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CareerTalk Vicki Morgan & Gail Gaynin illustration by Guido Scarabottolo
VICKI AND GAIL ARE HIGHLY RESPECTED ARTIST REPRESENTATIVES WITH OVER 30 YEARS EXPERIENCE IN THE FIELD. LOCATED IN MANHATTAN THEY’RE FREQUENT GUEST SPEAKERS AT ART SCHOOLS AND PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS AND CURRENTLY SERVE OVER FORTY ILLUSTRATORS IN SIX COUNTRIES.
Building a Successful Illustration Career
There are many ways to market yourself and while most of us want to be commissioned to do original images there is often a call for
use of an image that has been used in a different context. And there are a number of ways to approach the issue of stock. Do you use
an agent? A website? Or sell the work yourself? A bigger issue is how do you feel about offering stock in the first place. As one illustrator
said to us, “All stock is not equal” nor is the level of artist involvement in the business transactions.
What method to use
Self-managed stock
When an image is needed on short notice and an art director
and artist have a working rapport, the AD may reach out to their
reliable source for an appropriate existing image. The transaction
is simple—there is no intermediary, secondary rights are being
bought directly from the artist. The artist negotiates the sale and
keeps 100% of the agreed-upon fee. And it helps reinforce the artist’s role as a reliable source for solving the client’s visual needs be
it a new assignment or with reuseable imagery.
Stock sites with artist involvement
Sites like Foliosearch—the stock
arm of Folioplanet—are especially
appropriate for those wanting
to display reusable work while
negotiating their own reuse fees
and rights. Artists post their own
pictures and invoice their sales.
Artists receive 100% of the sale.
www.folioplanet.com
Stock sites with an agent
Sites like Theispot Stock serve
illustrators who wish to have an
agent assist with the sale. The art director or art buyer needn’t
communicate with the agency or the artist, but can select a usage
fee, type of license and download images immediately. For more
complex uses, a representative negotiates terms and fees with the
client, while maintaining a dialog with the artist. Additionally,
they invoice the job and send the artist a copy of the transaction
with a check for 75% of the fee. www.theispot.com/stock
A word of caution, sites like Getty and Corbis do not allow the
artist to participate in decisions about their sales. Once you relinquish your image, you also relinquish control. And the artist’s
check reflects only 40% of the sale and is not accompanied by an
invoice attesting to the final sale price.
What do illustrators say?
We interviewed a cross-section of established illustrators about
stock sales. Responses ranged from “Why would any artist sell
stock? Am I Walmart?” to “I might as well derive a little income
from images that otherwise would languish on a hard drive”,
to another who actively creates imagery specifically for stock
to which he attributes 30% of his income. The nay-sayers fear
that artists have “shot themselves in the foot” and that “stock is
destroying the illustration business.” The opposing view is that “it
hardly put a dent in it.” A pro-stock mindset cultivates additional
income from illustrations that may have resale longevity. Resale
provides more exposure and serves as another way for work to
be seen by potential clients and the public. And it could lead to
a commission. One artist compared earning secondary use fees
to actors earning residuals and musicians earning royalties for
previously recorded performances. Successful illustrators charge
between 75% and 100% of what a new assignment fee would be.
What do art directors and art buyers think?
In speaking to editorial art directors in particular, it became
apparent that older ones still relish the traditional approach to
bring in an illustrator from the onset of a project. The tedium of
perusing hundreds of stock images
is not as fulfilling as collaborating
on an assignment. When there are
budget or time constraints they
prefer to turn to a favorite assignment artist for an image from their
personal archive.
That said, there is a trend among
younger art directors who weren’t
necessarily trained to interact
with illustrators to prefer going
through a stock house as that provides a more comfortable solution.
Inevitably, there are also those out there with small budgets that
turn to stock with the perception that it cost less. While this may
sometimes be true, the tendency among stock houses and illustrators is to try to keep reuse fees comparable to assignment fees.
How to have successful stock sales
So you’ve decided that stock is something you want to pursue,
the question becomes do you sell stock yourself or use one of the
stock sites? Keep in mind stock companies invest heavily in promotion to drive buyers to their online catalog. Their company’s
success is dependent on your sales and you benefit by their eagerness to please you. Here are some helpful tips in selling stock:
1) Convey the value to the client of being able to instantly use
your premium work without having to wait for the creative process, delays, and approvals. But know what rights are available.
2) Be proactive, research businesses that regularly license stock
imagery and create illustrations for their subject needs. Also
create stock reflecting current business and cultural concerns.
3) Update your postings and fulfill the broadest possible range of
requests by using comprehensive keywords.
Remember that you are in control of your business, your resale
rights and your integrity. Consider the choices and make your
own decision about having stock art sales as a facet of your business structure.