How does a non-pro stipulate photo use for a buyer?
You don’t really need a lawyer for this sort of thing, although it wouldn’t hurt. There are some things to keep in mind though. 1 – As paanta said, make sure that you say they only sell them a use license. And I’d even go so far as to say that they only bought that license for this edition. Textbooks constantly have new images on the cover, so it’s not unheard of for a new edition to have a new cover image at all. Also, make sure to say a few times that the image is to be used only for this book. 2 – I would have no problem with them cropping if it was my photograph. But you might, and even my opinion on it might change depending on the photograph. So make sure that you have final approval. 3 – Get credit for the image. Name and website. 4 – I have to simultaneously agree and disagree with jayder about the price being fair. On one hand you’d be getting $250 basically out of nowhere. And I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t turn that down if someone just wanted to just give that to you.
You don’t really need a lawyer for this sort of thing, although it wouldn’t hurt. There are some things to keep in mind though. 1 – As paanta said, make sure that you say they only sell them a use license. And I’d even go so far as to say that they only bought that license for this edition. Textbooks constantly have new images on the cover, so it’s not unheard of for a new edition to have a new cover image at all. Also, make sure to say a few times that the image is to be used only for this book. 2 – I would have no problem with them cropping if it was my photograph. But you might, and even my opinion on it might change depending on the photograph. So make sure that you have final approval. 3 – Get credit for the image. Name and website. 4 – I have to simultaneously agree and disagree with jayder about the price being fair. On one hand you’d be getting $250 basically out of nowhere. And I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t turn that down if someone just wanted to just give that to you. And ess
First of all, congratulations on finding a small non-profit that actually wants to pay anything at all. Secondly, I believe that at this point in history, FotoQuote’s numbers reflect what photographers ought to be paid far more than what they’re actually getting paid these days. Third, John Harrington is a high profile photographer among photographers and somewhat of an activist for photographer’s rights, who has a better business sense than most of us. That’s a good thing, but you are none of the above. If you have any enthusiasm for having your photograph used on the cover of the book, I’d pretty much do as jtfowl0 suggests; making sure I got as many copies of the book as I wanted in addition to the $250.00, and that I got a prominent photo credit. Tell them that you demand payment upon acceptance, as opposed to upon publication, and make sure that they know they’re buying one time use for this edition of this project only. In over thirty years of professional photography, I’ve never
If the entire organization is made up of volunteers, that might be an indicator to you that a review of your free time may be in order. I think this quote conveys nothing but John Harrington’s serious misunderstanding of how the nonprofit sector in the United States operates. Does the government require that all workers at a nonprofit be unpaid volunteers in order to grant tax exempt status? No. There’s a pretty good reason for that: nonprofits promote social welfare goals that for-profits wouldn’t be adequately compensated by the market to pursue. If you are comfortable with the mission of the nonprofit and make sure the contract protects your intellectual property rights in the future, $250 seems quite reasonable to me. Playing hardball will just make them go somewhere else. While they might really like your picture, they probably have a list of other pictures they like almost as much to contact if it doesn’t work out with you. Heck, yours might not have even been on the top of the l
As a photographer, and as an editor who has worked on the sourcing-photography side for Penguin, I’m with sully75. It’s great that software is available to price this gig at $1000, but honestly the stock world is there to provide cheap imagery. That is your competitor, not the faceless “pro” photographers theichibun theorizes you could potentially ‘hurt’. Pro photographers won’t be approached for this gig unless it’s with the same pitch, so you’re not taking bread from our mouths. Not only that, it’s a free world and you’re in no way bound to follow the ‘ethical’ pricing debates and ideas from within the pro photography world about how to price your work. Everyone starts somewhere. You are, at present, an amateur photographer who obviously has some talent. No one with an honest soul would say that you’re not allowed to even give your work away for free if you so choose. Everyone has to start somewhere – perhaps this is your first photo credit of a future lifetime of 100,000. You never
