Part of our guide to licensing cartoons for publishing (coming soon)
Does cartoon licensing change from one publishing sector to another? Happily, no. At CartoonStock every publication license is built from the same parts: print run band, territory, format and edition. What changes is which of those parts does the heavy lifting, and who on the team does the clearing. Here’s how it tends to play out, sector by sector.
School and ELT
Our cartoons appear in school course books and ELT titles, from language learning to civics lessons built around editorial cartoons.
Here, territory and editions do most of the work. A course book written for one curriculum often goes on to be adapted for others, so the same cartoon may be licensed for several markets in turn. Territory rights for publishing (coming soon) covers the two options. New editions tend to follow syllabus changes, and each one gets its own license, as relicensing images for a new edition or reprint (coming soon) explains.
Course books rarely stay a single book for long. If workbooks, teacher materials or digital components are on the way, ask about our publication and product family license, which covers derivative works for the life of that edition.
Higher Education
In psychology, economics and the social sciences, a well-chosen cartoon helps a concept stick. As one psychology textbook author puts it: “finding and adding apt cartoons helps illustrate and reinforce key concepts while adding reading pleasure.”
These titles usually mean large print runs, worldwide territory and a long life across many editions. A permissions team or sourcing agency often handles the clearing, and briefing picture researchers and sourcing agencies on cartoon licensing (coming soon) covers how to get the best from them.
Academic Publishing and Trade Nonfiction
Academic monographs usually have small print runs, and the author is often the one clearing permissions. Trade nonfiction tends to run larger, and covers and marketing come up more often. We look at both from the author’s side in licensing cartoons for trade and academic books (coming soon). For a publisher, the license works just as it does in every other sector.
Magazines, Newspapers and E-Learning
Magazines and newspapers license our cartoons too. If that’s your world, tell us about the publication and we’ll suggest terms that fit.
E-learning and courseware publishers license cartoons for electronic-only publications and online platforms. The same bands apply, counted in downloads instead of printed copies.
What Stays the Same in Every Sector
Whichever sector you’re in, a few things hold:
- Every cartoon carries the credit www.CartoonStock.com, close to the cartoon
- Licenses are non-exclusive and non-transferable
- The artwork stays as the cartoonist drew it, apart from the caption font and size, unless we agree otherwise in writing
- Every license pays the cartoonist or their estate
Publishers working across several sectors, or licensing many cartoons at once, can hold one account with us. Licensing several cartoons for one project (coming soon) explains how that works.
The Bottom Line
Cartoon licensing by publishing sector uses the same license everywhere. Only the emphasis shifts. Schools and ELT lean on territory and editions, higher education on long-lived editions and permissions teams, academic and trade on print run and covers, and e-learning on electronic formats. Whatever your sector, we can license from more than 750,000 cartoons by over 1,000 cartoonists, or find the right ones for you, and every license pays the cartoonist.
Licensing cartoons for publishing · Request custom terms
Q&A: Cartoon Licensing Across Sectors
Q: We’re a small press. Do we license the same way as a large publisher?
A: Yes. The license is the same, and your print run band will simply reflect your size.
Q: Our title doesn’t fit any of these sectors. Can we still license?
A: Yes, and you’d be in good company. Plenty of what we license doesn’t fit a neat category. Tell us about the publication and we’ll set terms around how you’ll use the cartoon.
Q: Can you find cartoons for a particular subject or curriculum?
A: Happily. Tell us the subject, the level and the kind of publication, plus the point each cartoon needs to make, and we’ll send back a shortlist with cartoon IDs.
Keep Reading
Licensing cartoons for translations and co-editions (coming soon)
Related Posts
- Using a cartoon on a book cover (coming soon)