Rights and Royalties for Illustrators

We champion our artists’ work from their roughs all the way through every level of rights exploitation that we assess to be appropriate for them. Although a given for any agency, we vet every contract for every job we agree for our artists and authors and add value to their contract, from not only a financial perspective but from a creator’s intellectual property and moral rights position.

From the point of signing and onboarding a new artist or author into the Bright family, we strive to provide solid practical advice and support for our artists not just in relation to their artwork but across every other aspect of our representation of them. We aim to ensure that our artists retain more creative control and receive greater respect for their rights and how those rights are exploited whether by a publisher or a film or television production company. Ultimately what’s best for our artists is best for Bright and that is all part of the Bright vision.

Our main aim is to make a contract work harder for each of our artists and authors. Both in terms of the rights we license for an artist and the royalty rates we obtain for those rights in the first instance.

“Bright’s position in the global arena, agenting across commercial, publishing, licensing and media, with a phenomenal share of the publishing market, gives us the real edge that artists, illustrators and authors need today. We share our collective knowledge and expertise and initiate, negotiate and gain more for our artists: greater income, greater exposure, greater opportunities.” - Bright CEO and Founder, Vicki Willden-Lebrecht

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What are rights?

A creator has both economic and moral rights in their work. Economic rights cover the various ways in which a creator’s work, be it artwork and/or text, is used and the financial payment made in exchange for that use. In the publishing and art licensing industries, where publishers acquire rights in an artists’ work in order to publish them in various formats, namely books and ebooks, they may also sell subsidiary rights in the work, such as foreign language rights or TV/film rights.

What are Royalties?

Royalties are a sum paid to a creator for each use of their work in various editions or formats, such as a payment for each print copy of a book sold. Subsidiary rights royalties are payment for the licensing and use of the work in formats following on from the original work, such as a translation, a radio reading or merchandise.

Selling Foreign and Film Rights

If your contract includes these rights with strong royalty rates, then yes, money can be made by selling foreign and film rights.

Books and co-editions for a title or an advance and royalty basis: For every foreign territory that your publishers sell your book in, you will earn more money on your co-edition or translation rights royalties.

For translation rights deals you will get an advance sum from each foreign publisher/territory, with the possibility of more royalties should the book sell well in that market. For co-editions with foreign publishers, the English language publisher will usually negotiate sales of copies up front with a co-ed publisher on a price per copy basis, and again this will translate into royalty earnings for you based on the co-edition rate in your contract.

Being able to sell your work across different markets and multiple languages is invaluable for any artist - not just in expanding your audience and increasing exposure for you and your work, but in building your profile internationally, as well as financially rewarding you with royalty income across multiple territories.

Film and Media

If a production company or producer wants to acquire your television or film rights, they would have to pay for these rights. In the first instance they would most likely offer to ‘option’ your book, meaning that they buy the film rights temporarily in exchange for a limited amount of money. Once these rights are optioned they will pitch it to television/film studios to reach the next step in development: a full television or film deal, with a contract and financial gain that would reflect that. We champion the respect for an artist’s creative control and ensure that is retained.

We are continuing to make sure our updated and improved deal offer memos and contract negotiation processes are in place. This enables these rights to be licensed effectively, and all rights opportunities to be commercially maximised.

Of these rights retained, we are always exploring ways to make them reach their full potential. Agents simply can’t wait for the phone to ring! It is our job to make these opportunities happen and inspire joint ventures; forging partnerships with production companies; working directly with broadcasters and championing our content to the next stage.

A Key Note

Due to the nature of the illustration industry, certain client sectors outside of trade publishing may not offer royalties, only flat fees and their contracts may be Copyright Assignment or Work For Hire rather than exclusive licences, so an agent will discuss these matters with an artist prior to them agreeing to accept any such project.

If an artist chooses to accept a flat fee project, our team will always negotiate the best possible fee.

If an artist’s contract includes royalty rates, we’ll ensure we secure the best rates for that client and type of project.

The Royalties Process

A Final Note

“Agents have the support of one key person in the Contracts Manager. This allows them to focus on the artist and their work, and in finding the right jobs and clients — thereby enabling the contracts team to oversee the minutiae of the contract itself, and cementing the deal terms. We have built a business that ensures our artists have strong contracts management that creatively and securely licenses the rights in their work while protecting their IP and best commercial interests.” - Vicki Willden-Lebrecht

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