If you want a handout, say so from the start (mild)

This is pretty mild, but since I suspect that many others may have related rants that aren’t mild, I thought I’d put this in the Pit.

Has anyone done this to you? They hint around, dodge around, hoping for a freebie, but never actually come out and say it? It is annoying.

I just had an exchange of emails with someone like this. They wanted to use a graphic from one of my websites, for a print project. They wanted to publish it in some booklets. But they never hinted that they didn’t want to pay (though I suspected, since they carefully avoided any mention of money). It wasn’t until I actually gave them a price quote (a very reasonable one, I might add) that they finally admitted that they can’t/won’t pay.

There’s no harm in asking for a freebie (as long as you do it nicely) but it’s annoying to have to wring it out of someone. Also, when someone solicits an artist or craftsperson who (if I may be so modest) looks like they remotely have their shit together (aren’t completely inept), it is wise assume that they feel their work has some value, and to assume that they are in the habit of charging for their efforts. Hell, even if they look like a raging newbie, their time is still worth something, so don’t assume that they’ll be eager to give away freebies.

Though I don’t know if it was the case with this particular person, it is also annoying (and a little insulting) when people assume that you’ll be honored to give away your creative stuff (or your time) to them. “But I’ll give you credit!” “But you’ll get so much exposure!” (I’ve given this rant before.) Oh, spare me. I decide whether I want to give out freebies. (And yes, sometimes I do give freebies away.) And pardon me if I don’t believe the “exposure” line. Occasionally it works that way (and I get to decide when I think it’s going to work that way) but for the most part, you just want something for nothing and the so-called “exposure” you promise is going to get me exactly jack shit. It’s worthless to me.

I don’t understand why some people act all shocked and grieved and even insulted when the freebie they were hinting around for doesn’t materialize, and the person expects to (shudder!) get paid. Trust me, it’s not always that big of an “honor” to give something away for free, just because someone asks you for it.

While I agree it’s rude for them to assume you’d be honored to give your stuff away for free, the core of your rant seems to be that they said “Can I use this image in my booklet?” and left out the two words “for free”.

When I get a request from a person or a magazine to use my stuff, I assume that if they don’t mention money in the first email, they want to use it for free. They aren’t hinting or dodging; the fact that they didn’t mention money is itself an admission that they don’t want money to be involved. They sent the email for free, visited my web site for free, and downloaded the product for free (just as the guy was able to see the image on your site for free), so I don’t assume they’re talking about anything but free unless they say so explicitly.

You don’t have to wring it out of them. If you’re only willing to let someone use it if they pay, then that should be your first response; you shouldn’t assume that they’re offering to pay any more than they should assume you’re offering to give things away for free.

I don’t think the presumption that everyone who isn’t inept wants to charge for their work is applicable here - it’s possible (for all I know) that the booklet publisher isn’t making a cent from these booklets, and/or that he has already contacted other artists and gotten permission to use their work gratis. A lot of people on the internet are willing to let others use their work for free, especially if it’s not making the others any money.

Well, your experience is different from mine, because most people I encounter have no problem saying, “I can’t pay” if they indeed, can’t pay. They say this up front because they acknowledge that my work is worth something, but they just can’t pay, or can’t afford to pay.

Yeah, I think it is applicable. For one thing, what the booklet maker is making (or not making) on this project is meaningless to me. If they want to give their work away that’s their business. It has no bearing on what others may want to charge for their work. For instance, the free booklet maker shouldn’t assume or hope that he’d get a free print job, or free software to make the project, or free access to a computer. He probably expected or at least assumed that he might have to pay for these other services, and he should assume that he might not get my services for free either.

I see many photographers and artists sites—these sites don’t exist so that they can give stuff away (especially for print work), they have created their sites to promote their work and sell their work. I make no indication on my site that my graphics are available for free publication—in fact, I make the opposite very clear, on every page.

And a lot aren’t. Believe it or not, a lot of people create websites for a purpose other than just giving their stuff away.

But it’s art- you do it for love!!
(I hate that)

Well, I haven’t seen your site, so perhaps he should have gotten the message by whatever you’ve written there. And you did admit it was a weak rant, so I can’t be too hard on you. I just think it’s silly to complain that he didn’t mention “free” in his very first email.

Ca3799: Yes, I hate that too! I also think that this mindset is the driving force behind the “I want it for free” assumptions.

I realize that I should ammend a statement I made above: when pricing my work, it does matter what the client is using the work for to a certain extent. For instance, if George Lucas wanted me to design the next Star Wars movie poster (yeah, right), I’d charge a lot more than I’d charge for somebody’s small family project. But, the work is still work, and the reasoning, “Well, I’m not making any money off of it!” doesn’t mean squat. You shouldn’t assume that everyone else is also going to be willing to make nothing on your “free” project. Their time is worth something—show them some respect and at least acknowledge that fact.

And in my mind, this is especially true with print work. You usually need a high res graphic for print work, the low res one on the site won’t do (it would print too grainy or else be the size of a postage stamp). So to expect an artist to prepare a high res graphic for free? That’s a pretty big assumption.

Okay, fair enough. :slight_smile:

It was a weak-ish rant, because this person was polite and all. (But clueless.) But it brought up many memories of the common phenomenon of people asking artists for freebies.

From your OP it wasn’t clear that he was actually asking you to take your time to help him, or to prepare a higher resolution graphic. Did he ask for that? Or did he only ask for you to green-light something that he could do on his own, using the files available on your web site?

It’s unclear. But when I wrote back and said, “Well, you’re going to need a higher resolution graphic since it’s print” he didn’t correct me and say, “Oh, what you’ve got on the site is fine with me, would that make a difference in the price?” He just said, “never mind.”

And even if he did think the low-res graphic of the site was good enough, I wouldn’t have liked the idea (not that he would know that). I don’t want people printing my graphics out so they look like crap. (That’s something that is particular to me, but I doubt I’m the only one that feels that way.)

So what happened?

Did you let them have it free?

No! Had they wanted to use the web graphic only for a web site, I was prepared to let them use that for free, but not for print. The web graphic would have looked like shit in print, and I didn’t feel like preparing a high res graphic for them, so the deal’s off. (It was never on!)

Am I the only one who read the title to this thread and thought it said handjob, not handout?

Dunno. But I immediately flashed back to my days at Mickey Dee’s, when people would come in to “chat” with me or my co-workers and drape themselves bonelessly over the counter, in the vain hope that we’d hook them up with a free burger.

As if. We were all told that giving away so much as one fry meant instant dismissal. But we loved to see how long we could keep them there before they’d ask.

Just in case I ever need to know, what would the cost of a pencil sketch be for a print publication?

Rilchiam, it doesn’t surprise me that people do this in everything! Sheesh.

Blackclaw: pricing is hard to determine. But in my case, for a smallish (very small, very modest) print publication it might be something like $20 (for rights to use one of my existing sketches). For something original (not that the client would get the original sketch—just rights to publish it), it would be more. It would depend on the size of project, how challenging it was to do, etc.