OVS - Damn your Eyes... Franchise!

It seems to me, as I rather (it really is no secret) unprofitably produce my games and comics, that what I should be looking for is a marketable concept or character, which can become a franchise.

A franchise ultimately is the selling on of your idea, to others, who contribute to it but must pay you a royalty as you hold onto the rights. You own the concept, you don't have to do the work, and you make a lot of money. A franchise is the unholy grail of publishers, for if successful, you can sell an awful lot of product on the back of it.

The downside for anyone who creates the work in the first place, is that they rarely get to own the characters and concepts they've made. Companies, eager to make money are keen to keep costs and rights to a minimum. The value is related to the value of your stories, but only insomuch as how that perceived value translates into merchandisable content. Can they sell it?

For example in comics, John Wagner has undoubtedly made many millions less than his character Judge Dredd has for its owners over the years. And Alan Moore, arguably the best comics has had to offer in the last 25 years, has been left deeply disillusioned by his experiences of working with publishers. He owns little of his own work, and has almost no say in how they are used. Alan Moore makes a rather uncomfortable poster boy for the comics industry.

Desperate for success, with real enthusiasm for their field and often driven, many are the people who have produced creative works and have been prepared to accept paltry rewards just so they can keep going. Look at how many great artists lived and died in poverty, only for their works to be worth incredible amounts after their death.

Even for those who do own there own works, Death will inevitably reach forward with his cold bony fingers to pluck their works from them on their deathbeds and hand them to 'The Estate'. The Estate will work more or less like any corporation, professing to be the guardians of the works while at the same time, sucking as much of the marrow from the bones as they can. Authorised sequels, limited edition figurines, marketting corpses and the flogging of a dead horse.

There is at heart, something rather tragic about the fate of both the successful and unsuccessful artist. Is Tolkien right now trapped in some hellish dimension as every piece of cheap Lord of the Rings merchandise rolls past him painfully slowly on a conveyor belt for eternity while a satanic Nicholas Parsons cackles with glee? I for one, sincerely hope not.

So the options are to produce, publish and market your own work, possibly at great (and I don't just mean monetary) cost to yourself, or to try and sell it, for some money, in the hope that you can build a reputation to the point where you can dictate better terms. Neither I should add, are great strategies for success and riches. Some may make it, many more won't.

There is another option, and that is largely to work with the Franchise machine, to help produce more 'stuff'. By being professional, canny and productive, you can make more than a healthy living. Because a mediocre book featuring the popular licensed character Stab Man (TM) who solves crimes by stabbing wrongdoers, is always going to sell more than a strange quirky novel by some unknown weirdo living in their Aunts attic.

Paul Scott reserves the right to sell out in future and live in Tahiti.

"Nana-nana-nana-na... Stab Man!"