S2E6: Overcoming the fear of releasing your art files for licensing

Today I'm answering a question I got on Threads: how to get over the fear of releasing your high-resolution files?

It's a common fear among many artists, one I've experienced myself. In this episode, I'm going to share 4 things that have helped me overcome this fear: doing your due diligence, legally protecting yourself with a contract, trusting your judgment, and gaining confidence through multiple positive experiences. Let's dig in!

00:12 The Fear of Releasing High-Resolution Files
01:33 Personal Experiences with Art Theft
02:59 Four Steps to Confidently Release Your Files
03:25 Step 1: Doing Your Due Diligence
05:41 Step 2: Protecting Yourself with a Contract
07:39 Step 3: Trusting Your Judgment
08:18 Step 4: Gaining Confidence Through Experience

Resources

May contain affiliate links. I will get a small commission, at no cost to you. I only recommend things I have used or genuinely believe will help your journey.

Pre-made and easy-to-customize contracts for artists

• For releasing art files
• For art commissions

Take the next step

If you're curious about licensing your art, I have two fun guides that help you explore different paths.

• How to License Your Art to Hotels
• License Your Art to Movies

Follow me

• Threads: @thequietlythrivingartist
• Substack: @thequietlthrivingartist

Transcript

[00:00:00] Welcome to another episode of the Quietly Thriving Artist. I'm your host, Patricia Vargas, and today we're gonna talk about a question that I received on Threads about a month or so ago. So someone asked, “How do you let go of the fear of releasing your files?” And I can absolutely relate to this question because it's definitely a fear that I had early on in my licensing career.

[00:00:25] “Like, 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?” It's a legit concern because your high-resolution files are your golden goose. You can do so much with them. You can make prints, you can make merch. They just open up a world of possibilities for you and your art, and when you start to license them for the very first time, it can feel like you're losing this direct control over how, when, and where they're used.

[00:00:57] Even if you have contracts and agreements, which we'll talk more about in a second, but there's still this feeling of vulnerability because, in essence, they really are vulnerable assets. They can easily be copied. They can easily be transferred. They can be used without your knowledge because there's no way to track how someone is using that file.

[00:01:19] And that part can feel scary, and it's natural for your mama or papa bear instincts to kick in and want to protect them as much as possible. Especially if you've had your work stolen in the past. I know that I have, I know tons of artists have probably experienced this, and you know, it's a really devastating feeling when you find unauthorized use of your art floating around the internet.

[00:01:46] So, like I said, this has happened to me so many times. Like people have downloaded my product images and then made products out of them. Or sometimes they'll just pull them off of Google or Pinterest or something, you know. Thankfully those are low-resolution files, and whatever products they make out of that is gonna look absolutely terrible.

[00:02:05] But that experience makes me extra protective of my high-resolution vi. And when I started licensing them to other companies, I did feel this sort of reluctance, or resistance to letting them go. I was scared that people were gonna take advantage of me, and I think that a lot of that fear stemmed from not knowing or not yet fully feeling confident in the process of licensing.

[00:02:33] Once I started doing it more, I learned what to look out for and how to determine what opportunities and companies were right for me. And I think that really helped minimize that fear. And I hope that this episode sheds some light on the process so that you can feel more confident in taking on licensing opportunities because we can't let fear hold us back from doing some amazing things with our art.

[00:02:59] Okay, so in my opinion, there are four things that have helped me feel more confident and comfortable with releasing my files. One is doing your due diligence. Two is protecting yourself with a contract. Three, trusting your judgment, and four, having multiple good experiences. So let's dive into each one.

[00:03:25] So first, you don't want to hand over your files to just anyone. You want to make sure that they are trustworthy. And so the first thing that I do whenever I receive an inquiry from someone new is that I put on my detective hat and I start poking around the internet and see what I find out about them.

[00:03:47] So I'm gonna do my due diligence, and I want to make sure that they're legit, and not only the company itself, but also the person who is contacting me. So I Google their name. I don't ever click on anything that's in their email. I always Google it first, and then I see what comes up. Does their website look legit?

[00:04:07] Who are their clients? Do their projects look legit? Are they overall giving a good professional vibe? And in my licensing guide, I have two training videos that walk you through exactly how I vet my companies. So after I look at their website, I also look at the results page on Google and see if there's any bad press or scandals surrounding the company.

[00:04:28] You also want to see if there are any artist forums, warning artists to stay away from them. You just wanna make sure that there's nothing bad happening with that company. But like I said, you also wanna vet the actual person who is emailing you, so you wanna make sure that they actually work for the company.

[00:04:49] And one dead giveaway for me that would make me really suspicious of someone is if their email address ends with like @Gmail or @Yahoo or some other non-branded email. So their email address should end with @the name of their company. So if the name of the company is like art consultant.com, then it should be stacey@artconsultant.com.

[00:05:15] It shouldn't be stacey@gmail.com. Like I said, those kinds of things are what would make me feel suspicious about them not being a legitimate company. And if at any point in your research you start to get this sneaking suspicion that they might not be legit, then I would probably suggest proceeding with caution.

[00:05:38] But let's move on to point number two. So let's say that you've done your due diligence and they don't look like scammers, and this inquiry is a legit opportunity. Then the next step would be to legally protect yourself. So you're going to want to have a contract. Either you're providing the contract, or they're providing the contract.

[00:06:01] Doesn't matter who's providing the contract, but you wanna make sure that there is a contract involved and that it is signed by both parties before you send anything. Never send anything without signing the contract and having them countersign it. And it’s even better if they also pay. Though some art consultants have a delayed payment schedule, so that sometimes isn't always possible.

[00:06:27] But like I said, a contract is the norm no matter what. If they tell you like, “Oh, we don't need to send a contract. Like, you know, we'll just agree through this email”. Like, no, it needs to be signed and dated. Because a good contract or agreement exists to protect both parties. It shouldn't just be one-sided.

[00:06:47] And I talk more about what's generally included in a contract with art consultants inside of my guide. 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. When you have something in writing, signed and dated, that is legally binding.

[00:07:10] And if they want to use your artwork for some other purpose or for some other quantity or whatever, then you would both need to sign a brand new contract, and they would need to pay you again. So having a contract or agreement and knowing that you can do something about it, if they breach, it feels really reassuring.

[00:07:33] It just feels like having this safety net over your artwork. Okay. And the next one is trusting that you've made the right decision to work with this company. So, trusting that you have vetted these people to the best of your abilities, trusting that this opportunity overall feels good, even though you might feel nervous.

[00:07:56] But like for the most part, you should feel mostly excited. The more that you learn to trust your gut, the better you'll be at making decisions, and not just for releasing your files, but really just for any business purposes. So learn to trust your judgment. Learn to distinguish what is a genuine fear and what is just nervousness because it's something new.

[00:08:18] Alright, this brings me to the last point, which is having multiple good experiences. So releasing your files is like working out a muscle. The more that you do it and the more good experiences that you have doing it, the easier it will become to release your files. Because you'll see that not everyone's trying to take advantage of you, that these opportunities can be

[00:08:43] amazing and bring you a lot of success, and that can start to outweigh the fear. And at this point in my career, I really don't have that kind of fear of releasing my files to the right people. And you could even say that I'm at the opposite end of that spectrum. Whenever a new consultant wants to license my artwork, I get super excited because I'm confident now in my process.

[00:09:08] I'm confident in my ability to discern who is and who is not right for me, and I'm much more confident in trusting my intuition. But all of that has come through doing multiple projects again and again and again. And each time that I did it, I felt just a little bit more comfortable. I was able to trust myself just a little bit more.

[00:09:28] And knock on wood, to this day, at least to my knowledge, no consultant has ever reached the contract and created unauthorized prints of my art. So it may feel a little bit, or maybe a lot a bit uncomfortable to release your files at first, but it will get better over time. Okay, so if you're ready to take the next steps to license your artwork to hotels, I do have a beginner's guide that gives you a grand overview of how it all works, how to find and vet art consultants, and what you will need to get started on this journey.

[00:10:04] You can find a link to it in the show notes. Alright, that is it for me. I hope that you have enjoyed this episode. If you did, please consider subscribing or sharing it with a fellow artist, and I will see you over in the next one.