… and how not to have your life consumed by this concern. 🙂

I’ve been licensing my art for 10 years now and I’d like to share a little secret – I’m still not always sure if I’m getting “a good deal”.  Royalty rates and the ways companies work can vary by industry, by company and even by the artist a company is working with.  I’m pretty sure Mary Engelbreit gets a better royalty rate than I do…

The way I see it, “A good deal” all depends on who you are and what you want for yourself, your lifestyle and your business.

A good deal for one artist will look like a horrible deal to another.  But there have to be ways to quantify what “a good deal” is.

Attorney Kyle-Beth Hilfer just did a post entitled: Evaluating Art Licenses: How to Tell if You Have a Good Deal. She gives some great advice about what to look at and look for from a legal / contract perspective.

Maria Brophy blogs a lot about lifestyle – her recent post: How Taking an Adventure can grow your Business is a great example of what a “good deal” looks like to them.  A job where they got 2 weeks of vacation a year and were expected to report to a cubicle the rest of the time would be a horrible deal for both Drew and Maria.  But for others – it gives them the structure and consistency they need and they have no desire to go on 5 month adventures and work out of a black box. 🙂

A friend of mine – Steve Strauss, attorney turned entrepreneur and owner of TheSelfEmployed.com – recently went to Istanbul for a week with his wife.  He was hired to speak and MC for 2 days at an event for entrepreneurs.  In return, he and his wife were able to take an amazing trip!  To me that’s a great deal (anyone want to fly me somewhere interesting???) but when I told another friend about it, she cringed and said the flight alone would make it pure torture.

Basically – there are parts of each deal that are subjective.  At the same time, it’s important that you fully UNDERSTAND any deal you do – in terms of what it will mean to your business financially and from an art copyright standpoint, if nothing else.

Just some food for thought about deals.  Back to your creative work!

– Tara Reed