royalties

[art4ul]

I'm about to enter into a business deal and was asked if I wanted royalties or be paid outright for the pieces. The pieces are not of my design. I would be recieving designs to sculpt school mascots. Should I consider getting royalties? :confused:

[Araich]

Without knowing the fine details, I would say that you should only be paid for the work done. That is, paid upfront for your time and expenses.
Do you have more info? What are they for, where will they end up, are they being widely published as images etc.

[fritchie]

It sounds to me like you might be producing 3D works from 2D designs, and the company may expect to make many copies of your work, with school name, mascot name, and so on altered for each school. In this case, you want to think about the company, your own background, reputation, skill level, and so on.

You might want to be paid in full for time, etc., for some first number of pieces, with the right to renegotiate later if you choose. If you ask for royalties, you certainly will get less up front.

If I am assessing the context correctly, this is a little like the difference between George Lucas choosing more or less unknown actors for the first Star Wars movie, and Harrison Ford using his own name value in signing later contracts. (By the way, Star Wars I made so very much money, Lucas did voluntarily and retroactively assign royalty payments to the principal actors, I believe. Good guys really do win on occasion.)