Do I have a case?

[al125]

Washington, USA

I am an artist, and about 6 months ago I was contacted by e-mail by two poets. They wrote poems about National Parks of America like Yellowstone, Yosemite and the Grand Canyon, and they asked me to make one painting for each of the park, total of 3. They told me that all of my paintings will be in the book of poetry and they are going to be my agents and market these 3 paintings for me for three years. They were going to use 18 artist for this project and each of the artist should paint 3 illistrations to the poems. Before I agreed to do the work I asked them if they are going to choose the paintings they like the most for the book, and they said that all of the paintings will be in the book, they chose me because they liked my style of painting. We signed contract where they agreed to market the paintings that would be in the book for 3 years. They sent me poems and photos and asked me to paint 3 paintings for Yellowstone park only, after I finished second painting they asked me to paint three more paintings, total of 6, they said that they liked my work very much and that a spread of 6 paintings would look beautiful in the book, so I made 6 paintings for them. They gave me $100 to make professional photos of my paintings and I sent them the photos. Then I received a call from someone who told me that none of my paintings are going to be in the book, because there is not enough room for them (sounds funny). I contacted the poets and they said that they found a sponsor for the book who went through all the poems and paintings and chose which ones are going to be in the book, and that he decided not to use paintings from 5 artists including me. It did hurt very much, to spend my money and time to do the work for nothing... My question is can I count on getting money for the matirials and my work time for these paintings from the poets? I have all the e-mails with their promisses of using all of my paintings in the book, but the contract we signed does not say that they will use my paintings, it only says that they are going to be my agents and market my paintings for me.

Sorry for my English, I hope it was clear enough to understand and thank you for your help.

 

[freebird]

I'm confused. Were you contacted by the parks department, a book publisher, or people who wanted to be your agent and were looking for talent?

You may want to speak to a lawyer to look over this contract you signed with them. Honestly, something sounds a little fishy and I wonder if they have other rights that they have that they shouldn't have. I would doubt that you could enforce any agreement that your work must be featured in the book and I also don't see any agreement as to the amount of the work. The only hope there is if they were directly connected to the publishers of the book and also acted as their agent. Then you might be able to prove that these people had the authority of some sort (apparent or actual) to sign a binding contract on behalf of the publisher.

At the end of the day, you may just want your work out of their hands and to have the right to go somewhere else. You may ultimately get more money.

Washington, USA

I am an artist, and about 6 months ago I was contacted by e-mail by two poets. They wrote poems about National Parks of America like Yellowstone, Yosemite and the Grand Canyon, and they asked me to make one painting for each of the park, total of 3. They told me that all of my paintings will be in the book of poetry and they are going to be my agents and market these 3 paintings for me for three years. They were going to use 18 artist for this project and each of the artist should paint 3 illistrations to the poems. Before I agreed to do the work I asked them if they are going to choose the paintings they like the most for the book, and they said that all of the paintings will be in the book, they chose me because they liked my style of painting. We signed contract where they agreed to market the paintings that would be in the book for 3 years. They sent me poems and photos and asked me to paint 3 paintings for Yellowstone park only, after I finished second painting they asked me to paint three more paintings, total of 6, they said that they liked my work very much and that a spread of 6 paintings would look beautiful in the book, so I made 6 paintings for them. They gave me $100 to make professional photos of my paintings and I sent them the photos. Then I received a call from someone who told me that none of my paintings are going to be in the book, because there is not enough room for them (sounds funny). I contacted the poets and they said that they found a sponsor for the book who went through all the poems and paintings and chose which ones are going to be in the book, and that he decided not to use paintings from 5 artists including me. It did hurt very much, to spend my money and time to do the work for nothing... My question is can I count on getting money for the matirials and my work time for these paintings from the poets? I have all the e-mails with their promisses of using all of my paintings in the book, but the contract we signed does not say that they will use my paintings, it only says that they are going to be my agents and market my paintings for me.

Sorry for my English, I hope it was clear enough to understand and thank you for your help.

 

[al125]

Thank you for your answer. I was contacted by poets and in the first letters they said that they were looking for a publisher for their book and they were going to use own money, so I guess they had the right to choose what to publish. But after I was done with the paintings and they have got the copies of them, they told me that they found a sponsor who did not want to use my works in the book. Our contract did not say that they will use my paintings (it was only in the letters), it said that they will market paintings that are in the book and that the contract can be canceled one month before the book is published, what they did. But I do not really think about sueing them about the contract, I believe I can not do much here, I was wondering if I can sue them because of theirs promisses of publishing my work and not doing it.