I'm sorry, but I just have to express my utter disgust and outrage over this issue.
Some of you may have received a PM from an account known as 'Quarto' saying:
Dear TheOtaku Username,
I'm writing to you in regards to a book that I'm currently working on called The Complete Guide to Drawing Manga, by Sonia Leong.
By way of introduction, my name is Sarah Bell and I run the picture desk here at Quarto Books. I'm contacting you to see if you would be interested in submitting examples of your work? I've just come across your portfolio on Otaku and I think your work would be perfect for this forthcoming title. We will be publishing world wide and you will receive a full credit and complimentary copy on publication. If this is of interest, please email me straight away on [email protected] for further information.
I hope you will accept our invitation and I hope to hear from you soon.
With kind regards,
Sarah
The following questions are left unanswered:
- "Is this commission based? If so, what percentage."
- "What rights as the creator of the provided work do I retain and what sort of credit or royalties would I receive?"
- "What sort of rights would you hold over the work?"
- "Will this be used in any other form. IE: Advertising, products, etc?"
- "Will there be a contract drawn up to clearly define the rights and ownership? And will I be able to retain a copy of said document for my own reference?"
Apparently, however, this had actually been cleared by none other than the site owner himself without the knowledge of site staff. This has lead me to anger, as it is INCREDIBLY unprofessional. Such solicitation of members is disgusting.
Offering artwork for commercial products is, essentially, a job in itself. So, why would you act or correspond any differently that what you would if you were applying for an interview? The same for the company. Imagine Walmart emailing you or messaging you over Facebook saying 'OHAI we need some people to work for us.' No. They would advertise either on their site via a recruitment page, or via a job site or advert.
I am genuinely disgusted by this. Not only am I now viewing said company with sheer contempt, but now I have lost respect for this site for allowing this sort of solicitation in the first place.
As a professional artist myself, I am aware of how these sorts of things work and the way they have worded this is sketchy. It holds no discussion of contract, or retained rights and, quite frankly, seems more like leeching for profit than anything else.
While credit will be given and a copy of said book will be provided, they leave no details of if said art will be used in other ways. Many people fall victim to this, hand over artwork and find out much later that it has been used in various things, including advertising, merchandise and other publications without discussion or royalties. Some companies also distribute said artwork to spider companies and they use them for their products and publications. So, should you have any dealings with such a company, be sure to get everything you do in writing and make sure you know your rights to said artwork and the full details of how it will be used.
