FAQ for artists
Evolving answers to some questions
(updated 5/3/23)
Basic Form of Agreement
I am licensing the artist’s images in order to publish in the formats listed here and on the website. That license is non-exclusive, and may be revoked at any time for note cards, posters and prints, and after the year of publication for calendars. In return for this license I pay the artist royalties as listed below.
The process of publication includes consultation with the artist, provision to the artist of a sample on publication, and best efforts to correct any errors or adjust print quality at the request of the artist.
Royalties
20% of net sales for calendars, note cards and books. 50% of net sales for poster prints.
Net sales means selling price less any platform fees less any uncollected shipping costs. In a store consignment relationship it is retail less the store’s percentage. In a store invoicing relationship, it is the wholesale or discounted wholesale price.
If I sell to a retail customer off the RMS website this is usually retail price.
If I sell to a store this is wholesale or discounted wholesale.
We have started dealing with museum shops this year; some of them want to sell on consignment and give say a 60:40 split or a 70:30 split. I calculate the same way I would wholesale at 50:50, it’s just that I am paying royalty on the 60 or the 70, instead of on the 50.
If I sell on Amazon this is their net payment after fees less the cost of shipping to the customer.
If I sell off Etsy this is retail minus 25% for fees minus shipping ( if the customer ordered more than $35 and got free shipping- I am rethinking this)
Payment
The basic principle is that I pay the artists when I get paid. This means that for a sale off the website, which includes a credit card payment, I pay the artist(s) then. If I ship to a store, invoice them, and get paid 30 days later, I pay when the store’s payment comes in.
I do a good job keeping current with payments and need improvement with the statements. That said, if I get an order for your stuff, you’ll know about it!
Also, and I don’t have a set policy here, I’m not paying small amounts, i let them accumulate, tell me where you would like your threshold and I should be able to adhere to it. That works pretty well with one artist, I send them a check every time they accumulate to $50 or more.
Commission
10 % of sales for managing a store relationship.
5% of sales for introducing Robert to a store relationship.
10% of sales for bringing a customer to the RMS website.
Ordering by you
If you email me with an order request I will charge retail less your royalty plus shipping. Or you can pickup at the studio.
If you order work through the website you will be charged 50% of retail. You will simply use the discount code ARTIST and get a 50% discount. If you are ordering work that is only yours, you can use the discount code ARTISTONLY and receive wholesale less your royalty. That means 40% of retail list price.
If you order in quantity it is better than that. For example a 4x6 note card is listed with quantity pricing for single copy, 4 copies and 12 copies, with descending per unit costs. So, order a dozen copies of one of your note cards, take your ARTISTONLY discount and you end up paying about $1 each. )
This principle is being applied to all of the product categories- calendars, note cards, poster prints, and books (emerging)
You should know that for the stores I work with that I am offering them a 50% discount available for web ordering. It means that if they order a dozen copies of a note card via the web they are getting way below traditional wholesale of 50% of retail.
I don’t see any reason that we can’t coordinate respectfully so that this works for everyone. That’s because the relationships with those small retailers are personal relationships and can be worked out.
You should also know that I am slowly reducing my note card business. Basically I don’t have the time or energy to service local independent convenience stores that don’t have the time to place their orders online.
Selection
The basis of our working relationship is that I love your work, some of it, and that I have 20 years experience selling printed art (exclusively my own for 15 of those years) and about $10,000 worth of equipment that can make it cost effectively. This means that my efforts and especially this platform of the Robert Manz Studio offers to the world a portion of your work that I love and that you are willing to share with the world through my efforts and experience.
There is nothing exclusive about this relationship.
It is not my goal to carry all your work.
The economics of the relationship are that you need to feel it is a good income stream addition to the multiplicity of ways you seek reward as an artist and I need to feel rewarded for my creative and production efforts.
My benchmark number for this is 20%. As an artist you license your work on a non exclusive basis for agreed upon uses. You get a 20% royalty for that.
I in turn target a 20% profit margin on my efforts and equipment investment. I try to assess whether something is worth doing based on whether the paper ink space labor time and equipment costs. I value my creative, organizational and setup time at $50 per hour. I value my assembly, collating and shipping time at $15 per hour.
Payment of Royalty
I do my best to pay you when I get paid.
For shipments to stores, this can take up to a month.
For web orders this is usually right away if the art is all your images.
For orders that are split among artists, I will pay monthly on a statement.
If you provide me with a PayPal or Venmo account I will send you the money digitally right away. If you prefer, I can have my bank check payment service send you a check in the mail.
An alternative is that I can send you a payment monthly based on my best read of your royalty stream. The first best approximation might be 1/12 if what you were paid the previous year. I have been doing that this year with one artist and it seems to be working well.
This year I will do my best to provide monthly statements, May to December.
Calculation of Royalty
Royalty is 20% of the selling price.
for a note card this is the calculation
for a calendar in which all of the pictures are by the same artist, this is the calculation.
for a calendar in which there are pictures by multiple artists the calculation treats the cover as one month so, a total of 13 “months”, if you have images on 3 months and the cover, the calculation is 20% of 4/13 of the price.
For orders on RobertManzStudio.com “selling price” is the retail price.
For orders on Etsy this will be 75% of the retail price in 2023 because of their fee structure.
For orders on Amazon, this will be the “net proceeds” they send in their statement, less the shipping cost.
I will refine this as I get more experience with how these platforms are working.
Commissions
To stores at wholesale
On Calendars: 10%
On Note Cards 20%
On Posters - we are already 50:50. no additional commission.
So, if you want to build a relationship with a store, and have me ship and invoice, you will earn these commissions on sales to that store, whether or not the art is yours.
Now I realize that this raises a question about posters not your art…. have to think about that. I can think of a couple of solutions. Ask me if the situation arises and we will develop a policy.
on the RMS website
the commission is 10% on note cards and calendars. again, need to think about posters
on Amazon and Etsy sales
no commission.
Orders by the Artist
Please place your order on the website. On checkout use the discount code “artist” and you will receive a 60% discount from retail. This is equivalent to wholesale less the royalty.
Calendars: Please order six or more copies at a time to receive the discount.
Note Cards: please order in multiples of four per image for 4x6 and three copies per image for 5x7. I am revising the pricing so there is a deep discount on a dozen copies.
Posters: these are 50% of wholesale. So, a 24x18 poster, that retails for $45, is half of $22.50, or $11.25.
note: shipping is added to all of these. no charge for pickup at the studio :-))
~Robert