Monday, February 21, 2011

The Rap About My BAD REP

the licensing world can be a jungle out there and one of my reps has turned out to be a shady character.  boy oh boy, this experience is pushing my growth process more than any assertiveness- training workshop ever could because she is my middle man for national and international companies with which i have contracts.
they're not all bad and untrustworthy like this one. i have 2 reps in the field and they are night and day. L is communicative, friendly, open, responsive, always timely with statements, checks and contracts, tells me to call her any time for any reason and is a true advocate for me. E is all things opposite and dealing with her is like walking on eggshells.  well, i finally broke the egg last week.  she owes me 2 checks from last quarters royalties which she has been dismissing and avoiding me on and when i sent her a friendly email telling her i found this to be discouraging she terminated our agreement.  great.  it was hard enough getting a response from her as a represented artist and i still have 2 years left on these contracts which means she'll owe me a total of 8 quarterly payments.  yikes, what a pickle i got myself into by trusting this woman, because in this world it all comes down to trust. on the other hand it feels liberating not to be tip toeing around her worrying about pissing her off in fear that she won't treat me fairly.  now i can feel free to directly state my position and expectations and assert my rights as a professional artist because she's clearly out of line.  this business aspect of being an artist is not the funnest part but i suppose it helps balance out our dreamy, right brain and helps us develop other aspects to our personalities. i'm just going with it, though it makes me shaky and nervous, i'm not just going to forget it and let it go like she thinks i will.  i'm sure she believes me to be incapable of standing my ground because by not asserting myself previously i was giving her permission to treat me badly.  not any more!
i think in the end L is going to do great things in the licensing world because we have a cooperative and balanced alliance and those are the only kind to make true success happen.  we are working together in a beautiful way wanting to help each other.  i will have a big display at the surtex trade show in NY this may.  i'm sending her some of my fabric so she can make pillows for the booth.  it's fun working with her and that's the  only way it should be.
here are a few of the images E licensed that will be phased out for now~





there are many more but all i have time to load this very busy monday morning.  thanks for allowing me to get this off my chest here~ staying in the love~

2 comments:

Peter Roberts said...

Keep your head up Erin! The business world is full of sharks. I like my shark barbecued with a nice teriyaki glaze.

Erin Williams Watercolors said...

yum yum, i'll have to come up with a good recipe