4 things that can help you overcome your fear of releasing your art files for licensing

About a month or so ago, I received this question on Threads: “How do you let go of the fear of releasing your files?”

And I immediately connected with this question, because it was one I had early on in my licensing career. Along with “How do I know that they're not just gonna use my file for other stuff and make a bunch of money and then not pay me for it?”

Your high-resolution files are your golden goose. They allow you to create art prints and make various merchandise for your shop. It’s a versatile asset that can open up a world of opportunities for your art business.

The problem with licensing them is that they are also a vulnerable asset. They can easily be copied, transferred, or used without your knowledge because there’s no way to track how someone is using that file.

I’ve had people pull low-resolution images from my website, Pinterest, or Google, then turn them into products. I know this has happened to a ton of artists—maybe it has even happened to you.

It’s a devastating feeling to see unauthorized products made from your art floating around the internet.

And experiences like that have made me extra protective of my high-resolution files.

When I first started licensing my art, I felt resistance to letting them go because I was afraid people would take advantage of them.

Looking back, I think a lot of that fear stemmed from not feeling fully confident about navigating the licensing process. But once I started doing it more, I learned what to look out for and how to determine what opportunities were right for me, and that helped minimize the fear.

My intention with this post is to help you release that fear by sharing 4 things I've found useful.

1. Doing your due diligence

2. Protecting yourself with a contract

3. Trusting your judgement

4. Having multiple good experiences

Let’s dive into each one

Doing your due diligence

Whenever I receive a new inquiry from a potential licensee (aka someone who wants to license my art), I put on my detective hat and start researching the company and the person who sent the email.

I want to make sure that they are a legitimate, respectable company. I don’t want to hand over my files to just anyone.

This is what I look for:

• Does their website look legit and professional?

• Who are their clients? What do their clients have to say about them?

• On the Google results page, do I see any bad press about them or negative reviews or articles about the company?

• Have they been shady in the past? Are there any artist forums warning other artists to stay away from them?

I also want to research the person who emailed me and ensure they actually work there—a quick check on LinkedIn or the company's staff page can help with this.

Another thing I look at is their email address. Does it end with a branded email address? Meaning if the name of the company is, for example, artconsultant.com, does the email address look like name{at}artconsultant.com?

In my experience, no respectable company sends emails from {at}google.com or {at}yahoo.com. If it did, I would be super suspicious of them.

Seeing that they’re legit will help ease your mind and get you excited about the possible licensing opportunity.

If you need more help vetting your art consultants, I have two training videos in my guide.

Protecting yourself with a contract

Once you’ve determined that they’re not scammers and want to move forward with them, the next step would be to protect yourself and your art with a contract.

Never, ever, send anything without signing a contract and having it countersigned. Ideally, you should also be paid upfront, but some art consultants have delayed payment schedules, so that’s not always possible.

But a contract is a thousand percent standard practice! If they want you to just send the file without a contract, and without payment, run, my friend, because that’s not OK!

A good contract exists to protect both parties ableit for different reasons. I talk more about what’s generally included in a contract with consultants in my guide, but the main thing is that it should clearly state that they are using the art for a very specific purpose, and only for that purpose.

If they want to use it for another project, they legally have to draft a new contract (or you can send them one you have) and make an additional payment.

If they use your art for another project without another contract, it’s perfectly within your rights to take legal action for breach of contract.

Having a contract or agreement is like placing a safety net over your artwork, so please do not skip this step, even if it’s someone you “know”.

Trusting your judgement

If you decided to license your art with a certain company or consultant, you need to trust that you have vetted these people to the best of your abilities and that you’ve made the right decision to work with them.

On the flip side, don’t ignore any inklings or bad vibes that you’re picking up— that could be your intuition trying to save you from a terrible fiasco.

The tricky part is that these feelings can all blur into each other. So learn to distinguish what is a genuine fear and what is just nervousness because it’s something new. This is a valuable skill for any entrepreneur.

For example, if I feel a little nervous but for the most part feel excited, then I would move forward with a project. In my book, 20% nervous, 80% excited is good enough for me. And I remind myself that should anything go awry, that’s what the contract is for.

Having multiple good experiences

Releasing your files is like working out a muscle. The more you do it, and the more good experiences you have, the easier it will become to release your files.

They can help you see that not everyone’s trying to take advantage of you, and that these opportunities can be amazing and bring you a lot of success.

Each successful project that you work on will start to slowly (or quickly!) chip away at the fear.

At this point in my career, I no longer fear releasing my files to the right people. I’m now more confident in my ability to discern who is and who is not right for me. I’m more confident in trusting my intuition and judgement. And all of that has come through by saying yes to projects, again and again and again—even if I was a little nervous, but overall felt excited. As I said, it’s like working out a muscle.

Take it one project at a time

So it’s okay if you feel scared or nervous about releasing your files. It’s totally understandable, but don’t let those feelings become so great that they keep you from doing awesome things with your art.

Take it one step at a time, and you’ll see that with each new project, it will get just a little bit easier.

Warmly,
Patricia