DuckSouth.com

If you had a nationally known publishing company come to you wanting a picture of yours, and they offered you $200 for it with the understanding they could reproduce it as many times and in as many formats as they saw fit (they are huge), would you:

1. take the $200 and be happy because you didn't even have the picture for sale, they just saw it and asked about it, or
2. ask for more money because they are huge and they will be mass producing this picture in no telling how many publications in the future.

I guess what one really should consider is A. It's $200 more than you had in your pocket before they called or B. since they are so huge (they publish everything from nature field guides to school books to fiction and you might get your foot in the door to sell them more photos or C. They are huge and are taking your po' redneck butt for a ride for a measley 200 bucks.

I don't know picture sales, but I know it's always best to negotiate a percentage of runs instead of taking a single payout.


Maybe call Joe Mac or Justin Price and see if they could give you any advice. Or you could take off work and go to the workshop and ask Justin in person.

how bad do you need $200?

Hey hopefully I can help since I sell pictures to magazines and publishers all the time. $200 for a photo is actually a normal paying price for a first time contact. They usually pay more the more your used. The question you should ask is do you want to sell this image as a royalty free image or as a right's managed image. Contrary to popular belief very few agencies will pay more than $800 a photo unless your national known and have a reputation with them. What they are wanting is essentially stock photography. I'd get a contract made up and ask them the specific use of the project(s). If they are going to use it on multiple projects they are most likely choosing royalty free, nothing wrong from that, you own the copyright they are just getting permission from you to use it. I would make sure that you get in writing that they can't ruin your photo or make the photographer look like an idiot like some books do.

Ultimately, you have to decide what is this photo worth to you. If it were me I would negotiate a little higher pay with a contract. I wouldn't make demands but asking professionally works well in most cases.

Thanks, BFD. PM sent.

Congratulations on getting noticed! Hope there's more to come.