Licensing deals: keep your rights with NamiComi FAIR
Success on NamiComi can bring offers to print, translate or adapt your comic. A good deal can change your career. A bad one can cost you your characters. NamiComi FAIR (Formal Agreement for Intellectual Rights) exists so you walk in prepared.
The six pillars of a fair deal
- You own your work. You license it, you don't sell it, and the copyright stays with you.
- Access to the records. Regular, detailed royalty statements, and the right to audit them.
- Specificity is king. A license names the format, language and territory, and it ends on a set date.
- No all-rights grabs. Watch for phrases like "any media now known or hereafter devised".
- No quicksand contracts. No option traps on your next work, and no cross-collateralization that uses one book's profits to cover another book's losses.
- Don't mess with the art. Your right to credit and to object to harmful edits stays intact.
Before you sign anything
Ask: Do they respect ownership? Can I hold them accountable? Are the rights narrow? Is anything locking me in? Am I a partner or a supplier?
If a publisher won't move on a pillar, talk to a lawyer or an agent, or walk away. Everything in a contract can be negotiated.
Get help
- Read the annotated templates on the FAIR page.
- Creators publishing on NamiComi can ask NamiComi to act as their agent at no cost. Email publishing@namicomi.com with the subject "Please act as my agent, NamiComi".
FAIR templates are a starting point, not legal advice. Have a lawyer or agent review any contract before you sign.