Royalties or not?

[Wassdeet]

CA

I'm about to fund thru crowdfunding my travel book. It consists of 20 separate stories I wrote while traveling through U.S. and Canada for the last 40 yrs. I decided to get a sketch artist to put a separate sketch at the beginning of 13 stories, of which each represents that story.

So - I will pay the artist for her work while I will spend most of the balance for a formatting expert and someone to create the front and back cover. They will be paid off the first money also, hopefully. Then it goes to Amazon publishing.

The question came up; does the artist also get royalties on the books seeing that she is paid off the front? Some people say that she shouldn't get it as she has been paid, while I can only hope that someone buys my book after the previous works I mentioned.

I can also suggest she take her choice, payment now or hopefully get payment later.

 

[justalayman]

Well, ya have some issues you don't understand.

Unless the artist transfers the copyrights of the art to you, she owns the rights to the work and you would be licensing the rights from her. In either situation (transfer of rights or licensing) you need to have this in a written agreement. What the artist is paid is based on whatever contract the two of you enter into.

The time to hammer out a contract is well before you print the book.

 

[quincy]

CA

I'm about to fund thru crowdfunding my travel book. It consists of 20 separate stories I wrote while traveling through U.S. and Canada for the last 40 yrs. I decided to get a sketch artist to put a separate sketch at the beginning of 13 stories, of which each represents that story.

So - I will pay the artist for her work while I will spend most of the balance for a formatting expert and someone to create the front and back cover. They will be paid off the first money also, hopefully. Then it goes to Amazon publishing.

The question came up; does the artist also get royalties on the books seeing that she is paid off the front? Some people say that she shouldn't get it as she has been paid, while I can only hope that someone buys my book after the previous works I mentioned.

I can also suggest she take her choice, payment now or hopefully get payment later.

I agree with justalayman that your contract with the artist will determine how you can use the sketches and how the artist will be paid for their use.

The artist can transfer all copyrights to the sketches to you, being paid a flat fee for these rights, which can often be easiest. You become the new copyright owner with this transfer. Any transfer of rights should be recorded with the copyright office.

Or the artist can license rights in the work to you for a fee or for a percentage of sales, with royalties accruing once your book starts to sell. You have to determine whether the royalties will be paid on the list price or on net receipts and what the royalty rates will be. Good records must be kept.

There are various ways a license can be structured. A license can allow for only certain exclusive or nonexclusive rights to be granted to you. With a license, the artist could still retain rights in the works, granting you, for example, a limited use of the sketches for your book only.

How the artist is paid, in other words, depends on what the agreement is that you and the artist make. Any agreement should be carefully crafted to meet both your wants and needs and the wants and needs of the artist.

I recommend you have an attorney draft any agreement between you and the artist so that all issues are addressed properly. I also recommend you have a publishing law professional review your book's text to best ensure you do not run into any legal issues there.

Good luck, Wassdeet.