Go ahead, ask me! I’ll do my best to answer based on my experience.
The more specific your question the better. “How do I become a famous artist?” That’s difficult to post an answer. “Where do I start to learn more about copyright?” That I can answer!
Should I license my images?
Only if you really understand licensing and your client really understands licensing.
If the licensing opportunity is appropriate, meaning that it elevates your brand to the right audience, the compensation is agreeable, and you have a clear written contract with an experienced and reputable licensee, then it can be very lucrative.
Learn from my tribulations. Two out of the three times that I have licensed my images have been complete disasters because I had two ignorant clients. They had an attitude of entitlement that I believe came from their misguided notion that they where doing me a great favor by helping me gain “exposure.” In fact, I did them a great favor, as friends of friends, by mistakenly offering below market rates. And that is where it went to hell despite my solid contract.
The first and the last wine label I designed included an image of one of my contemporary still life paintings. I crafted a very clear licensing agreement from the most current samples in the annual edition of the “Graphic Design Guild’s Pricing and Ethical Guidelines“, an excellent resource. I discussed the fact that I reserve my rights to any and all reproduction of my images and my clients nodded enthusiastically. Because they both nodded and each signed the contract, I thought we had communicated.
The scope of this limited “single use” license could not have been made any clearer. The license allowed reproduction of a single image on x number of wine labels to be printed in a given year, only on wine labels applied only to wine bottles, and distributed within a specified geographic region. The contract further stated that other uses where excluded, including, but not limited to, electronic reproduction. And because the image is my property that is my prerogative.
The winemaker and his wife actually purchased the original oil painting, again with a clear second notice that I reserved all rights to reproduction. By owning the original oil painting they do not somehow own the rights to reproduce it. Those rights are my sole intellectual property. For example, if you purchased the original transcripts of Harry Potter, you don’t get to make copies and distribute them. Why? You don’t own the rights, JK Rowling does. That’s why she is the only one who can sell the movie rights to Warner Brothers.
Anyway, the wine was a hit! And this was a new brand that we made up at the kitchen table. That’s saying something in the over saturated market of wine. But now my clients wanted to broaden the scope of the licensing agreement and place the image on soaps and tea shirts. That would be fine, if the money was right and it elevated my emerging brand. But I don’t believe that anything that goes in the dishwasher or the laundry is going to elevate my fine art brand.
When I didn’t immediately agree to sell all of my rights the winemaker became furious. And he actually threatened to squash my emerging reputation in the close-knit wine community.
It doesn’t end there. I’ll be in small claims court this Friday enforcing the second judgment I’ve won against the other wine label client for breach of contract, specifically copyright infringement.
Again, licensing can be a very lucrative and a very nice passive form of income. But that’s only if you have a solid agreement, mutual respect, and experience. Most clients and most artists do not understand licensing.
If you ever want to build your brand and build your wealth you must understand your intellectual property rights. Start with the US Copyright Office website. If you create the image you own the copyright but if you don’t register it with the Library of Congress the damages that you can recover will be limited.
I’ve decided since my very first wine label helped move that much wine, the next wine label that I design will be for my wine. 
Artist Ann Rea
After over seven years of not painting, I quit my job, sold my house, and I moved to the beach in San Francisco determined to make a living as a painter.
I had no plan, but because I’m a creative, I created one. Then I turned a profit in my first year in business – shattering the starving artist myth.
And in the past five years I have received considerable national media attention without the benefit of a publicist. They include national media features on the “Fine Living Channel” and NBC’s “In Wine Country“, and in “The Wine Enthusiast“, “Practical Winery and Vineyard Management” and “Fortune” magazines. And Jonathan Fields profiled my blue ocean business strategy in “Career Renegade“, published by Random House this year.
Along with my work, these features have focused on my business model, a blue ocean strategy. As a result, artists began contacting me from across the globe asking for help. They wanted to earn more money, they wanted to sell their art. I suggested that they needed help defining their market, shaping a unique selling proposition, and growing their sales, foreign concepts for too many artists.
Since the business of art is one of my favorite topics, each Monday I began coaching and consulting by phone with a select number of established, part-time, and reemerging artists from across the globe. This list has grown to include painters, mixed media artists, photographers, sculptors, craftsmen, and fashion and interior designers.
Marketing is easy and innate for me. At my first job at a design firm, I initiated the concept of selling GM’s Saturn car for the same price to everyone. My marketing clients range from E&J Gallo, a billion dollar corporation, to individual artists and entrepreneurs.
This year when the Dean of the business school at Mills College asked if I would consider helping them develop a MBA program for the Arts in the future, I realized that I had something.
But there are only so many Mondays and I have my own business to run and paintings to paint.
Maybe I can reach a broader audience and I can attract a community of thriving artists who I could profile in a future book?
So my intention is to cultivate a positive and productive on-line global community of thriving artists and to provide guidance through a series of Q&A posts.
You’re invited to submit your contribution or your question and I’ll do my best to provide useful answers based on my experience. The more specific your question, the more likely that I can answer it.
And if you are interested in applying for my consulting services, I invite you to schedule a 10 minute complimentary phone consultation.
Here is my first draft of The Artists Who Thrive manifesto. I welcome your comments and contributions.
* “A Whole New Mind” by Daniel Pink
I invite you to join this forum and post your question or comment to this whining free zone.
Post your specific question below.
