HELP! How to price a photo?

pesphoto

pesphoto

Veteran
Local time
1:05 PM
Joined
Oct 28, 2005
Messages
3,894
A New York book publisher wants to buy one of my B/W photos for a hard cover fiction book. I have no idea what to charge. Has anyone had any experience with this? What do I ask for?
 
Congrats!
I sold a picture once to an advertising agency in Brazil .. for use on one of their clients Brochure.
I asked around in the advertising world (where i have connections) what a reasonable price would be and was faced with a price-range from $200 to $8000 :)
In your case marketprice will depend on how many books they want to print.
I would try to find that out ... second try to figure out what a picture at Getty images or another serious stock agency would cost.
I would charge about a similar price .. perhaps a bit lower .. if you like to be published this way (it should be flattering :)).
More important insist you are credited in the book as the taker of the picture ..... i found the latter more important.
So in my case i asked $350,- got the credits -- and they sent me a couple of Brochures.

Just my 2 cents
 
Last edited:
Going rate for book covers is around $900 in the stock world. I have images with Getty and Corbis and that is what they sell for before commission deductions.
 
I have no idea, but I just wanted to say CONGRATULATIONS!
Is it possible to see the picture they picked, even in a bad quality? Anyway, I'm very glad for you.
Marc
 
remember to ask "what's your budget?"

I can't remember who said it (someone here I think), but it was said recently. Ask them what their budget is, and if they try tip-toeing around a price to get a good deal, give them a stupidly high price, say $1500, and follow it "and shall we haggle down from there?".

I used to work in a second hand store and people would try and get a good deal, and catch you out on an offer, so you want to ask for more than you want, and when they laugh in your face, play it off as "well name a reasonable price then".
 
$1500 is not exactly a stupidly high price. Rather than making yourself look like a newbie at the game you should go in with a serious attitude and knowing what you want... Doing some research in advance definitely doesn't hurt, I do recommend asking this elsewhere to get more reactions though, RFF is not the best place. That said, what kind of book is it? A big publishing company? A known writer? Estimated amount of copies?

I certainly wouldn't go below $500. Don't get ripped off, for your sake and for the sake of not undermining the market worse than it has been getting lately...
 
Check what CORBIS charges publishers, perhaps. Asking $1,000 plus a bunch of the covers of the book, if not the book itself, to use for self promotion, or at least one good, frameable copy, unfolded, of the cover, doesn't seem unreasonable, but if its a small publisher and that price is too high for them, you have to balance the value of having one of your photos on a book vs the cash. I'd say the PR is more important if this is one of your first sales. Way more important.
 
Congrats on the sale. Gotta love it when money just drops into your lap for doing something you love. Check out sethresnick.com for pricing. If you fill out the registration form (don't worry, I've never received any spam or solicitations from him), you can get to his pricing guidlines. His pricing is pretty standard for the publishing world.

Jonathan
 
Congratulations! Hey, if they need a few Paris landscapes, give me a ring :D

But really, congrats. Are there agents for this sort of thing? Perhaps you should look into that too?
 
Thanks everyone for all the ideas. I spoke to the publisher. It is a fiction book with a north american run of 5000. They offered me $600 for the cover and I took it. A hard negotiator I am not. So get this, I looked up th eauthor on Amazon, and they already have the cover of this new book with my photo on it. Man, they are fast. My photo is the black and white of the underpass. It's a book set in Providence! KInda cool. They are sending me a flat of the cover for my portfolio. I may just frame it.
Here it is on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Gravewriter-M...=pd_bbs_1/104-1360888-6103167?ie=UTF8&s=books
 
That's great. I might review the book on Amazon and say that, "I particularly enjoyed the photograph on the front cover."

Waddya think?
 
hehe, thanks! Could be the start of a whole new career.

The publisher was searching for photos of Providence on the web, since the book takes place here, and came across my website. Pure luck.

thanatos said:
That's great. I might review the book on Amazon and say that, "I particularly enjoyed the photograph on the front cover."

Waddya think?
Click to expand...
 
Wow! Congrats on getting published. I also think the front cover is kewl. I hope this could lead to bigger and better things for you.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom