Overwhelmed With "licensing" Information....

anyone?

My advice goes against the house.... I say license through existing agencies that have the resources to handle the business. I pick partners who have experience, staff and most important - buyers.

I, too, was overwhelmed by the whole thing. So much so, that I gave up and don't bother with it.

Diane, definitely don't jump into licensing your work until you have gained enough practical information and you feel comfortable.

Edward brought up valid ideas based on experience.

Personally I am comfortable and profitable representing myself through my own website. Without a solid foundation in the business of licensing and limited use contracts being self represented could be a challenge. I would research this as much as possible before jumping in. Make certain you are earning your maximum potential

Have you tried the discussion board on Photo.net? How about the industry blogs over at Photoshelter.com

I agree with Edward. My work is licensed through a coupe of publishers who represent me.

Personally I'd rather pay a higher commission and have more sales and less paperwork. The commission here is 30%. For 50% I work with an agency that actively promotes its artists to the target industry. They attend industry trade shows, they send marketing materials to clients, they have a staff to answer the phone, they do image searches for their clients etc.

I don't know what the 30% cut here is for - maybe just image hosting?

I also with with an agency that takes 80% but they offer volume sales.

Thanks so much everyone for your input. I really appreciate it. I'll give it some more serious thought and do some more research.

Diane, let us know what type of licensing you are having requests for and we can give you some advice. We have self-licensed book covers, web page images, brochures, billboard murals, and ad pamphlets. We also have contracts with 2 licensing companies who have licensed our work for puzzles, yard signs, book inserts, and wholesale prints. We don't license our images for retail discount wall art sites even though we have had dozens of requests from all over the world. Those sites sell WAY too cheaply and pay the artists next to nothing.
Celebrate life, Debra and Dave

Thanks Debra and Dave...I'm thinking about puzzles, calendars, etc.

What a about commercial bulk sales? Has anyone had experience with hotels, healthcare, building management or anything like that?

I was ready to ask the same question as you Sharon, not sure where to get started in marketing work to those kinds of businesses.

I'd be interested in the commercial bulk sales, too. But, I have no idea where to start for that market?

DesignerPrints.com?

I do my own licensing. I make more money from my licenses than from my prints. I don't advertise, people just contact me and ask.

Diane, it appears that you haven't had anyone contact you about a specific image they want to license for a specific project, correct? You just want to get out there somehow to license your work. We really can't give you advice there. We have been contacted many times specifically for use of a specific image for different projects and also had several licensing companies want to use our body of work. We joined just two and we approve each deal they offer us, mostly for puzzles, yard signs, and other projects. We have over 2100 fine art images in our gallery here on FAA and have had many parties contact us for specific projects to use a specific image but have never gone out looking or promoting ourselves for use in licensing work. Our advice would probably be to just keep uploading quality work to your gallery here, be very active promoting it outside of this site, and hopefully, those licensing deals will come your way. If they do, we would be happy to give you some advice about specific deal pricing, etc.
And Edward is correct in suggesting DesignerPrints. We joined at the very start and have had several multiple sales from wholesale buyers. We hope it takes off more and more and that the companies that are allowed to join DP and given a discount code are truly qualified to get those precious discounts and make those multiple purchases. Several of the sales we have had through DP were for 70% discount which goes totally on the artist's portion, so it is quite the price reduction. Just recently, we had a buyer contact us through FAA for a discount code and we referred them to DP. They had purchased three 20" prints from us a year and 1/2 ago. About a week later, they purchased 6 large 36" prints, all with the discount of 70%, We hope they are committed to buying more than just every year and 1/2 but it does seem that they upgraded their purchase size since the larger prints cost less than the original 20" prints they had purchased without any discount.
Good luck with your projects and your art!
Celebrate life, Debra and Dave
www.CelebrateLifeGallery.com

Thank you so much for your input, Debra and Dave....and much congratulations on your success!

Can't mention names of other stock sites here, but I agree with what Edward said. I think it's better to go with a site that's already well established in the business, with infrastructure and marketing already in place.