You Signed the Contract, But Do You Know What It Says?

By Gamal Hennessy

            Every writer, artist and musician knows they should read and understand a contract before they sign it. You don’t need to hear the horror stories of rookies and veterans who lost the rights to a lucrative project because they didn’t know what they were signing. The advice is so universal, it often feels insulting to bring it up.

            But the reality is many creative people don’t read what they sign. There are a lot of reasons why this happens, including:

• Time pressure by the other side (If I waste time reading this, they’re going to give the deal to someone else)
• A perceived lack of experience (I won’t understand it so why should I waste time reading it?),
• A perceived lack of leverage (I won’t be able to change anything so why should I bother to ask?) (See Negotiating Power in Creative Contracts)
• A general faith in the decency of their business partners (Bob is my friend. Bob would never screw me with a bad contract, so why do I need to worry about it?)

            In some instances, an unread contract is signed and the world does not end. But information is power, even after the contract is executed. Creative people of all types can benefit from a thoughtful analysis of their existing contracts for three reasons.

1. Managing expectations: It is normal for an artist who gets a deal to expect to see a revenue stream begin to come in when his work gets released to the market. But the structure, timing and amount of payment can be controlled by different provisions of the agreement. Many contracts limit (or in some cases eliminate) your ability to get paid. If you understand this after the contract is signed, you’ll know when and if to expect some payment and you won’t put yourself in a financial hole waiting for money that might not come. (See Artistic Fantasy vs. Financial Reality)
2. Managing usage of the property: You may have created your story or song, but you might not have control over it depending on what the contract says. In addition, you might have signed away the underlying elements of the work, giving your business partner control over any sequels, spin offs and other derivative works. If you understand what you do and don’t control, you’ll know if you should focus your efforts on building that particular property or creating something else that you have more control over. (See Treat Your Art Like an Investment)
3. Understanding the process: Just because you sign one bad contract doesn’t mean you have to agree to the same detrimental terms with every project you do. If you use your bad contract as an educational experience, you can be better prepared to make a more lucrative deal for your next property. But you can’t avoid bad contract language if you don’t know what it is. Sitting down and coming to grips with your current deal will make you a better professional in the long run.

            I counsel my clients to understand all their contracts before they are signed, while they still have the ability to accept or reject the deal (See How to Turn Down a Bad Contract) , but there is value in understanding an existing agreement, even if you’re not in a position to change it. The worst thing you can do is make a bad situation worse by sticking your head in the sand. (See Don’t Wait Until It’s Too Late)

Have fun.

Gamal

P.S. On a completely different note, I’d like to share my own creative work with my clients and potential clients. You can get free samples of my Crime and Passion stories by visiting http://nightlifepublishing.nyc

PLEASE NOTE: THIS BLOG POST IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE A LICENSEING OR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ISSUE, DISCUSS IT WITH YOUR LEGAL ADVISOR OR CONTACT C3 at gamalhennessy@gmail.com FOR A FREE CONSULTATION.

How to Reject a Bad Contract

By Gamal Hennessy

An artist can spend years trying to land a deal with a publishing house or studio. They struggle to get exposure and often face waves of rejection before anyone is willing to even acknowledge their work. Unfortunately, this recognition can come at a price.

Many artists don’t read the contracts they sign. The ones who do, especially the ones who come to me for advice on contracts, find out they’ll be losing control of their art, giving up the potential to be paid for it or both (See How Artists Get Their Rights Stolen) Some of my clients sign those deals anyway for a lot of different reasons. Others decide to walk away and try to find a better deal.

Rejecting a bad contract makes good business sense, but there is a right way and a wrong way to turn down a deal. You can maintain your professional reputation and keep the lines of potential communication open if you follow these five steps:

1. Articulate your intentions: It does you no good to get a contract from a publisher and then never respond to them when you decide you won’t sign it. You are better off notifying the other side that you appreciate their interest in your work, but you can’t move forward with the terms they propose.
2. Blame your lawyer: In most instances, the person you’re dealing with will ask what the problem is with the contract. This is the perfect time to throw your lawyer under the bus. People hate lawyers more than zombies, Ebola and zombies with Ebola, so hiding behind us can’t make our reputation any worse. It can give both of you a convenient scapegoat so you can walk away from the deal without any negative feelings between you. This is just one more reason it makes sense to get a lawyer. (See Why Artists Need Lawyers)
3. Offer alternatives: Maybe you can’t sign their deal, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do business with them. They might be open to changing some of the contract language to make you more comfortable. They might even be willing to use a contract you provide instead. (This is rare, especially when one party has much more leverage than the other. See Negotiating Power in Creative Contracts). You might be able to do some freelance work for them that doesn’t put your own property at risk, or you might be able to work out another type of business deal with them. Most of these proposed alternatives won’t pan out, but you’ll never be able to explore the possibilities if you don’t ask the question.
4. Leave with dignity: Entertainment is a fairly small business. The minor person you deal with today might be the head of Disney tomorrow. The hot new artist this year could find himself without a deal next year. Don’t have a fit, throw a tantrum or make threats just because you don’t want to sign a bad deal. Don’t do it in person. Don’t do it over the phone. Please don’t use email to do it and for the love of everything don’t do it on Twitter. Just don’t do it. Thank them for their time, express your hopes for working with them in the future and walk away.
5. Go Back to Work: One bad contract isn’t the end of your career, especially if you didn’t sign it. You need to go back to your craft, keep pushing your work into the world and try and find the next deal. If one person was willing to take a chance on you, there could be others. But you can’t find them if you don’t look.

Signing the wrong deal can cost you thousands of dollars and control of your art. Rejecting the wrong deal the wrong way can cost you your reputation in the industry and the opportunity to work with someone else in the future. Stay friendly and professional and you can turn a bad contract into a learning experience. Just remember to blame your lawyer for everything.

Have fun.
Gamal

David v.s. Goliath: Negotiating Power in Creative Contracts

By Gamal Hennessy

When I analyze contracts for my clients, I point out all the language in the agreement that has been written to favor the publisher. I point out all the ways that contract clauses are used to limit their control over their work and their ability to make money. I offer them suggestions on how to make the contracts more equal and level the playing field. But I am aware that the terms of most of these deals will never be changed. As a comic book creator, you often must deal with the reality that you have little or no negotiating power relative to a publisher. Taking this fact into account will help you make decisions about what deals you will or will not get into and help you understand how they will impact your career.

Scarcity Breeds Power         

Publishers have to take the financial risk of releasing an unknown and unproven book. In order to mitigate this loss and to give themselves the potential for substantial revenue and control on the back end, many of them incorporate biased language into their contracts. Many creators sign those contracts because of their lack of influence.

It is easy to understand why comic creators normally have very little negotiating power. It boils down to supply and demand and market scarcity.

The publishers currently corner the market on supply. They control the means of production (printing) and direct distribution (comic shops, bookstores, online and digital) and often control secondary distribution (merchandise and media licensing)

The number of comic creators who want to gain access to the publishers supply is massive compared to the number of publishers. Who knows how many potential artists and writers are out there dreaming of getting their books in print, movies and games?

The scarcity of publishers relative to the abundance of creators produces a situation where publishers can afford to offer one sided deals. Every unknown creator who demands a superior deal can be rejected by the publisher because there are ten or twenty other creators willing to accept an inferior deal. Since the publisher is primarily looking for books to fill their publishing plan, one unknown book is just as valuable as any other from their perspective.

Options for Creators

In light of the reduced negotiating power that undiscovered creators have, does it make sense to push for a bigger deal for a creator owned project or page rate? Yes and no. While you might not be able to wrestle a six figure advance out of Marvel, there are options you can pursue to make the most of your work.

• Establish your reputation in the industry by taking on work for hire projects that will get you exposure for your skill without exposing the characters and story lines that you are saving for a creator owned work.
• Find a more flexible small press that will offer more reasonable terms for new creators.
• Explore self-publishing if only to increase your name recognition in the market.
• Accept the biased deal as a means of name recognition.

While none of these methods is a quick road to fame and fortune, they can boost your negotiating power over time. An unknown creator has almost no leverage with a publisher. A creator with a following who represents tens of thousands of copies sold per month can command lucrative exclusive contracts, back end participation deals and creator owned contracts that give them considerable revenue and control potential. The best analogy is the contract situation in professional football. As a player, you may not make very much on your first deal but once you prove yourself as a marquee player, your subsequent contracts can be huge.

Need to Understand Your Agreements

Whether you make the choice to accept a one sided deal, negotiate better term or walk away, you need to understand what the terms are for the deal you are being given. It might make sense to take a bad deal now if it will boost your career later. The key is making an informed decision about what you are doing. Whether you decide to use a service like mine or not, knowing what you are signing and why is key to building and leveraging your negotiating power.

Best

Gamal Hennessy

Success in the comics industry requires an understanding of the business, creative, and legal aspects of the medium.

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PLEASE NOTE: THIS BLOG POST IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE A LICENSEING OR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ISSUE, DISCUSS IT WITH YOUR LEGAL ADVISOR OR CONTACT C3 at gamalhennessy@gmail.com FOR A FREE CONSULTATION.

Will You Accept Your Assignment?

By Gamal Hennessy

Words in the legal world have different meanings than words in the real world. For example, most people define an assignment as a task, duty or responsibility given by one person to another person. In the world of contracts, an assignment is the transfer of contractual rights and obligations from one party to another party. In most contracts, references to assignments are buried deep in the back of the agreement when your eyes are already glazed over and skipping anything that doesn’t look like the signature line. But certain assignment language can turn a good deal into a bad one right before your eyes.

Musical Chairs

Imagine yourself as someone who makes comics. Also imagine yourself working hard to get your name out there at cons and online. You meet a small publisher and the two of you hit it off. He loves your work and offers you a deal. It’s not a great deal because it’s your first self-published project, but you take it anyway. Your book comes out and you’re as proud as a new born parent.

Your publisher treats you like gold. He goes beyond the language in the contract to support and promote your book. He reports sales on time and he even pays you. Your book and the other titles in his catalog start to get a lot of buzz. Hollywood starts knocking on the door. Suddenly, people are talking about TV, video games and even movies. Your publisher gets an offer for the entire company and he takes it. Now instead of being published by a small visionary publishing company, your book is swallowed up by a big vertically integrated conglomerate.

Your new publisher does not treat you like gold. Your contact at the central office has no idea who you are and isn’t interested in finding out. Your book is buried in an avalanche of content. The money stops. Your book becomes inventory for other media, but it is constantly pushed aside for higher profile properties. Your entire relationship with them is defined by the original unfair agreement and you want to take your book elsewhere.

That’s when you read the assignment clause of your contract and realize there’s a problem.

Types and Options

Assignment clauses boil down into two types; mutual and non-mutual.

• In mutual assignment, you or your publisher could assign your rights in the contract to someone else at a later date or neither of you can ever assign your rights to anyone.
• In a non-mutual type of assignment, only one of you has the right of assignment and the other side is stuck.

Publishers have a vested interest in being able to assign contracts. Their ability to sell their company is based in part on what is in the catalog. A company won’t be worth much if every title can walk out the door after a sale. Because of this and the inherent negotiating imbalance most artists have (See David vs. Goliath) many artists are not in a position to get a non-mutual assignment clause that goes their way. Many of them can’t even get a mutual assignment clause. Quite a few of them are stuck in a bad position.

Your Mission, If You Choose to Accept It…

The rights to catalogs change hands more often than you might think. Aspen Comics recently acquired the rights to Big Dog Ink. A few years back, DC acquired Wildstorm and integrated that entire universe into the New 52. In what is perhaps the largest catalog acquisition in recent memory, Disney bought Marvel and Star Wars. As comic properties become more lucrative (See Making Comics Isn’t Really About Comics Anymore) more publishers will see value in having catalogs they can assign.

Your response to this situation is threefold:

• Understand what kind of assignment clause you are dealing with and what options you have to walk away from a new publisher in the event of a sale
• Negotiate for the best overall contract you can get upfront
• Understand your long term success will be based on the language in your contract as much as, if not more than, your relationship with the publisher.

In some cases, you might want to have the rights to your book assigned to another company. Just understand the process and work to adapt the contracts you sign to the goals you have.

Have fun.

G

PLEASE NOTE: THIS BLOG POST IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE A LICENSEING OR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ISSUE, DISCUSS IT WITH YOUR LEGAL ADVISOR OR CONTACT C3 at gamalhennessy@gmail.com FOR A FREE CONSULTATION.

Understanding Comics Law: Don't Wait Until It's Too Late

By Gamal Hennessy

The most insightful thing I learned at this year’s New York Comic Con wasn’t at a professional panel or lecture. It happened at a random conversation on the show floor.

I was talking to Andy Schmidt, a former colleague at Marvel and founder of the professional education and publishing company Comics Experience. We talked about the new six week course he’d developed with entertainment attorney Joe Sergi called Comic Book Law for Creators. The workshop sounded like an amazing resource that writers and artists would be dying to get into. But Andy told me he had a hard time getting creators signed up. “A lot of them tell me they’re not ready to learn that part of the business, which really doesn’t make sense.”

I could only shake my head in response. I’m familiar with the mentality because I’ve seen it in my own practice. Writers and artists often spend so much time developing their craft and fighting to get their name out there to get that big break. But when their hard work pays off with publisher interest or some other opportunity, many of them don’t know how to protect their rights. Their big break turns into a painful lesson in contracts, licensing and intellectual property law.

Last year, I conducted a survey with the modest title “The Great Independent Comics Survey”. In that experiment, I found out that one in four independent creators lost some or all of the rights to their work as a result of licensing deals.  How many of these artists could have benefited from a course on the legal aspect of comics?

The answer is probably 100%

Trying to get into comics while ignoring the legal aspects is like jumping out of an airplane in mid-air and then deciding you need a parachute. It’s like climbing into the UFC octagon for a championship match and then deciding to learn how to fight. It’s like trying to get insurance for your house after it’s already on fire. You need to know the relationship between your business needs and your legal options to make the most of your opportunities and you need to know before success knocks on your door, not after. (See Treat Your Art Like an Investment)

Books like Words for Pictures and courses like Comic Law for Creators won’t eliminate the need for writers and artists to get legal help with their contracts (See Why Creators Need Lawyers). It will make them better consumers of professional services and better equipped to make informed decisions about how to pursue their careers. Making comics is like skydiving. It can be fun, but you’re probably going to need that parachute.

Have fun.
Gamal

Recommended Professional Panels for NY Comic Con 2014

If you work in comics (or you just enjoy comic culture) then events like New York Comic Con one of the high points of the year. It’s a place where professionals get a chance to network, connect with their fans, sell their work, be inspired, geek out and spend too much money on comics, toys, t-shirts and other random paraphernalia.

Cons are also a good source of information when it comes to managing and understanding your career. If you take advantage of the professional panels at NYCC, you have a chance to learn from people who can help you avoid mistakes and have more success. 

This is a list of the most interesting panels I've seen on the schedule at this point. There are a lot more than last year, which proves the growing popularity of professional panels at the Con. I can't vouch for the speakers or the quality of the presentations, but you might learn something at these panels to help your career and your ideas. My own willingness to attend these meetings and not stand on line to play FarCry 4 has to count for some type of endorsement.

Thursday October 9th

• 1:15 pm: Selling Your Comics to Hollywood
• 6:00 pm: Comixology Submit: The Future of Self-Publishing
• 7:15 pm: How to Succeed in Self-Publishing

Friday, October 10th

• 11:15 am: Landing a Publisher and Negotiating Publishing Deals
• 7:00 pm Make Comics Like a Pro: Breaking into the Industry

Saturday, October 11th

• 4:15 pm: Copyrights, Contracts and Comic Book Creators
• 7:15 pm : Collaborating in Comics

Sunday, October 12th

• 1:15 pm: Successfully Crowdfund Your Comic
• 5:00 pm: Protecting Your Ideas

I plan to write an essay about what Iearn at Comic Con, but nothing beats being there yourself if you can. If any of you are planning on attending NYCC and you'd like a meeting to discuss the rights of your book, please send an email and we can set something up. Also, I plan to be in Artist Alley on Thursday afternoon. If any of you have a booth, please let me know the number so I can try to stop by.

Otherwise, you can probably find me at the FarCry booth.

Have fun.
Gamal

A Last Minute Deal with Kirby Saves Marvel from the Supreme Court

Deadline Hollywood is reporting a settlement between Disney/ Marvel and the Kirby estate for the ownership and control of many of Marvel's flagship characters. I'll have a more in depth article about this next week, but my initial thought is the 11th hour deal might have saved Marvel and many other companies who rely on work for hire artists from the risk of costly re-negotiations and payouts down the road.

http://deadline.com/2014/09/jack-kirby-marvel-settlement-lawsuit-supreme-court-hearing-841711/ 

Have fun.

Gamal

Can We Have Too Many Comic Book Movies?

by Gamal Hennessy

Last week was typical in the new normal of comics based entertainment. The latest news from the new seasons of Agents of Shield, Arrow, Flash, and Gotham leaked across the internet. Hints about the new Daredevil Netflix series competed with news about the Powers, Lucifer and Supergirl TV shows (See Superhero TV Roundup). Deadpool got a launch date for his film and a plot synopsis was leaked for Age of Ultron. New comic news comes out almost every day in 2014. Where does it end, and what does this new world mean for the creators of this work?

The Reality TV Link

There was a time before the current “golden age” of television where unscripted or “reality” TV dominated the pop culture landscape. It began with experimental shows like MTV’s Real World and then expanded into things like Road Rules. A few years later, shows like Survivor, the Bachelor and American Idol became prime time staples. That prompted a flood of reality programming. The category got so big it had to develop subgenres to create differentiation. They had makeover shows, celebrity shows, and competition shows. Every network felt the need to jump into the category. Networks like the History Channel and Food Network created shows having little or nothing to do with the channel’s original purpose. The phenomenon became so big MTV itself morphed into a reality TV station. For all intents and purposes it abandoned music videos altogether.

The Tail That Wags the Dog

Consider the evolution of comics based entertainment over the past twenty five years. The success of films like Batman in 1989, Spider-Man in 2002 and the Avengers franchise in 2013 have made this genre of film one of the most financially successful genres in the history of movies. (See IMDB Highest Grossing Films of All Time). When you add the success of TV series like Smallville and Arrow to the equation, not to mention animated series like TMNT, Batman, Justice League and X-Men and you have a content avalanche that’s only gaining momentum. We’ve reached the point now where some universities are devoting college classes just to the comic book movie phenomenon (See New College Course for the Marvel Universe). The industry has come a long way from the sad days of films like Howard the Duck and Spawn.

But how far can this momentum take us? Consider this:

• Unlike reality TV, it will take more than a box office flop (or even a series of flops) to stop it. Green Lantern, Punisher and Ghost Rider taught us that.
• It won’t come from a lack of “A  List” characters. Iron Man wasn’t a household name before RDJ got to it and no one knew who Guardians were before last year.
• It’s not just a game for Marvel and DC, since Wanted, Sin City, Kick Ass and Walking Dead have shown independents can take their titles to the screen too.

Will comic film and television get their own awards category at some point? Which network will abandon its original mandate and become a comic entertainment channel? The questions seemed silly ten years ago. Now it doesn’t seem so farfetched. In the world of comic entertainment, comics are becoming the bottom priority, not the top (See Making Comics Isn’t Really about Comics Anymore)

Forward Thinking

What does all this mean for the aspiring writers and artists? I think there are three takeaways anyone in the industry should keep in mind as they build their careers:

• Opportunities beyond traditional comics are continuing to grow not just in terms of TV and film, but in the areas of video games, streaming video and other forms of entertainment
• While the chances of translating any given property into a mainstream market release is still rare, it is essential for creators to know and protect the rights they have in the comics they create
• The amount of quality entertainment coming into the marketplace can raise the bar across the industry and drive innovation in art and story quality.

We might be living in the golden age of comic entertainment, but it will take creative expansion and prudent business choices to keep the momentum going.

Have fun.

Gamal

PLEASE NOTE: THIS BLOG POST IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE A LICENSEING OR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ISSUE, DISCUSS IT WITH YOUR LEGAL ADVISOR OR CONTACT C3 AT gamalhennessy@gmail.com FOR A FREE CONSULTATION.

Artistic Fantasy vs. Financial Reality

By Gamal Hennessy

At some point, every artist needs to balance the relationship between their art and their finances. A musician might want to spend all her time practicing and performing, but if singing isn’t making her enough money to live, she might have to take an office job and spend less time with her music. A writer might want to create experimental work outside of the mainstream, but agents and publishers might push for a YA or historical romance, because the market for those books already exists. When your bank account and your craft pull you in different directions, you have to make a choice about what you can and can’t do.

Independent artists have an additional layer of complexity when it comes to the relationship between financial and creative resources. Many of us have finance the production and marketing of our own projects. Not only are we trying to make enough money to have a home to live in and food to eat, we need to pay to get our work out into the world. The new era of digital distribution has made it much cheaper to release work, but it still isn’t free (See How Much Does It Cost to Publish a Book Anyway?) Successful projects will cover their costs and turn a profit (See Profit and Loss Statements for Independents) but it might take a book several years to recoup its production costs, and some books never turn a profit at all.

In the face of this reality, I realized I have a problem for my books. My publishing goal for the next four years is to release two books per year (See What is Your Publishing Plan?) This goal has two parts; the creative side where I have to write the book and the publishing side where I have to pay to get the book out. From a creative standpoint, things are going well. My second book for 2014 is done and so is my first novel for 2015. I’m 60% done with the first draft for my second book for 2015 too, which puts me ahead of schedule. As a writer, I’m very pleased with my pace and my progress.

As a publisher, things are not so great. Various circumstances (some positive and some negative) limit my ability to fund my second release of this year. I’m uneasy about the idea of crowdfunding (probably because I’ve never tried it) and the idea of pushing the release back six months throws off the momentum I’ve built with my core group of readers. As it stands now, I simply don’t have the financial resources to cover my artistic goals.

So I made a choice. The book I planned to release in October (See The Dark End of the Street) will be put on hold until I can figure out a new spot for it in the publishing plan. Maybe I’ll put it out in 2016. Maybe I’ll release it as a series of short stories to spread out the cost over a few releases. Maybe it will become the “lost undiscovered book” people get excited about after I’m dead and all my other books have become well known movies. Whatever, it will go in the can until I’m willing and able to release it properly.

I know this isn’t a major problem. Many writers struggle to get just one book out per year and many more aspiring writers never release more than one book. We all have to balance our creative goals with our real world resources. In my case, I hope this is just a minor detour on the writer’s road.

Have fun.

Gamal

When Artists Hire Artists

by Gamal Hennessy

The business of storytelling is evolving to take advantage of new technology and business models. It’s creating new opportunities to get stories in front of people by breaking down the old barriers to entry. Self-publishing and independent projects are growing at a record pace, thanks to digital distribution and micro niche marketing.

Creators are now in a better position to publish books on their own without traditional publishing houses to act as gate keepers. Some artists are releasing their own comics to build their reputation in the industry and break into the mainstream. Some writers are self-publishing their books to retain more profit and control. But with great power comes great responsibility (sorry, that was too tempting to leave out).

Artists and writers who used to be forced to sign a publisher’s work for hire agreement are now in a position where they need their own work for hire contracts to protect their rights. But what are the key elements that need to be in this kind of contract? How can you protect yourself in both the short term and the long haul? How can you be the type of creator other artists want to work with? When artists hire artists, they need to take care of their world, their defenses and their reputation.

Your World

When you create a story, you have the power to define what happens. When you have your own creative project, you have the power to define your relationship with your artists. The three key factors you need to deal with are:

• Defining the project: Spell out in as much detail as you can what the artist is working on, what kind of work they’ll be doing, when the work is due and how much they’re going to get paid.
• Owning the Services: Make it clear that your relationship with the artist is a work for hire. This means they aren’t going to have any ownership or control over the property itself or the underlying characters or stories they’re going to be working on.
• Own the use and distribution: Reserve the right to use any work the artist does for you in any and every way you can think of. You might only be planning to do a web comic now, but you don’t want to limit your options to do a deal with Netflix or whatever the next hot media turns out to be

Your Shield 

Producing your own book opens you up to a certain amount of risk. You could pay for work and never get the finished product. Your artist could deliver artwork done by someone else. There are all sorts of pitfalls in publishing, but certain terms in the contract can help protect you from trouble.

• Payment: If you tie payment to delivery of work, you are more likely to get the services you commissioned.
• Representations and Warranties: If your artist makes promises to protect you and your work, they’re less likely to screw you over because they’ve been put on notice
• Indemnification: If they do break their promises to you, an indemnity (just a fancy word for repayment) gives you the ability to resolve your dispute in a court (which is one place artists don’t want to go).

These protections are not perfect. People breach contracts all the time. But when all the terms and conditions are spelled out, people are more inclined to see you as a professional and treat you in a professional way.

Your Reputation

Clear and consistent contract terms will remove most of the confusion and doubt that comes with making a business deal. As more and more people do business with you and get exposure to your business practices, the better your reputation will be in the industry. The creative world of books and comics is a small one if you stay in the game for a while. A professional reputation as both an artist and a publisher can be just as critical to your long term success as your ability to write or draw.

Independent creators need to tailor each work for hire contract to fit each new creative project. Larger publishers work better with form agreements and economies of scale, but until your publishing evolves into that level, a custom agreement is probably your best bet.

Have fun.

Gamal

P.S. I’m going to be attending New York Comic Con on Thursday, October 9th, 2014. If you’re going to have a booth in Artist’s Alley or you’d like to set up a free consultation, please leave a comment and let me know.

PLEASE NOTE: THIS BLOG POST IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE A LICENSEING OR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ISSUE, DISCUSS IT WITH YOUR LEGAL ADVISOR OR CONTACT C3 AT gamalhennessy@gmail.com FOR A FREE CONSULTATION.