pixelperfectg

Ok, I can't be too specific with this question, so I apologize for that up front. I've had a hard enough time just figuring out basic pricing, now I have this to add to it:

Lets say that for a living you sell graphics to a company that uses them in a software program. We'll just use a floor plan of a building as an example. That floor plan is for a specific building, not multiple buildings. You sell the floor plan to the client for $200.00

Now let's say the company that you sold that floor plan to wants to create a library of pieces that will allow them to drag and drop the parts to make most of the floor plans they need. AND, they want to distribute this to all of their offices throughout the world. I don't have a problem making the library, but shouldn't it cost more than a regular one time graphic? If so, how much more? Or am I wrong in thinking it should cost more?

Thanks for any advice!

Jeff

Frosty

Royalties dude. Damn straight it should cost more.

__________________
Steve Shaw, M.Arch
www.crucialperception.com

trhoads

Absolutley, FROSTY has it right, roylaties, on a per use basis. that way you don't get screwed.

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pixelperfectg

So how would I calculate how much royalties should cost? I think they are looking for a flat fee, and that's it. I doubt they will sign a contract that will pay me based on royalties. And if by some odd chance they would, how would I truely know how many times these graphics were distributed? I would be relying on the company to have proper ethics? Kinda scary.

trhoads

If the distributor is looking for a flat fee, then you have to decide what it is worth to you, to sell the rights to that image, or plan, or whatever your goods are. The distributor will obvioulsy try to get as much out of you, for as little as possible. Then it is just a peronal call. Sorry, I know that is probably not much help.

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Ernest Burden

And neither do they get screwed if you are paid PER USE.

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Ernest Burden III
AcmeDigital
architectural rendering

pixelperfectg

Hmmm, good point Ernest. So I should possibly consider using my regular rates (say 200 per floor plan) and just add the per use stipulation?

In thinking about it that way though, it would probably cost them considerably more than what I had in mind for the flat fee. Do you think I should consider discounting my fee's for large scale distributions like this?

It's so difficult to figure up a fair price. Fair for me AND of course fair for them as well. This large project could lead into even larger ones so they are a very good customer for me.

Frosty

I would offer them a fair price to sell your rights to the products. The per use idea, as you stated, could get complicated and may scare them away. $200 per plan is not a fair price for something they stand to make a great deal of money on.

__________________
Steve Shaw, M.Arch
www.crucialperception.com

Eric

I think your initial fee of $200 is fare, so long as its fare to you, and you feel like it's sufficient for covering your costs to produce the product.

You should definitely be able to charge royalties, or at least a set fee based upon a "license" amount. Figure out how much you would like to sell each additional copy for. If the client doesn't want to pay an open-ended royalty, ask them how many workstations they plan to distribute the drawing to (5, 50, 5000, etc), and then give them a final number based on the amount of workstations. Perhaps 10% of your initial fee per "license"? That percentage will probably be discounted for the more "licenses" they buy.

I know some design firms are strictly against someone else making changes to graphics they create, even if it's a logo they created for a particular company. If the company wants to change the logo, they have to go back to the design firm for the changes, or probably pay an enourmous amount of money to purchase the rights to the graphic. This is essentially your situation if I understand you correctly. The client is going to take your work and make changes to it. They are basically not going to pay you any extra, so you have to sell them something extra to offset your loss.

Of course, your responses might be a little more informative if we knew exactly what type of product your selling and who you're selling it to. Selling software is entirely different than selling lemonade, for instance. If someone buys your lemonade and loves the taste, they may want the recipe. I guarantee you'd want to sell the recipe for 1000 times more than you sold the first cup to the guy for.

Anyway, enough babbling.

vizwhiz

and just who (pray Tell) is keeping Track
of The # of Times that This is being used

The Client ??

(probably NOT you)
just an idle Thought

Randy