Should You Sell Your Art to Licensing Companies?

Written by: Tien Frogget
Professional Writer, Photographer and Graphic Designer

You’re excited. You’ve been submitting your art to licensing companies for a while now, and you’ve finally received a response. A relatively big company is returning your calls and you’re feeling like you’re finally making some progress. You answer the phone when it rings and speak to the representative from this big company and after some talking back and forth, he says the magic words: “we want to buy your design.”

Yippeeeee! Right?

Wrong. While it’s definitely a good thing that they are interested in your art (it means that out of all of the work that people submit to them every week, they looked at yours and felt that it fit their products and brand – this is a VERY good thing) the last thing you want to hear is that they want to buy your art.

Unfortunately, this happens pretty frequently. And if you are an artist that is new to the art licensing industry, or you are submitting the work yourself and you don’t have an agent, it is very likely that you will make the mistake of selling your work to them.

“They want $500 for this design that I spent 4 hours on? That’s $125 for each hour of my work! How wonderful!!”

Here’s the catch. They will spend $500 on your design. Then they will take that design and put it on 5,000 t-shirts that sell for $20 apiece. It will sell well, so then they will put that design on more t-shirts, as well as hats and mugs. When that sells well, they decide they’re going to make some alterations to your design, and sell it all over again. And they continue to make an absolutely massive profit off of a design that you created – and were only paid $500 for. They now own that design, and you have no claim to it whatsoever any more. You no longer own your art; they do.

If you kept the rights to your work, and instead worked out a deal where you made only a 1% royalty, you would have made $1,000 just from the initial t-shirt sales instead of $500. Not only that, you would have continued to receive royalties in the future as they decided to put your art on more products. More importantly: you still own your art. 10 years down the road, when this company is no longer licensing that particular art piece, it is still yours to do what you like with it. You could license it to another company if you wanted.

Big companies will often say, “This is just the way we do it. We always buy art. We don’t usually do royalties.” They do this because in the case of the little guy, or the unrepresented artist, it often works. The artist thinks that in order to get a deal, you must be willing to sell out. This is only ever the case because companies can continue to get art this way. It’s important to be willing to walk away if the deal is not in your favor.

But even more than that, this is why it is so important to have an agent. Agents understand these types of deals and they will push back and fight for a deal that is beneficial for you. In the case of OC Designer Source, we are in an even better position because we create deals that are a major benefit for both the artist and the licensing company because we make it easy for the licensing companies to find high quality art without all of the typical hassle of searching for artists and then trying to work with them when they often don’t understand high resolution files, contracts, and other aspects of the industry.

We are the middleman that takes on the workload for the artist and licensing company and makes it a breeze for both to work with. The licensing company gets exactly what they need without any hassle, and the artist makes more money off their work, retains their copyright, and doesn’t have to spend time trying to hunt down licensing companies and figuring out how they work. We make it easier for everyone to make money and be successful in art licensing.

If you have any questions, please feel free to leave them in the comment box below and I will be happy to get back to you with a response.

So You Want to License Your Artwork – Part 5

The number one thing that you can do as an artist or photographer in order to succeed in art licensing is to be flexible, willing to work quickly, and teachable.

That was really important, so you might want to read it again a couple of times.

You have no idea how difficult some artists can be to work with. Many of them expect for things to be handed to them on a silver platter for next to no work, and then complain that they’re not making any sales. Their agents or publishing company will ask them for simple things that they NEED in order to even think about selling their work (like contracts, high resolution images of their art, and changes) and the artists will simply not get back to them. Or if they do, it takes them several weeks, and they only do half of what is requested of them.

I’m not exaggerating. This is a reality. It sounds negative, but actually this is really good news for you if you are willing to do what everyone else is not. You can be an incredibly talented artist, but if you can’t follow directions, you are not going to succeed in the licensing business. These companies have been doing this for a while, and they know exactly what they need from you, and they will tell you! All you have to do is listen and do what they request in a timely manner, and you are ahead of the curve!

Isn’t that good to know?

When you make yourself available and easy to work with, you make them want to work with you!! In fact, they might even go out of their way to request certain styles and collections from you because they know that they can count on you. This is a major advantage in the licensing industry, and is far more important than you know.

This means that if you are looking at a publishing company’s website and wanting to submit your work to them, read the directions carefully and follow them exactly. This means that if you are fortunate enough to have an agent who is working hard to promote your work, listen to their directions carefully and follow them exactly. Am I being redundant? Maybe, but it’s that crucial to your success, so I’ll say it again if I have to.

• When you get a phone call or e-mail from an agent or publishing company asking for you to get that contract signed and back to them a.s.a.p., read it over, show it to your lawyer if you need to, and then sign it and get it back to them quickly!

• Be able to provide high resolution digital files of all of your images that they select to license from you. This means 300-350 dpi, full size! If these terms are new to you, do a few google searches and read about image resolution. A company cannot make a high quality print or reproduction from an image that does not meet these standards, so if you don’t do this correctly, you will not sell anything. Period. Usually companies are very clear about the file specifications that they need, so follow them. (And if you aren’t sure what they mean, either ask for find someone who understands it to explain it to you.) You will need to either find a professional imager or photographer who can take your originals and scan them at the right size and quality.

• Be willing to take suggestions!! If they love a piece of art that you have, but it’s blue and they would prefer it in tan, be willing to find a way to give them a high resolution image that is tan instead. This doesn’t mean that you need to re-paint it. You can simply take a high resolution digital image and either alter it yourself in Photoshop, or find someone who can do this for you. Or if they love a particular piece you have but think it would sell better if there were two similar images to pair with it, be willing to consider creating them. I know that we as artists like to keep our art as pure and true to ourselves as possible – but if a few minor changes mean the difference between making sales and staying a hobbyist, well… the choice is yours.

These tips are so important to your success! If you really want to do well in this industry, heed this advice and run with it. It will make all the difference. You will build a reputation for yourself as being someone that the company loves working with because they know that they can count on you. And when the time comes for them to promote their newest artists, they are much more likely to promote you first over Joe Schmoe who never gets back to them.

The keys to succeeding in the licensing industry are patience, persistence, and a willingness to be flexible. Keep at it, and you will find your niche!

So You Want to License Your Artwork – Part 4

So you’ve submitted your work to a dozen companies, and received a dozen rejections! Congratulations, you’re doing great! Keep at it. Persistence is the key. Because the time will come when a company or an agent sees your work, likes it, and decides that they want to work with you.

When that happens, it’s a good idea to know a few things that will help you navigate the waters. So here are some tips to keep in mind.

• Agents (and some publishing companies) will typically ask you for a processing fee when you submit your work. This is because it takes a lot of time to sift and sort through all of the submissions that they receive and they cannot work for free, otherwise they could not be doing what they are doing, which is helping artists make money.
• Also, if an agent likes your work and decides to represent you, there will usually be a small fee involved with taking you on, as well. This fee helps them to defray the initial costs of the things that they need to do in order to get you up to speed with their company, so they have everything that they need in order to represent you. (Things such as paying their web person to include you on the website.)

• I do not recommend ever giving up the rights to your images. Although some companies will insist on this, I do not think it is worth it. There are more than enough companies out there who are willing to work with artists in a way that is mutually beneficial: you retain the rights to print and sell your work, and they pay you a commission every time they buy or sell your work. Be very careful before you sign a contract! Make sure you know exactly what the terms and conditions are before you sign, or you might make big mistakes that will haunt you down the road. If you can, have a lawyer look over it with you.

• On the same token, many agents or publishing companies will insist that you do not compete directly with them. This means if you are licensing your image to sell on napkin holders, you promise that you will not license them on another company who is also selling napkin holders. Or, if they are selling fine art prints of your work, you agree not to sell them somewhere else at a lower price. This is only fair to agree to this, and I highly recommend that you don’t break this agreement.
• Imaging costs are always the responsibility of the artist – which means that you need to provide high resolution digital images of all the work that they want to license from you, and you must pay the cost for it. (More on this in next week’s post.)

Next week we will talk about ways that you can optimize your work (and your mindset) in order to work with these publishing companies and actually make sales!

So You Want to License Your Artwork – Part 3

The earlier posts in this series have talked about art licensing and helped to shift your perspective somewhat on the industry. This week we are going to talk about one of the most important things that you are going to have to deal with if you decide to move into this field: rejection.

If you were to go on Google and do a search for art, you would get an absolutely huge selection of artwork of all different types, shapes, sizes and styles. Fine art, impressionism, realism, abstract, cubism, pointillism, cartoons, photography, digital art, and on and on. Not to mention endless subject matter: everything from fantasy art to still life to patterns to children’s art to landscape. The point is, the market for art is simply massive.

Next time you take a stroll through your local department store, notice just how much art there is around you. From everything like shower curtains, bed spreads, and rugs to things like cards, wall art, and wrapping paper. There is art everywhere! And each of these items has art that someone created – that means that the artist already went through the journey that you’re possibly just beginning and has sold their image – many times over.

My point is, there are already a lot of established artists out there who are successful in this business. There is always room for more, but your work must be good in order to compete. Not only that, your art is probably not well suited for everything under the sun – it would probably work best on specific products.

Keeping that in mind, it is important for you to realize that you are probably going to get a lot of rejection before you finally get a yes. The number of rejection letters can usually be cut down dramatically by simply doing your homework: making sure that you are submitting your work to companies that are looking for the type of art you create, not just every licensing company you can find. (That’s a really big hint, by the way!)

Nevertheless, you are still going to be rejected several times. It is a fact of licensing life.

Keeping an open mind, positive attitude, and doing your best to not take any of it personally is the key to eventually reaching your yes’s. It’s easier to not take things personally when you understand that each of these companies probably receives hundreds if not thousands (depending on the size and scale of their company) artist submissions a year. Not only that, they have been doing this for a long time and have a pretty good idea of what will sell.

I say pretty good idea because no one knows exactly what is going to do well and what is not until they test it. They are basing their choices for next year on what worked last year and the year before that. Sometimes they will take chances, but usually they are simply working from statistics. However, they know what their market is and they know what type of art they are looking for, and unless you are a perfect fit for them, they are not going to choose you.

This means that your work might be incredible, beautiful, fresh and fantastic – and you still stand a pretty good chance of getting rejected. It’s not personal. It’s simply the game that you play. Until you have established yourself and proven to them that your work can be successful, most publishing companies are not interested in taking chances on you. So don’t let yourself become dejected! Recognize that rejection is simply a part of the process.

Next week I will give you a few tips about signing contracts and things you need to know about actually signing on with an agent or publishing company.

So You Want to License Your Artwork – Part 2

In last week’s blog post, we talked about the time and type of commitment that it typically takes to get started in the art licensing industry. In this post I’m going to share with you a few more of the realities that most artists don’t realize when they first dip their toe in the licensing pool.

If you’ve ever had success selling your work through galleries, shows, in person, or over the internet, you were probably pretty pleased with your commission. Depending on whether you sold an original, giclée, or print, you probably made a nice sum for the size and quality of the piece. Let’s just say for the sake of painting a picture in your mind, that after the printing costs, gallery or booth commission, marketing and other costs, you walk away with $45 in your pocket after selling a small print, $150 for a larger print. Obviously it would be a lot more for an original. That’s not too shabby at all.

So the general assumption that we make in our minds is that if we were to sell 100 prints, we would be rolling in the dough! If you could sell 200 prints at a show with a profit of $45, you would be making $9000! Wowza! Every artist’s dream, right?

Here’s the thing. That doesn’t usually happen. Even if you do really well at a show, you don’t typically see results like that unless you have been doing this for a very long time. And even then, that’s one heck of a good day. You simply (usually) can’t reach the number of people that you would need to in order to make sales like that from one show. Over the internet you have a higher chance of reaching large numbers of people – however, you will spend hours and days and weeks and months working on internet marketing – and that still does not guarantee you will make a lot of sales.

The key to selling a much larger volume of your work is art licensing.

Now here’s the part that most people don’t realize. If you sell 200 ‘copies’ of your work via licensing, you are not going to be making $9000 for it. No one is going to pay you $45 for the rights to make one small print of your work, because they could never make a profit this way. More likely than not, you will be making somewhere between $1-15 per copy, and sometimes those copies are really large!! (By the way, when I say copy, I mean simply a one time use of your image on a print or other product, like tile, screen, bedding, lunch box, mouse pad, puzzle, etc. You get the idea.)

Sometimes artists are horrified at these numbers. They ask, “how in the world am I going to make a living in licensing if I only make $1 every time they license my image? This is never going to work!”

By selling 5,000 copies – not 200. That’s how.

Think about it: you create a beautiful painting. It takes you a week to paint it. All things aside like marketing, agents, and all the work and money it takes to get your painting imaged so that it can be printed at a high enough quality to be reproduced, you would be making $5,000 for a few week’s work. Not bad, huh? Especially if the product that they put it on does really well and they decide that they want to do it again – and again.

See where this is going?

The thing is, you as the artist need to shift your perspective somewhat in order to realize that licensing is a completely different ballgame than the gallery circuit and doing shows. Galleries may give you more “prestige” so to speak, but they are just as much work as licensing and unless you become really well-known, you probably have a lot more potential to make more money in licensing than you would otherwise.

Of course, this also depends on the type of art you create and the market that is out there. We will be talking more about this in next week’s blog post!