Licensing your property

[Charles Gray]

I was talking with some published authors a while back, and they said that hving people option your IP, for games, TV, whatever, was becoming an ever bigger component of the business. One stressed that this isn't to get made into a movie-- that almost none ever do, but to have someone decide to keep your property "on reserve" so to speak, and generate a bit of extra revenue.
Has anyone ever done this? If so, what's involved? How do you let people know the property even exists?
Thanks!

[JoseFreitas]

I don't have any direct experience of this, but I've been working with comics artists and publishers who do this all the time.

As far as I have seen it, you need to either a) have something published that can catch the eye/has caught the eye of a producer or someone who specializes in trying to sell movie options (kind of a very specialized agent), or b) be able to pitch your work in some other way, which means perhaps knowing said agents or be known for solid work that might allow you to pitch an idea directly even before actually having published it previously in some medium.

Most normal options for movies in the comics industry sell for somewhere between 10,000$ and 30,000$ depending on how well known you are, how big the studio/producer/agent buying is, and how seriously he evaluates your chances of actually having the movie eventually done. This basically means the studio gets the right to sit on the IP for up to 2/3 years, and no one else can do anything with it. After this they may for an extension, or just allow the IPs rights for movies to revert to you.

Most studios buy ideas by the dozen, sometimes to just have them lying around in case something similar comes around (and they consolidate a bunch of projects together) or someone thinks "the time is right to do a super-rabbit movie" or something and one of the studio managers can actually look clever and say "why, we did option the best super-powered rabbit comic in the industry a year ago". Or something...

I would hazard that not even one in a hudred gets made, but the fact is that the comics industry has become hot for producers, who are looking at it as a source of cheap ideas for movies. Many publishers and some artists now sell their stuff on a regular basis, and sometimes it allows them to recover quite a lot of ther initial investment. If DC or anyone pays 1000$-2000$ a age for a three issues 22 pages comic, getting 30,000$ as an option (evne if it never makes it into a movie) means they have recovered half of the entire project's investment even before they start selling the comics.

If the movie actually ever gets done, the studio then has to actually BUY the IP and has to shell more money out - this is a completely different negotiation.

Hope this helps. Unfortunately, I wouldn't know where to begin selling an IP! :)

Best

José de Freitas
Portugal