To Submit or Not to Submit
I'm trying to decide if I should submit this piece to Leanin' Tree by July 17th (or not). I thought I may as well include y'all in my mental dilemma because you might be interested in licensing to greeting card companies, too, and this may help you. (If you want to submit to Leanin' Tree, you must carefully follow their submission guidelines and calendar of submission themes, found on their website at www.LeaninTree.com)
On the one hand, by selling my designs on greeting cards I had printed by MOO (yes, like the sound a cow makes ) for a few years at about 10 regional retailers (but I'm down to 5 now due to stores closing) such as bookstores and grocery stores, I've earned over $5,000. My best-selling card designs have earned about $500 so far. If I were to print this design locally, for Halloween 2019 I would earn about $60 or more, after expenses were taken out. Some retailers pay me immediately when cards are put on shelves, regardless of sales.
On the other hand, I could submit this Halloween design on July 17, wait 4-8 weeks to hear back from Leanin' Tree (or most likely not hear back, after which time the guidelines said to assume it's not going to happen). If they want my design, I would sign a license agreement. Then the card might be changed or redesigned by other artists and given text or borders. By Halloween season of 2020, the company would have printed and distributed this card to retailers nationwide. Usually royalties are paid quarterly or at least after sales occur. Halloween falls into the 4th Quarter. Checks arrive typically within 30 days after the quarter ends. So IF Leanin' Tree wants to license the Pumpkinman design, I may receive a royalty check for (probably, based on research) 2-5% of sales, if sales do occur. No sales, no royalties. So I may or may not receive a check of an unknown amount in January 2021....long time from now. I don't know how to estimate what range I could earn from Leanin' Tree, without more information like how many of this design they would print and distribute.
The main reasons I want to license with Leanin' Tree are:
I have loved Leanin' Tree cards since I was a child, I've even saved many of the cards I received. They are my Disney of greeting cards and it would just be cool to see my art on their cards.
I live in a tiny house and want to explore licensing to companies with nationwide distribution rather than printing, storing, distributing cards from a (small) home.
I have no guess, but maybe I could earn more money if I licensed my artwork...I came to this conclusion after taking SVS class on licensing, taught by the amazing Guy Francis. But I saw some greeting card artists only get like $20-50 per card design.
The reasons I hesitate to pursue licensing is because I won't be able to earn any money from this design until 2021! And the design may be changed in a way that I don't want to be associated with it (changes may be great improvements, but in various ways discussed on SVS we know it can also be bad).
Should I submit this design to Leanin' Tree and try to license, or stick to selling it on my local cards???
Edit: I just submitted it, actually. I am having "cold feet" or something, but it's done now. I will let you all know how it goes if I do hear anything. Ultimately I decided that, even if I don't earn anything, it is totally worth it for the learning experience and in case it also helps anyone here on the forums!
