Re: Providing Photos for a Book

**S* H* <s*@saxonholt.com>**

Doreen -   I have done many, many books with all sorts of contracts.   
I would urge you to look at the photos as an "expense" not counted  
against royalties so that you do not have to earn back their advance.   
As a package they may not go for that or they may reduce your royalty  
percentage, but if photography is a big part of the book it has high  
value and I woudl try to get that up front.

Get a good idea of how many photos they expect to part of the book  
(50,100, 200) so you have a realistic idea of how to price it.  Don't  
give them a flat fee unless you are sure how many photos are  
required.  Pick  a dollar amount per photo, be it $5 or $500, that you  
will absolutely not go below (for your own self worth) and negotiate  
with yourself, before you talk to the publisher, as to what you would  
like to really ask the publisher.

As an author you will expect to give them rights to market or  
serialize the photos and re-use them in the hoped for future editions  
without additional payment to you, but don't let them add a clause  
that they can use your photos in their other publications, even  
compilations, if the photos and text are reformatted to a new product.

As an aside, and this is advice to anyone submitting digital files to  
publisher, be sure your photos have embedded metadata / copyright info  
and that the disk you submit to the publisher has a ReadMe simple text  
file that identifies the project.  The disk may sit around years after  
the project is done and you want to be sure there is some way to find  
you if there is some other use years later.

Good luck.  Ask for lots of moolah for your photos.  If it is a photo  
driven book, they may be more valuable than the text (no offense... <g>)

Saxon

Saxon Holt Photography
- http://www.saxonholt.com
415-898-8880
---------------------------------------------------------
Advisory Committee, Stock Artists Alliance
- http://www.stockartistsalliance.org
Member - ASMP, ASPP, GWA

On Feb 24, 2010, at 3:26 PM, gardenwriters-request@lists.ibiblio.org  
wrote:

> Subject: [GWL] Providing Photos for a Book
> To: <gardenwriters@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Message-ID: <637DE62ECFB84973A8AF9E3E2FB68A2A@Doreen>
> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> I've written a couple of books, so I know how to negotiate a decent  
> advance and royalty agreement.  But, now I'm faced with a proposed  
> photo-driven book for which the publisher wants me to provide all  
> the photography.  I can do this easily, as I have extensive archives  
> on the topic.  But, I don't have clue what to ask for as payment.
>
> Do you expect to be paid outright for the use of your photos in the  
> book and in marketing of it?  Or, is a larger advance and a bigger  
> royalty percentage better?  Are there any pitfalls to watch for, any  
> potential contract problems or other things of which I should be  
> aware?
>
> Hoping you photographers and photo-journalists on the list can shed  
> some light.
> Doreen Howard

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