How could/would this work?

Kent Brockman

I have done some pencil drawings for my kids that I scanned onto the PC ,edited and coloured with photoshop and got a graphics designer mate to enhance and print off.
Anyone who has seen them liked them and the Graphics guy has suggested I make prints, frame them and sell them .I have a few people interested (friends and family) and it seems like a good idea.
The prints would be for childrens bedrooms or playrooms.

My questions for the experts and experienced among you are:

If I advertise these (either on-line or by brochure), how do I stop somebody scanning or printing them off for themselves? (can you copywrite/patent a picture?)
How would I go about selling them? (the target market is parents, more likely mothers, and people who might want to buy a gift for a young child or babies room)
How would I know what to charge?

Interested in feedback as it appears I could shift a few judging by the initial reaction I'm getting)

PaulPinnacle

Kent Brockman wrote: »

1. If I advertise these (either on-line or by brochure), how do I stop somebody scanning or printing them off for themselves? (can you copywrite/patent a picture?)
2. How would I go about selling them? (the target market is parents, more likely mothers, and people who might want to buy a gift for a young child or babies room)
3. How would I know what to charge?

1. Even without any further steps, you already hold intellectual property rights on the images so have 'some' protection (in theory). Having said that, this (or having a copyright) means very very little in practise. You have no way of tracing/finding illegal reproductions of the work, so if someone chooses to copy it, well, you'll never know. I'd suggest that taking the time/effort to go down this path (or even investigating it) would be a fruitless task. You either never know about a breach, or on the tiny chance that you do find one the cost of pursuing it would be very prohibitive.

All you can do is to take a few logical steps to mitigate the risks. If selling them online, don't provide the images at a high quality/resolution without using a "SAMPLE" watermark for example. You could just use thumbnail images (with one 'full quality' to show the detail), but if people can't see the full image they'd be less likely to buy in my own opinion.

2. I'm not entirely sure what the 'product' is, so hard to comment on how to market it. Are you looking to sell colour prints (e.g. just a page with the image on it) or a framed picture? (I'd personally suggest taking it a stage further, if there is a market there, and offering the simple pencil drawings too as a 'colouring book' style thing for the kids. You already have the 'product', so no harm to 'use it'.)

A first step might be to contact one of the numerous online stores targeting this market. In the last few months I've seen a large number of 'baby' and 'novelty gift' sites pop up, so chatting to a number of them might give you some insights into the market. The same goes for any local stores that target the same sector you're aiming at.

3. When it comes to 'art', that's a hugely subjective question. The only way to be sure is to try selling them and see what price gives the best returns. You can investigate what competition is on the market at present and what their prices are, but as no two pieces are the same it only gives you a starting point.



By doing 2, you'd probably/possibly get a lot more insight into 3. Trying to get into the 'art' game isn't easy, but having the right niche could well make all the difference.

stcstc

as said above you own the copyright anyway

there are supposedly lots and lots of methods to stop online theft of images. none of them work perfectly. so there are a couple of options:
1. just accept that there will be a percentage of theft. just like there would be a shop even though they have security
2. dont put them online.if it bothers you that much, find other ways to sell them

as for the product

i do printing and framing for a lot of artists and photographers some sell a few some sell lots, but none of them enough to make them rich.

the trick is to find a bunch of ways to sell the products, ie framed colour prints, drawings, what about even wallpaper the kids could colour in?