Creators VS Tapas - Being an Artist under contract by Tapas

[ratique]

They're worried that if something unexpected happens, like Tapas loses investors or suffers some kind of financial crisis and shuts down, then the IP they worked so hard on could become hostage to a company's bankruptcy proceedings.

I actually had this in my first draft of my post, but removed it. So here it is. In case of of Tapas' bankruptcy, the rights fall back to the artist. Make sure this is part of any contract you are given.

But it also sounds like some of what you've described doesn't apply to the Incubator.

Correct to a degree. As mentioned, every artist will have a vastly different contract depending on their work and needs.

The Incubator does not suggest that you're able to negotiate this aspect. In fact it says "If the idea of joint ownership isn’t comfortable with you, please don’t feel obligated to apply."

I'm not sure I have ever been in the position where I was going to sign a contract, and the other party specifically suggested that I have the option to negotiate. Yet I still did, because I would never sign a contract with clauses that make me fell uncomfortable. And neither should you.

The base idea of the incubator program is a shared IP. If you are completely opposed to this idea, then Tapas is unable to have the potential to one day make the money back they are spending on you and have no reason to invest time in selling your story.

[daniellekoste]

I wanted to chime in and answer that this depends entirely on your contract. If you make your comic exclusive to Tapas then posting it elsewhere would be a breach of contract, but not all premium content is tapas exclusive and that's something that will be sorted during signing

[Lunnaria-Shirayuri]

I don't feel confortable with a contract more because I like working at my own pace.
Having to make a certain quantity of pages/panels for a update would be too much stress for me and for my partner.
But this is very informative and helpful~!

[GoldenPlume]

I'm currently under contract with Tapas, that means I'm inherently biased.

We're not under contract with Tapas, so we're not biased at all.

The issue with the annual Twitter rant is people are largely uninformed with how the industry works. Unfortunately some individuals believe everything they read on Twitter.

The reality is webcomics are expensive to make. VERY expensive to make. We've been at it for two years now and we're looking at a huge hole we most likely will never climb out of. LINE Webtoons can afford to throw around millions like no tomorrow because they can. Webtoons is the one zebra in the herd of horses. Meanwhile Tapas is like the rest of the publishing herd. It has a finite amount of money. They have investors they have to answer to. There's no way they can pay creators and have no rights. They have to have some way of making ends meet. Tapas and Webtoons is apples and oranges.

We pay our artists for all rights (exclusive, worldwide, forever). An artist gets $X for their page and that's it. If we are ever profitable we plan to pay a percentage of net but all our artists are aware $X is likely all they will ever get. We pay them what they ask to be paid. They are fine with that.

Every artist values their work differently. For one cover commission we received quotes between $150 to $2,500. Just because one artist wants $2,500 and a company ends up commissioning the cover for $500, doesn't mean that company is evil. It's a global free market.

If Tapas wants to pay X to a creator for 50% ownership for a set period of time, a creator can either take it or not. No one is forcing them. The issue with TokyoPop is that they had "forever" contracts. There was no rights reversion clause. Creators, always get a rights reversion clause if you are doing anything joint ownership.

A creator can and should negotiate all aspects of their contract including pay and rights reversion. If both parties can't come to an agreement then they should walk away politely as professionals should. The real estate industry is full of low ball offers, fine print, and buyers/sellers who walk away. Publishing is no different.

A lot of the time exposure/reach is inversely proportional to royalties. If you are the lucky one in ten thousand who ends up with a huge publishing house like Yen Press where you can sell 250,000 units, all you may end up getting is 10% of the cover price. Also, Yen Press is going to have all rights for X years.

If you end up at a small publishing house like Alterna Comics, where you get to keep all rights, you're going to end up with 80% of net on 7,000 units.

Which is better, 80% net of 7,000 units selling for $1.50, or 10% gross of 250,000 units selling at $15?

Basically the bigger and better and more influential the publisher is the less and less you can expect to get in royalties (after advance) and rights. But the flip side the more and more sales and reach you will receive though publisher marketing power. Yen Press will have your comic for sale at Anime Expo to potentially reach 110,000+ more readers. Iron Circus will not.

Creators, you can't have your cake (all rights) and eat it too (100% royalties) if you expect to be paid by a publisher to create. It's a give and take.

The reality in publishing is that most everything never earns out its advance. 80% of books are a flop. 15% break even, 5% are bestsellers that carry the rest of the industry. Comics are no different. Publishers make a best guess on what they think the next big thing will be and roll the dice. Sometimes they win, sometimes they lose. Either way the creator gets their advance. If you want all the rights then you need to take all the risk (time and money) and hope you aren't the 80%.

In closing, everyone considering pursuing a webcomic professionally should take 20 to 40 hours to learn how the industry works. It will save you and everyone else a lot of time and Twitter ache.

Biggest gripe is the high share both Tapas and I have to give over to 3rd party companies like the Apple store. They take their share and it is substantial.

Considering that retailers like Best Buy and Costco sell Google Play and iTunes gift cards sometimes as low as 84 cents on the dollar, Google and Apple have to recoup their margins somewhere.

For example, $100 Google Play gift card for $84, then put on a 2x rewards credit card ends up netting about $80. So Google/Apple have to take 20% just to break even. Hence this is why you see them taking 25%+.