Last year I got a delightful email out of the blue from an American lady called Mrs Duck (for real!) who is starting up a small business making her own recipe of hot and chilli sauces.
She’d come across an illustration I did back in 2006 called Devil Duck which fortuitously was the exact same name she come up with for her sauces, what with them being as hot as Hell and her name being Duck. Makes sense.

She was interested in acquiring the rights to use my illustration on the labels of her sauces but being a fledgeling enterprise had very little spare cash to throw my way in recompense. I agreed with her at the time that she could use the image for a while till she got started then we’d discuss it again.

Yesterday I got another email from her. The time has come where she wants to ‘go live’ with her products and we need again to discuss the purchase of the rights to the image. Now I’m in a bit of a pickle. I know what the going rate is for this kind of thing and I really don’t think she’d go for it. Especially with how weak the dollar is at the moment, if I ask for sensible money in pounds sterling it’s going to be megabucks on her side of the pond.

So do I sell myself short and let her have it for a pittance just to get my artwork seen? or do I hold out for proper money and risk losing the deal altogether? It’s a problem, and no mistake.