Hi All, I am looking for some wisdom. Here's the situation.
I have a customer who I created a brand identity for and recently called me saying "I just bought Adobe illustrator, That's what you make my signs and flyers on right? Well, my assistant is going to learn how to use it and create my flyers etc. now. Can you send me a template of all my flyers, signs etc?" We've been doing about 10,000-20,000 flyers a month and I feel that once they get the template they will not be such a regular customer anymore as they've been shopping around on all quotes recently. Which brings me to the artwork release fee. ...
How I've done that in the past with similar circumstances:
I bill for designing the template as an upfront cost and note that on the invoice as such. (Design/Layout)
Revisions to that template for subsequent production runs are a separate line item on the invoice. (Design/Layout or PrePress)
Stock photography and illustrations are listed as a separate line item, too. Marked up, of course, and my search for such is also modestly billed. (...and yes, I've had customers question that. I send them links to stock art sites and tell them to find what they want within the appropriate parameters. ...and yes, that gets fussy with billable hours answering phone calls and emails with the frugal customers.)
The actual product and shipping are billed as separate line items, too --- I try be competitive pricing, buuuuuuuut then, I cave in remembering that the rotisserie restored '67 GTO convertible still isn't in my garage. My typical mark-up for printing is x 1.875 - x 2.25
Now, as far as a release fee, in the olden days I could bill that as labor burning a CD/DVD. Even further back in the neolithic age, that was impossible accomplish with out billing for films and plates or handing someone a dingy paste-up board. "Just e-mail it," is now the request for what once was solely a production tool --- i.e. the art file. 0_o
In most instances today, I still burn a CD and bill for that. I explain that it's cheaper in the long run to have all their artwork housed on a removable disc. It preserves the art should they have a catastrophic failure on their computer. Likewise, they avoid future charges of me spending time looking for their art to email should they lose it --- or not want to look for it on their own system. (Oh yeah, there's push back on that, too.)
The issues I've experienced with releasing art files have been that I am expected to become a for gratis consultant as someone learns how to work with the template and software. The customer and their order history, determines my mood and availability in answering "just a quick question."
Another issue is how to handle fonts. I don't send those with the file anymore as was common in the days of Pagemaker and Quark. They get a link to the appropriate font site and a brief explanation of font licensing. (The font Archer caused a little heartburn with one customer.)
And another issue, although rare, are licensed images or corporate logos. Whether that is the case with your template, I don't know. But, that may have an impact on the use and/or training your customer on the criteria for that.
...and the worst issue, billing $800 for a t-shirt design that netted the customer $36k in three months --- and then have them stiff me on 10% of gross
For a good customer, I have hidden his art on my website so he could direct his vendors to it for easy downloads. That was a courtesy to a broker that brought me oodles of design work.
For a fee beyond that, that's tough for me to figure out how to negotiate on the back end.
However, I have seen instances of that. Not so much on the backend, but more up front retainer/contract work. This was a designer/agency that grew from a sign shop. While not a direct competitor, the shop where I worked would bump heads with him now and again. He actively managed the brands and advertising of a number of local area businesses. His copyright would appear in all advertising for his client businesses. It seemed like a pretty good gig, but I'm not quite sure how he did it. (Before we got to that part of the discussion, I accidentally spit on him in the job interview when I tried to muffle a reflex laugh at the wage he was offering. Woulda been good to know.)
Then as some have indicated, they would "just give 'em the art." Admittedly, I'll waffle on that. I would need to better understand the template file. While I've read the rants of those blasting graphic designers, I've seen sign shop files that I would term hack, too. For the most part, a good designer will supply an easily understandable file. There are any number of "tells" in a file that show the competence of the creator.
With the understanding that art for in-house production, outsource production, and customer use have different requirements and attention to detail, I'll skimp on in-house art all day long to get the job out the door. I know what I'm doing and that art typically follows an embedded shop workflow. Likewise. I may cheat the art by using two or more applications for in-house efficiencies that otherwise would confound another shop's structure. I've got production files, that are press specific. They may have custom ink formulations specific to the job or may need multiple vendors to create.
So, do you share your proprietary information, color formulations, die lines, traps, spreads and all else that is unique to your capabilities? Or do you give them a file that is generic, and then listen to them complain that their vendor's product doesn't match what you've done for them in the past... (and yeah, I was accused of sabotaging art by a low price, customer sourced vendor because he couldn't reproduce the art correctly.)
If that's the case with your template, you may need to spend time cleaning it up, or perhaps, dumb down it down for customer use. That would be line item charge that you'll need to explain to your customer, too.
I see any number of variables that you'd need to assess before you can determine a release fee and come out of the interaction whole and still retain your god-like stature with the customer.
Now whether or not my diatribe is helpful, I hope, at the least, it offers a bit of insight in how another would view the situation --- now, and in the future.
Wedding photographers are sooooooooooooo much better at this stuff than sign people. You may want to search photography rights and review how those are maintained to see if there's something you can adopt from that.