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I posted the following from the Welcome message above. This is a thread dedicated to discussion about collaboration. How to find a collaborator, what to look for in one, and how to work with a creative partner.
It’s a place to ask questions and provide answers and feedback to ideas. I hope this is a very helpful thread for many people going forward.
From the WELCOME MESSAGE.
TYPES OF COLLABORATION AND BEST PRACTICES
Comics Experience is not and does not give legal advice. These are “best practices” and any deal you enter into or negotiate is done so at your own risk. Comics Experience recommends that you seek out legal council for any deals you enter into. For a full reading of our legal disclaimer, please click here.
There are essentially three types of collaboration:
1. Creator-Owned Partnership
In this form, all creators share ownership, and no money changes hands during production, only after something goes to market. These types of collaborations are common in the indy comics world. It means that two or more people co-own the work/project together and would enter into deals together.
2. Work-Made-For-Hire Partnership
In this form, one creator is paying another creator in a Work-Made-For-Hire scenario. In this case, the partners would have a written and signed agreement in which one creator pays the other creator for his/her work and ownership of the work is transferred 100% to the paying creator. This form of partnership is common by large companies who do not want to share ownership with individual creators — like Marvel or DC Comics.
3. Combination
In this form, there is some combination of the two above. There may be money changing hands as an advance, and due to this, the ownership structure (who owns what percent of what) may be different. This is common when one creator needs some income while working on the project, but still want to have “participation” in the project overall, as an example.
Figuring Out What Form of Collaboration is Right for You and Your Team:
Here are a few guidelines that may help you to reach an agreement more quickly.
1. THE GOAL OF ANY COLLABORATION is that all parties feel valued. The goal is to work in a relationship in which each party feels respected and a part of the process.
2. Ask questions. It may be better to ask what kind of deal someone is interested in or open to to get the conversation started.
3. Know your own limits. If there’s a point where a collaboration is a “deal breaker” for you, it’s good to know that going into a conversation, just so you know.
4. Think about what value you and your partner(s) all bring to the table as we all bring different skills and experience to the table. There is almost never a “one-size-fits-all” kind of deal.
5. Remember that there are three major “levers” to pull and adjust. As one goes down, one or both of the others will go up, so finding the right balance is important for the whole team. Those levers are: 1. Ownership Percentage 2. Upfront compensation 3. Time/Schedule. Beyond these, there are still a million details that can be adjusted and these categories can be sub-divided to death, but these are the big three, typically.
6. Just a suggestion–keep your deal as simple and straightforward as possible. Try not to do a whole lot of tricky accounting or ownership sub-divisions. They usually don’t matter a whole lot and will cause you and your partners to waste hours going over details that amount (often) to pennies.
Note: Comics Experience does not take part in any negotiations, and those should be handled outside of CE forums.
Comics Experience is not and does not give legal advice. These are “best practices” and any deal you enter into or negotiate is done so at your own risk. Comics Experience recommends that you seek out legal council for any deals you enter into. For a full reading of our legal disclaimer, please click here.
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