Ethical question about publishing....

[Janette]

I am wondering what the ethics are with regards to the publishing of a quilt in a book or magazine where the quilt has been longarm quilted. I have noticed alot lately in magazines there is a photo of the piecer, yet not the quilter, and the quilter (if they are lucky) gets a one line mention somewhere in the small print, yet the "designer" (piecer) barely mentions the longarm quilter in their interviews, saying "we" quilted it like ..... etc, even when the quilting is pretty custom work and in my opinion made the quilt what it was. There was a quilt in "...... ........" magazine where I know who quilted it from a book I own, but I could not for the life of me find her name anywhere in the instructions for that quilt which made me cross.

So what would you consider to be fair? to be paid for the quilting work as if they were any other customer and not worry about if you get quilting credit in a magazine or book if it ever were to be published?

If you had your quilting printed in a magazine or book, what would you expect ?

[DoryJM]

Janette, that's an interesting question. I just finished a quilt for an instructor and it may be published. She was very insistent that I prepare a label for her to put on the back so that my quilting would be recognized. (My DH has an embroidery business, so he did the label for me with the name of the quilt, designed and pieced by the teacher and quilted by me).

I hadn't thought about recognition. I did this quilt as an "audition" for her as her normal quilter is quite old and has broken her hip and is unable to quilt at this time. I am being reimbursed for my batt and postage, beyond that, I said the only payment I'd like is to do more of her quilts. We didn't discuss putting my name in her books as the quilter, but in the book I have, she did say who had done the quilting.

For me, personally, I want to be paid my normal quilting price for the work I do and have my name/business mentioned as the quilter. I don't really think I need much more than that.

[ffq-lar]

Get paid for what you do.

Simple as that.

But payment in which way and by what method? If you consider a mention of your name in a publication, or being acknowledged as the quilter on the label to be the best kind of advertising, then don't charge for the work you do. ( I can't believe I just typed that!). Realize though that the mention might not bring customers to your door.

Think about it this way-- if you needed a dozen pieced tops to feature in your upcoming book on longarm quilting, could you find a bunch of piecers willing to provide the fabric and talent to get the job done only for a mention in your book as "pieced by"? I don't think so..... Undoubtedly, you would provide the fabric and the patterns, and pay the piecers something for their hours of work. I can't imagine anyone doing all that for a "mention" (unless they are dear friends or family members.)

Having visited both sides of this question-- I can't unfold that story here but if I see you in person, ask me about it :mad:-- I never give it away. If they want "my" quilting, they pay just like everyone else. I'm generous enough to give freebies and deep discounts to all kinds of people and organizations--but authors? Sorry--nope nope nope nope nope.

[Janette]

sounds like you have had a bad experience Linda (Is U2U the same as in person ????) I agree that the credit in the book wouldn't necessarily bring more work.

I am with Dory, I would charge the same as I would anyone else, and maybe a discount for a large number of quilts, but request that I be acknowledged as the quilter in the publication too.

(I just want to add here, that the chances of me ever being published anywhere are very remote.... LOL - it wasn't me who was approached)

[quiltingjoyful51]

Most likely the person making a quilt from the book will tell her local quilter to quilt it like it is in the book and never contact the quilter if she is mentioned.

[Primitive1]

Speaking from experience, I did a quilt for someone knowing ahead of time that she was not going to pay me but would put a blip about me and my business in her book. It was done and I was happy...now I have 3 quilts from someone else who is doing another book but it is based on quilting so will be a compilation of many longarmer's work, I do plan to charge her for the quilting as I would any other customer and my thinking is that I have purchased a book from her in the past and she has appraised quilts for me and charged me both for the appraisals and the books so that is that....she is in business to appraise and publish books and I am in business to quilt.

[Quilting Heidi]

I would still charge for my time. After all she also will have the quilts that will be worth more because of your quilting and she will make money off selling her book which will sell better if she has some of your awesome quilting on them!

[Guest Linda S]

There should be an understanding about this before you do the quilting. I've quilted a few things for Marsha McCloskey's books and she is very nice about making sure your name is right there in print giving you credit for the quilting. Some magazines don't do a good job of mentioning the quilter and they often get letters to the editor from some of us who want to know who did the quilting!

[Susanri]

My humble opinion is, you should get paid and recognized. Thats ethical. To think you shouldn't be recognized because you get paid is insulting. Even worse not to pay you because your going to get acknowledged the workmanship you perform on the quilts is like not paying an actor because they got paid, Sorry we are not going to tell you who played Dorothy because she got paid, but if she had done it for free we would gladly tell you her name. how dumb would that be. talk about taking advantage of someone.

[Bonnie H]

Personally i think it takes a lot of talent to be a good longarmer, more so than mst piecers, even those publishing books, have!

[quiltmonkey]

I say: "SHOW ME THE MONEY!" :cool:

[sspingler]

I'm with everyone else. You should be recognized for the work you do.....and paid. I've seen almost all magazines name the quilter.

What galls me (and I have stopped almost all my subscriptions) is that people are using age old patterns and magazines are putting "designed by" by the maker. Why can't they put "remade by" instead of "designed by"? I've also seen quite a few books where the quilts were offered as free patterns on blogs or sites and they imply that they designed them.

[Janette]

yes that is also one of my peaves too, there really is not that much new in the magazines is there? I think they should change "designed by" to "pieced by ...."

[Neher-in-law5]

Yes, you need to be paid for the work you do! (Discounts are your choice or not). You also need to be recognized as the quilter because you did the work. The recognition in the book or magazine should not be figured as payment for your work because you are getting no financial benefit from the sale of the book or magazine. If she offers you a percentage or straight dollar amount for each book sold, then the quilting would not be charged for. I don't ever see that happening.

Good question and discussion.

[sammi357]

"a large number of quilts...for recognition in a book?".... free? I don't think so.

Just turn the table: If the author was asked to produce a quilt 'for recognition', what do you think they'd say? She's writing the book & probably also designing/quilting/making patterns for income/profit.

That's a really good way to begin a real negotiation over the quilting job: If you were to go to her and say, "I'm writing a quilting book, and I'd like to have X amount of quilt tops made, so that I can demonstrate on them." Do you think that they'd expect to do it for free?

It's a quilting job, just like any other.

And, define what's "large?" 10? 50? You can't commit to that without knowing in advance, and do you bump your other (paying) clients to get their work done?

(This is so familiar. Just had this conversation: 'Cient' has received the service, but is behind in payments, and Friend told them they were terminating their services. Friend has had to 'get tough' make them pay. Client complains because it's a lot of money (!) as if to say, Friend hasn't already earned it, and it's not also a lot of HER money (!) She has bills to pay, too, and strangely enough, her mortgage company doesn't wait because "Client" had a bad week and can't pay! Geeze. When Friend has to go to Wal-Mart to buy supplies, she can't go through check out and say, "Gee, I'm a little short, can I catch up next week?")

[Ferret]

I would extend this. I was on a list many years ago and a lady was thrilled because a quilt she had made (pieced and quilted) was to be included in the book. When I got a copy of the book I had to contact her to ask which was hers, as there was no credit at all in the book. It upset me and I started looking a bit more closely at the quilts in print. Things are changing. You see more makers/quilters being credited and I think this is important, valuable, and fair. In the books I produce I will be including information on the people who made the quilts I've used in my book.

On the other hand I do give a large discount on work I do specifically for books on the understanding I will be credited. I don't think it's brought in any work directly but I see it as encouraging a behaviour I value. I hope that as time goes on we will see the quilting industry getting better about giving credit where due.

Ferret