee and a time frame that he can use the image.
Just to clarify a bit more, the flat fee for a limited time frame I would consider a "royalty" **. That is, you are licensing your work for a limited amount of time with the idea that if the product sells you will then relicense it for an additional fee (effectively a passive revenue stream as you don't have to sit down and create a new piece every time you receive a licensing payment) This is basically what happens with other "advance against royalty" arrangements like picture books, or t-shirt designs.
When I mentioned "Flat Fee" earlier I was referring to those arrangements in which copyright is either legally (Work For Hire) or effectively (All Rights) transferred to the client. Leaving little or no possibility for the illustrator to generate passive revenue
Then we can reevaluate after that. I don’t want to sign it completely over.
I generally recommend conducting your freelance business in this way.
Does that protect both of us? He doesn’t have to pay for a lifetime usage for something he might not need for a lifetime.
As a general practice, yes that should protect both of you. Be very specific about what rights are being licensed. This guy might think he's "buying" the artwork (i.e. Work For Hire in which he is now the legal "owner" of the copyright) As you can imagine that is (and should be) VERY expensive. Charging upfront for every potential use of an image for 95 years from creation involves accounting for many potential uses.
But when I tried to explain it to him and also another client it goes over their head. The shop owner said that “You listen to too many podcasts.” Yay. He’s still a great guy and I’ll let it go.
It's your job to understand how to license your work, since as a professional illustrator that's how we generate income from our creative efforts. And as you've already experienced, being able to educate potential clients is part of the job as well. If needed explain it like renting a car. If there's only a little money in the budget they get to rent the car for the day. If there's LOTS of money in the budget they get to "buy" the car for life. That should simplify it down to a level that someone brand new to licensing can understand.
** In light of this clarification I edited my initial post about royalties to be more accurate to the kind of license I meant. I always enjoy discussions like these as they encourage me to clarify my own thinking.
