Part 1.1-Employee vs. Employer
(for those audiences not yet working in the field)
Most photographers become business owners by accident. They fall in love with photography, decide they want to make a living taking photographs, and become a small business owner as a result. That explains why so many freelance photographers do such a poor job of running their business. It's not something they actively choose.
Very few photographers have any real experience or professional training in business when they first enter the marketplace. They learn as they go, eventually graduating from the "School of Hard Knocks", or they discover that being a business owner is not for them. The problem with this system is that lots of mistakes are made that not only affect the individual, but the profession as a whole. The real challenge today is to operate a
successful small business that actually contributes to the photography profession, as well as your own personal satisfaction and gain. That is where professional organizations, like EP, ASMP, PP of A, APA, etc., and mentors, can help you.
Your biggest choice will be whether you work for yourself or for someone else. Each has its advantages and disadvantages and neither is better than the other. There are, however, certain people who are more suited to one arrangement than the other. So, let's first spend a minute looking at the options available with each arrangement, then look at the pluses and minuses. As we're doing this, try to think honestly about which of the characteristics of each appeals to you or really turns you off.
A) Employee
1) Editorial- not non-existent, but getting scarcer; expensive to maintain a staff
a) Newspaper, wire service, or magazine staff
b) Internships, generally not paid, but good experience; own your images? Some situations yes, some no - read the fine print in any contract
2) Corporate / commercial / advertising
a) portrait studios - school & family pics, baby shots, sports teams, weddings
b) in-house catalogue studio for dept. store or mail-order company
c) in-house photog. for marketing / PR firm or dept. within a large company or university
d) police dept.'s, insurance agencies
e) full-time assistant for a studio or an established shooter
3) Academic - likely requires an MFA, or strong experience
B) Self-employed - corp.'s like this arrangement as they have no financial risk
1) Assisting -- work hard for little pay, but also gain experience, knowledge, contacts; good way to get started
2) Editorial
a) Freelancers and stringers
b) True news / photoj. vs. photo-illustration
c) 25,000 magazines in this country and they all need pictures, yet every yum-yum with a camera is glad to get a pic in print for $20 and a free subscription - competition fierce and level of quality can be disappointing
d) lowest budgets but also least control/direction from AD or PE means most freedom
3) Corporate / commercial
a) Studio vs. location
b) Products, fashion, food, portraits, annual reports - options are limitless
4) Advertising
a) More creative / expressive
b) Bigger budgets, but also bigger hassles and more competition
c) Usually work in conjunction w/ ad. agency, AD, corp. client, etc; highly orchestrated, planned, and controlled
5) Fine art - galleries, shows, teaching
C) Trade-offs
1) Employee
a) Pluses = regular salary, insurance programs, retirement plans, paid sick and vacation days, equipment allowance, regular daily work
b) Minuses = potential layoffs, relinquish copyright, may have less creative / expressive freedom, daily routine / grind
2) Self-employed
a) Pluses = set own hours / schedule, set own rates so potential income is limitless, control copyright, creative freedom
b) Minuses = you are the business, so can't ever "leave" work; no regular paycheck, insurance, retirement plans, or paid time off, so potential income and benefits are bottomless; responsible for all own business expenses / overhead; not just a photographer anymore - must have variety of skills: marketing, accounting, negotiating, strategic planning
Part 1.2 -- What to Keep in Mind When You Get the Call
(For audiences not yet working in the field)
When you're not used to your phone ringing regularly as a self-employed photographer and you get that call for an assignment or to provide a stock image, the first emotion is excitement, then a little ego boost, then the prospect of being paid to do what you love to do takes over. You don't want to do anything to blow this opportunity, you're likely to be excited, and the possibility of saying yes to something you might later regret is looming large. Instead, slow down for just a second, gather some information from the caller, and ask if you can call them right back. Let's take a look at some of the specific things we want to keep in mind when making that sale.
In editorial work, as in all areas of photography, we have two goals:
Goal #1: Maintain ownership of our images (copyright)
Goal #2: Get fair rates for the use of our photos
A) Licensing, not Selling; we do not actually “sell” photos but rather license our intellectual property, our copyright to our images.
EXAMPLE: The music licensing analogy: when you buy a music CD, you are actually buying a license to use that CD for your own personal use! Check out the terms on the CD! You cannot re-sell it, re-package it for sale, broadcast it, include it in a movie or pretty much do anything with it without an explicit license to do so.
1) In the US, the minute it is created, it is copyrighted. As the creator it is yours, even if it does not display the copyright symbol (but safer with it!). Why maintain our copyright? Because. . .
2) You control the sales and usage of your photos. You can sell specific rights, all the rights, or just plain give it away. Which is more in your interest? Owning our copyrights gives us:
a) Future income from stock sales in other magazines and third party uses such as reprints or advertising or art sales or anything!
b) Control of where our images are seen.
3) Future income is the only way to make up for the lower initial fees in editorial work compared to corporate or advertising work.
4) Because of these lower rates, you should always start from a position of licensing a photo for “one-time North American print rights only in one edition of one magazine.”
a) Anything else should be looked at as an additional use with the publisher getting greater benefit, and thus YOU getting additional fees.
b) This includes web usage, foreign editions, archiving on the web, affiliated publications, licensees, derivative works, any third party uses, and any advertising for the magazine.
B) Fair rates should be based upon an initial “creative fee” against space. Note the danger of the use of the term “day rate.” It implies payment for your time, not payment for the licensing and usage of your images.
1) What is the “space rate?” It is a realistic accounting of the benefit a publisher obtains from the use of a photograph. If they use the photo more (larger, or more often), they should pay more. This is the concept of usage.
EXAMPLE, Magazine covers on the Newsstand: what is the most important photo for a magazine on a newsstand? The cover! And guess what part of the magazine commands the highest space rates and creative fees? The cover!
EXAMPLE, ad rates: magazines charge their advertising clients higher fees for larger advertisements, the theory being that a larger ad will get more notice, and therefore bring more value to the advertiser. So, if a magazine wants to use one of our images, and wants to use it larger where it will get more notice, shouldn't they also pay more?
2) Space rates vary incredibly. They SHOULD vary according to circulation and advertising rates, but often these factors are ignored. Some magazines do not even know or care to know the concept of space rates, and they want to use your photos for one creative or day rate no matter how large (or often) they are used. Who should be paying more to use your photos? A magazine with a circulation of 3 million and an ad page rate of $175,000 or a magazine with a circulation of 50,000 and an ad page rate of $5000?
3) This brings up a sad state of affairs: The stagnant creative fees and space rates in magazine publishing. Why has this occurred? Because photographers have not been willing to look at themselves as businesspeople and turn down bad deals. They have been competitive in the wrong ways (downward prices and more for less), and they have been scared and they have been isolated.
Example: In 1985, Newsweek was paying $350 per day for one time North American print rights only. Their ad rates were $50,000 per page. In early 2001, Newsweek actually rolled their rate BACK to $400 per day while their ad rates were $175,000 per page. If you adjust these numbers for inflation, they are making over 100% more per ad page, yet they want to pay photographers over 30% LESS THAN WE WERE MAKING IN 1985! This does not even take into account wage increases in the same time period which are even greater than inflation (the CPI or Consumer Price Index).
4) How does one apply a space against creative fee model of usage?
Example for one time North American print rights at “Sneezeguard Monthly”:
Creative Fee of $750.00
1/4 page space rate of $350.00
1/2 page space rate of $600.00
Assume they use one photo on the table of contents page at 1/4 page or less, and they also use one photo with the story at 1/2 page. You have been guaranteed the creative fee of $750, even if they kill the story (not your fault, right?). But they love the photos! Add up the two space rates, and if they are greater than the creative fee, the difference is the extra space rate you are owed for the increased usage.
$350.00 + $600.00 = $950.00; $950.00 - $750.00 = $200.00 extra space due.
5) The history of a guaranteed creative fee (or day rate) against space.
a) Shooting on speculation (spec) was the norm. Photographers could get burned easily! Who pays if a story gets killed or a re-shoot is demanded? This was why ASMP started.
b) These photographers said we need a guarantee to go out to take photos instead of getting paid only if our photos are published. This was the "day rate" it was guaranteed minimum applied against the space rate.
6) What is a "fair rate" for certain usages?
a. see the Estimator at: www.editorialphoto.com/resources/estimator, a guide which gives suggested pricing based upon actual usage of photos! You plug in a magazine’s circulation and their ad rate per page, and you are given a reasonable range of fees for all sorts of uses including one time North American print rights and beyond. There are web rates, reprint rates and pretty much all you need. You must check this out. It is fair to both parties, but it will also shock you as to how unfair certain publishers have been by not recognizing the actual benefit the publishers have been getting from our art and photos.
b. Heron and MacTavish's "Pricing Photography"
c. FotoQuote software
C) Danger Signs in Contracts and Negotiations: There are too many to list, so see the contract area at http://editorialphoto.com for contracts and clause-by-clause critiques.
1) red flag contract terms that affect our copyrights
* Work for hire
* All rights in perpetuity
* Rights transfer (copyright transfer)
* Right to assign, transfer or sell
* right to reprint, reuse, redistribute
* …in all media known or unknown
2) red flag contract terms that potentially affect our businesses
* Indemnification clauses (various types)
* Liability clauses
* Warranties
* Model release warranties
* Embargo periods
3) Negotiating lines you should not fall for:
a) “We’ll make it up to you on the next job.” This just does not work. You will always have a hard time getting more money AND you'll gain the reputation as the cheap guy or gal.
b) “You’re the only one who has ever complained about this contract/ fee/ whatever.” Never true, and you have a duty to complain or this industry will be toast!
c) “Annie Liebowitz signed this contract!” Maybe she did, but it is black with cross-outs and she got a lot more money for those rights than they are offering you!
D) Do not hesitate to walk away. A valid contract is a meeting of the minds, not a one sided document. You must be willing to walk away in order to negotiate to your advantage. Remember these points:
1) No matter how young or inexperienced you are, they wouldn’t be talking to you if they did not want something from you.
2) Exposure and access are valuable, but they won’t pay the bills.
3) The goal of exposure and access is to get better paying jobs.
4) Many magazine assignments have ZERO resale value. You must be paid fairly without including the unhatched chickens of future re-sales.
5) Cheap gals or guys stay that way in most cases; after all, why would they pay you more money down the road when you've just proven to them that they can find someone willing to work for less? Negotiate on your talent, not on price alone!
6) You affect the whole industry by your business behavior!
a) Historically, photographers have been their worst enemies. We have been scared, isolated and hungry. Talk to your peers or your superiors.
b) Share, share and share information!
c) What you accept will often become support for industry standards, both good and bad.
E) Contracts and Paperwork: The purpose of paperwork is clarity not confrontation. Be flexible when you can, but try to use your own paperwork. Remember when you rent a car, you do not present Hertz with YOUR contract! Likewise, when a potential client comes to you, know under what set of Terms & Conditions you will agree to do business. All contracts are negotiable, but some items are make-or-break. Please see the EP website at http://editorialphoto.com for actual contracts, assignment confirmations, delivery memos, terms and conditions, and invoices. Feel free to copy and paste these documents to adopt them for your own use. Be sure to change the relevant names and places, but be careful what else you modify. These documents were written by attorneys who know their field of law. Haphazard modifications by a layperson (like us!) could nullify certain key protections.
Part 2.1-The realities of being self-employed
(for those audiences currently selling images as self-employed - full or part time)
You all have been making images for profit for at least a little while now. Some of you are at it full time, for others it's still more of a supplemental income, or a hobby that you hope will pay for itself and turn into something more someday. But either way, you fell in love with photography, decided you wanted to try to make a living taking photographs, and now, like it or not, you're a small business owner.
The reality is that very few of us have any real experience or professional training in business when we first enter the marketplace. We learn as we go, eventually graduating from the "School of Hard Knocks", or we discover that being a business owner is not for us and fold up shop. The problem with this system is that along the way, lots of mistakes are made that not only affect the individual, but the profession as a whole. So, the real challenge today is to not only make great images, but to operate a successful small business that actually contributes to the photography profession, as well as to your own personal satisfaction and gain. That is where professional organizations, like EP, can help you.
Because we're all ultimately in this to make money, that automatically makes us businesspeople. We're very fortunate if we can make a living doing what we love to do, but that doesn't make us any less of a business, or release us from certain responsibilities to ourselves and our profession, just because we like our work. So, with that in mind, let's spend a few minutes looking at some of the realities that we face as small business owners
A) Corporations like the independent contractor arrangement because they have no financial risk and it saves them money.
1) But remember, we are in business too and our ultimate goal, like theirs, is to make money. Our financial success benefits the corporations too by giving them the images they need, in a way that is less expensive than a staff of photographers, and keeps us in business so we're around the next time they need us. Nobody likes to work with a new supplier every time they need to buy paper or pens, or even service their car, and the same is true with images and photographers.
2) Two common ways that corporate contracts try to save money for the corporation are "work-for-hire", "rights transfer", or "unlimited usage" clauses, and by requiring actual, original receipts for services such as film processing.
a) The clauses are attempts to gain either the copyright, or at least unlimited usage, to your images. Compensation for this almost always fails to account for our overhead expenses as self-employed businesspeople and also for the lost potential income from years of stock sales. If you intend to be around in the future to serve your clients, you should think very carefully before agreeing to work under any contract which does not allow you to keep your copyright, and does not compensate you for each use of your image.
b) Requiring actual receipts is an attempt to save money. In response to the low fees that many publishers are paying, photographers look for ways to cover their overhead and still be able to make a profit. One of these ways is by marking up expenses and passing them along to a client. Most shooters add a legitimate charge that covers non-billable time, cost of inventory, and overhead. It's your business and what you charge for certain services isn't up to them, it's up to you. If they only want to pay actual rates for services, they should have a staff of photographers who run all expenses through an accounting or purchasing department. In addition, if your business is ever audited, you will need those original receipts to defend yourself. It is a very bad idea to ever relinquish control of your receipts. Offer to provide your client with a studio receipt for their accounting department. As an independent contractor, they shouldn't legally need more from you.
B) time spent shooting vs. other things
Remember that as business owners, there are multiple things we must attend to, beyond just the making of images. If we are to be available to our clients when they need us, then we need to earn an income that compensates us for the days when we are not actually making or selling images. These things include:
d) Business development - building portfolios (shooting stock & p'folio work) and marketing (showing work, marketing calls, letters, meetings)
A great portfolio = great jobs; you can't "talk" a portfolio, you have to do it
e) image management - editing, filing, tracking, captioning, re-filing
some great software programs - HindSight, FotoBiz, FileMaker - but software is essential these days; building and organizing your collection has value in future / retirement (but only if you maintain copyright!)
f) continuing education - shooting personal work, coursework, reading, testing new products
continued growth / variety attracts clients and helps avoid burnout; inspiration from peers, history, other cultures, workshops
g) general office work - purchasing, bookkeeping, insurance, retirement;
accurate records A MUST, photographers and sailboat charters are two most audited types of business b/c we're a traditional "hobby" and many people try to claim professional status to write off hobby expenses; many pros track own expenses w/ Quicken or QuickBooks, then pay for tax prep once a year; insurance a must, esp. liability insur. if a sole proprietor; also most home-owners policies quit covering your equipment as soon as you start making money from it - need a separate policy or a rider.
h) only approximately 15-20% will be shooting time that is directly billable
An editorial photog. who bills for 100 dys./ yr. is mighty busy, that's 40%; rest of the time is spent managing the business but that still needs to be paid for out of those100 days; even 100 days x $450/dy. is only $45k; take out overhead and what's left? $25k? $20k? is that enough to live?
C) a cost-of-doing-business demonstration
To get a better idea of what our costs are as independent businesspeople, and therefore what we should be charging in order to stay in business, let's spend a couple minutes to look at a worksheet. These numbers were developed by surveying full-time working photographers from all over the country, and are posted on the EP website at http://www.editorialphotographers.com/cgi-bin/stats/calculate.cgi
c) what is overhead? And what makes up those expenses?
Rent, utilities, phone/fax/pager/cell, advertsing/promo, photo and computer eqpt., insurance for health/liability/equipment/worker's comp, professional services like legal/accounting, office supplies, postage, car/truck expenses, retirment plan, payroll expenses/office assistant, etc.
d) Now let's figure out the "break even" gross income:
c) per day -- divide by 250 days
Avg. cost reported on EP site is about $220/day, EVERY day, for 250 days/year, or $1100/week, or about $55k/year; presenter offer own numbers here maybe?
d) and per shoot -- divide by the # of days you can reasonably expect to shoot
divide by 100 shoot days and this number is more like $550/shoot day, JUST TO COVER YEARLY OVERHEAD!!
e) now add in a salary of $30k, $50k, $75k and figure it again
4) per day -- divide by 250 days
$85k/250 days = $340/dy.; $105k/250 days = $420/dy.; $130k = $520/dy.
5) and per shoot -- divide by the # of days you can reasonably expect to shoot
$85k/100 shoot days = $850/shoot dy.; $105k/100 shoot days = $1050/shoot dy.; $130k/100 shoot days = $1300/ shoot dy.
f) compare these numbers with what various mag's are offering, stock and assignment
3) EP magazine database
4) The Estimator, fotoQuote, Pickerell's Pricing Stock, Heron & MacTavish's Pricing Photography,
Now I'd like to pass out a worksheet with categories and blank amounts and ask everyone to fill it in when they get home, then determine your daily CDB, and keep that number in mind when approaching a publisher. And finally, remember that the more times you agree to do work at a loss, the harder it becomes for you, or any photographer, to ask for more money later down the road. If we all compete only on price, eventually none of us will be able to earn a living.
Part 2.2 - Working for Win / Win Situations - We Know What We Want, Now How Do We Get It?
(for those audiences currently selling images as self-employed - full or part time)
Al of us have chosen to earn our livings doing something that we love to do, which is photographing. But, as we've talked about, earning a living from something we love to do doesn't make it any less necessary for us to actually EARN A LIVING. If, at the end of the month, we're not making enough to pay our rent or mortgage, put food on the table, and buy our kids' clothes, and that's AFTER taking out the costs of running our businesses, then we'll quickly find that we need to be in another line of work. When all is said and done, no matter how much we love what we do, we're all in this as a way to support ourselves and our families. As in any business, we want to develop lasting relationships with our clients that are mutually beneficial. We want to be able to grow our businesses as well as help our clients to grow theirs. In short, we want to be paid fairly and reasonably for providing a high quality, valuable service.
Now that we've seen how much of our income can be eaten up by the everyday expenses called overhead, it's time to take a look at how we go about getting some of the things we need in order to continue our profitable business. In order to maximize our incomes, we have two primary goals: A) fair initial rates; and B) maintain ownership of images.
Fair rates are based on initial fee against space and greater fees for greater benefit
1) examples of stagnant photo fees vs. increased ad revenue
Example: In 1985, Newsweek was paying $350 per day for one time North American print rights only. Their ad rates were $50,000 per page. In early 2001, Newsweek actually rolled their rate BACK to $400 per day while their ad rates were $175,000 per page. If you adjust these numbers for inflation, they are making over 100% more per ad page, yet they want to pay photographers over 30% LESS THAN WE WERE MAKING IN 1985! This does not even take into account wage increases in the same time period which are even greater than inflation (the CPI or Consumer Price Index).
Why has this occurred? Because photographers have not been willing to look at themselves as businesspeople and turn down bad deals. They have been competitive in the wrong ways (downward prices and more for less), and they have been scared and they have been isolated.
2) concept of space rate
space rate is a realistic accounting of the benefit a publisher obtains from the use of a photograph. If they use the photo more (larger, or more often), they should pay more. This is the concept of usage. In an industry where ad space is sold based upon size - bigger ads, or more of them, attract more attention and therefore cost more - then isn't it only fair that photographers also be paid based upon how large an image appears or how many times?
Space rates vary incredibly. They SHOULD vary according to circulation and advertising rates, but often these factors are ignored. Some magazines do not even know or care to know the concept of space rates, and they want to use your photos for one creative or day rate no matter how large (or often) they are used.
3) additional fees for add'l uses
In addition to charging more if our images are used larger or multiple times, we should also be charging more for our images that appear in multiple editions or media. This reinforces the concept of charging more to those clients who are receiving a greater benefit from the use of our images.
d) standard should be one-time, N.A., print rights only, in one issue of the magazine
e) web, foreign additions, affiliated pub's, archiving, derivative works, all extra
f) reference the recent NGS case
Example: The NGS recently lost a court case brought by contributors to their magazine. The NGS had taken their entire collection of every issue, put it on a CD, and added links to various places, a search engine, and other improvements to create a new product for sale. They argued that because they were essentially reprinting articles and photos that they had already paid for, that they did not need to pay again. The court found that by adding all the extras with the intent of creating a new product for sale, the NGS had violated the contributor's rights to control the making of derivative works. This concept of usage - of paying more to receive greater benefit, is grounded in the copyright law and has been upheld by the courts.
Why we maintain our copyright
1) It's the law, so why wouldn't we?
We'll get to this in the next part on copyright
2) provide future income to make up for lower rates in edit. than in advert. or corporate work
a) stock sales -- a single image may sell multiple times over its life, earning thousands, even tens of thousands, of dollars. Maintaining our copyright is what allows us to continue to earn income from our images, even after we retire or die.
b) Reprints -- reprints are magazine articles that are reprinted and repackaged by the magazine on behalf of the subject, and then used as advertising by the subjects. Publishers charge many thousands of dollars for reprints as they understand their value to the subject client. As photographs make up a valuable part of any story, photographers should be compensated for this use as well. If we give up our copyright, our ownership, then we give up the potential to profit from reprints.
D) How we go about reaching win / win - How Do We Get There?
3) First, we have to state what we want: use standard contracts and create a paper trail to get it in writing
c) terms under which we do business
these should be as favorable to us as possible - see the EP website for examples and explanations. Your clients probably will have their own set of terms, so you might need to meet in the middle. Still, having a set that is most favorable to you is a good starting point. Make sure your Terms & Conditions are printed on every estimate, contract, delivery memo, and invoice, and are clearly visible and readable. That way, a signature on any of these pieces of paper will incorporate the T&C's as well.
d) estimates
lays out, in writing and before the shoot, the exact parameters of a prospective job, the ultimate usage of the images (including size and number of insertions, media format, circulation or print run, any geographic limitations, exclusivity, and length of use), and the fees you will be charging. If both parties agree to and sign the estimate, it becomes a contract
e) assignment / job confirmation / contract
a legal document that lays out in writing the obligations of each party signing the contract. In order to be most enforceable, a contract must have three things: 1) it must be a "meeting of the minds" in other words, both parties must agree to the terms. If one party is pressured into signing, it is labeled a "contract of adhesion" and can be argued to be invalid; 2) there must be an exchange of goods or money in return for services rendered; 3) both parties must sign the contract. By implication, every contract must be negotiable. Otherwise, it is a one-sided contract and therefore a contract of adhesion.
f) delivery memos
should accompany any image that leaves your files. It officially places your image(s) in the care of another person and binds them to abide by your T&C; enables you to keep track all of your images at any given time
g) invoices
A bill; the last step and the conclusion of the contract. Standard business practice is to pay all invoices within thirty days - net 30; can request payment sooner, 21 or even 14, yet many businesses try to pay on 45, 60, or even 90 days. As with all parts of a contract, the amount of time to pay is negotiable, but should be stated clearly in your Terms & Conditions
h) get a signature to be most enforceable - contract law vs. IP law
with a signature on a contract, it becomes a legal document and a breach of that document is covered under an area of the law known as "contract law", which are state laws and can be judged in small claims or local courts. Copyright violations are under federal law and, while the penalties are stiffer, the enforcement procedure is also harder.
4) A good contract defines:
A solid contract should define: the scope of the job - what you're doing; the price you are charging - be sure to include space rate as nec.; when you will complete the job by; the specific usage of the images - one issue of XYZ Magazine for print only, or print and Web, or all electronic media, etc.; where the images may be used - State of Washington, King County, throughout N. America, worldwide usage, etc.; for how long - one time, six months, one year, unlimited; and exclusivity - can you reuse the images? Can you re-license them? How soon?
5) Bad Contracts - what to watch out for
Watch out for various "red flag" terms such as: Work for Hire; rights transfer; all rights in perpetuity; all media known or unknown; right to assign, transfer, sell, etc.; various re-use clauses; third party rights; long embargo periods,etc. Visit the EP website for reviewed contracts, both good and bad, from various sources, and learn to recognize the terminology.
6) Finally, we have to be willing to negotiate changes
a) photog. should be compensated fairly for each usage, but needs to be reasonable in addressing client's needs
Your client, after all, has a reason for hiring you in the first place, and may want the right to redistribute an image to the media, or in press kits, for example. Nothing wrong with this, as long as you are aware of it and compensated for it.
b) open a dialogue, don't let yourself be bullied, and be prepared to say no -- your work has value but only if you stand up for it
The ultimate choice you have is to not work for a client who is requiring more than you feel is fair for what they are willing to pay. Saying no means turning down potential income, but it means the opportunity to shoot new portfolio work, or make a new contact that might ultimately lead to better-paying work. Also, most of us rarely do our best work when we feel taken advantage of - we're unlikely to go out of our way to make the extra effort when we're feeling bullied; Do we really want to work for clients who don't respect our work and our effort enough to deal with us fairly?
c) compromise, but always let them know what / how much you're giving up
One important rule of business is to never give something up without getting something in return. So, when the client needs additional use, be sure to charge additional fees. As a way to keep licensing costs down, help them define what they DO want vs. what they MIGHT want to do with the images, so that you do not need to charge them for uses they wouldn't possibly need.
1. rights "packages" at discounted rates
are bundles of multiple uses of one or more images, for a single fee, usually at a discount. For instance, if you would normally charge $600 for a print use and $300 for Web use, you might offer both for only $750 if purchased at the same time. Rights packages are a valuable negotiating tool, as both parties give something up, but also gain in return. They get what they need for less money. You get a guaranteed second sale, albeit for less total money.
2. watch out for, "we'll make it up to you on the next round" and "you're the only one that's ever had a problem with this"
Neither is true; once read that Jay Maisel's response to the first comment was, "How about instead I charge you full price on this one, then I'll discount each subsequent assignment by 10% so that by the time you use me ten times, you will have gotten a free one." As to the second comment, that's why we're out here, trying to make each other smarter so that we won't be the first or only ones.
d) don't be afraid to negotiate, remember it's business, not personal
You can't have a thin skin in business. Learn to separate your art from your business. After all, we're in this to make a living.
e) get input, ask friends, peers, join EP, ASMP, APA, PNN, etc. and ask questions!
Despite all of us operating as independent business people, we're all in it together. If we can just take some of the tactics off of the negotiating table, like work-for-hire, rights transfers, etc, and add others back in, like space rates and greater payment for greater usage, then we can all compete on a level and fair playing field that judges each of us on our talent, skill, and vision, rather than on who's the cheapest this week and who's still in business. Learning to say NO to deals that do not respect our rights and the needs of our businesses is the strongest, loudest, single most effective tool that we have.
Proceed to Part 3