I'm starting to go through emails for folks reaching out about Among Us and I just wanted to outline some tips for fanartists/creators who reach out to companies large and small asking about licensing and rights for your favorite IP!

Think of it like a job application. Especially with surprise large IPs, you're sending an email to someone (or multiple someones) who have to get through as many emails as fast as possible. You need to make sure you include the most useful, relevant info, fast.

So, what do I or other licensing folks need from YOU?

- I need to know where you want to sell your items.

"I have a storefront on Etsy" tells me nothing about what you sell, the quality of your items, what other categories you're selling in, etc.

- I need to know what your art style is!

"I would like to sell hoodies, tshirts and accessories featuring Among Us" is great, but it doesn't tell me anything about who you are, what you do, what sort of designs you want to place on items. Portfolio links, please!

- I need to know WHERE you are.
Licensing generally operates on a "territory" basis. For anime, for ex, Japan based anime licenses will license their items to US companies for merch. However, most of the time, US companies CAN'T SELL THOSE ITEMS IN JAPAN. 1/2

There's region locking that you'll have to do on your site, or, you manually have to go through and cancel any orders from outside the country. This is a huge pain and most small companies aren't set up to be able to handle these kinds of things.

- "I would like to make a plush toy."

A lot of people want to make plush toys! I need to know more than this, though. Do you handmake your plush? Do you work with a manufacturer? If you manufacture overseas, who is handling that? Are they a fully vetted manu, who has (1/2)

safety requirements in place? Do you have an importer who can handle shipping 1000 units into the United States? Are you handling your own fulfillment or do you want us to handle it if you get a license?

This is not an all-inclusive list of what you need to have, but when you're sending emails to folks for business, more info is better than less! I LOVE working with other small businesses, but the easier you make it for us to work with you, the more likely it is we can!

Another thing that's huge: if you're asking to publish books, or mass produce items, I need to know you are actually set up to DO that. So like, if you say you'd like to make an artbook or comic book, but have no prior examples of DOING that 1/2

you should be including that information in your email. Who have you made books with before? Are you going to pay for the books up front? How are you distributing them? Where are you holding them? Does your location have insurance?

- I am not going to contact you on Instagram, Snapchat, text, or anything else that is not a conf call, or an email.

I love how many young fans there are but no, I will not call and talk to your mom to get you permission to be able to make creations for us.

- When pitching yourself, your services, your art, what you do, please try to avoid tracing existing assets and saying "these are stickers" "this goes on a hoodie."

I want to know what YOUR art looks like and what YOU are bringing to the table for creating!

- I promise you if you got a response, we saw your email, there is really no need to send 7 more follow up emails. Please remember there are real people behind the screen and there is only so much time in a day!

"I am planning on launching my merch tomorrow, please let me know."

When you're emailing folks, especially small companies/businesses, 24 hours turnaround on a response is not enough time, especially if a system doesn't already exist. Please be patient.

I am also super happy to answer questions about this process if you happen to have any while I’m threading