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[GWL]: photographer's fees

A topic I know a lot about, finally.

Now, here's another question.  It's for photographers, although
> I'm sure some authors will have something to say.
> 
> What is the difference in the fee/royalty arrangement you get between a
> book for which you can pull images out of your library ("Pretty Plants
> for Your Garden") and one for which you need to shoot everything new
> ("Gardening for Squirrels")?

This is an incredibly complicated question depending on many factors. 
Most importantly, is the book your own and how badly do you want it
published?  And how badly do you want to make money?  Or is the book the
publisher's (and writer's) and they need someone to provide images? 
Often when the publisher comes to you, they already have a good idea of
the type of book they want to do and what the budget is.

In the first scenario, where the book is your own, you will most likely
expect to get a royalty based contract just like writers.  The publisher
will look at your idea and your publishing history and try to determine
how many books it will sell.  If you are not the writer they must factor
in hiring a writer, or giving your collaborator a fee or split royalty
of some kind.  If they are very confident of sales they will offer you
an advance on royalties.  The more confident they are, the bigger the
royalty.  They certainly don't want to be caught paying you for more
books than they can sell.  The actual rights arrangement will likely be
the same whether you shoot new photography or supply existing work
(though if you provide some images that are previously published you
should make it clear that you can not give first use rights).

When you come to them with this book idea, whether or not you have to
shoot it new makes little difference, provided of course they can trust
you to produce new work on time or that the library photos are
unencumbered.  They want to know how much (or rather how little) they
would have to pay you to get the book out. They would much rather pay as
little as possible and promise royalties for when the book actually
sells.  So if you are planning to shoot those squirrels or have them
already captured, they really don't care - they just want to know how
much you need (call it fees, expenses, royalties, moolah) to deliver "X"
number of squirrels.  However, if you can get some monies for expenses,
this won't count against royalties.  But it doesn't mean there is more
money somewhere in the publishers piggy bank.  That money must come out
of the book.

In the second scenario, where the book is not yours and a publisher asks
you to provide images you will come across a dazzling number of
projects.  From no-name fly-by-night publishers who will promise lots of
money "on publication" (any maybe pull an Enron in the meantime) to
large publishing house that will offer a pittance so you can have the
privelege of being their photographer.  In general though, when the
publisher comes to you with an idea for a book, they already have a good
idea of what they intend to spend.  They have already visualized the
book as a small regional or "all the known universe" project.  They know
the writer's terms.  If it has to be shot new, they will have
anticipated costs and expenses.  So if it is a book you really want to
do, it is your responsibility to figure out the publisher's strategy and
not chase away the small publisher with too high a fee or get suckered
into a big project with too small a fee.

There are likely to be big diffences in the rights "arrangements"
depending on if it is new photography or stock photography.  Stock
photography is usually a simple fee for simple rights.  The publisher
will ask for lots of rights (universal, electronic, serial, etc.) for a
flat fee.  You must decide if their offer is enough to cover those
rights.  There is often wiggle room here because most publishers have no
use for publishing rights on the moon, they get their lawyers to ask for
the moon anyway.  For assignment photography you can expect to give up
more rights because they feel a certrasin degree of ownership over the
idea.  You will come across work-for-hire projects.  If the money is
very good these can be OK, but be aware of ever giving up more rights
than the publisher really needs.
 
I love doing garden books and will look at creative ways to make things
happen.  Without publishers, I couldn't be a garden photographer so I
try to look at every book project from the publishers side and get a
clear picture of what kind of book they want to publish.  This is true
whether I am shopping my idea to a publisher, whether a publisher comes
to me, or whether the writer and I have collaborated before.  Before
"arrangements" can be made, everyone must have a good idea of what type
of book the publisher is capable of publishing, a realistic idea of
revenue it can generate, and a reasonable idea of what part the
photography plays in generating that revenue.  You must know the
publishers real needs.  They can't sell books in Australia if you are
afraid to give them the right.  You must know the size of the printing
and the number of photographs involved.  There are any number of
complicated variables in all this, but no matter if it is an niche book
with a regional publisher of a trade book for an internationl market,
there will be a budget that must make sense to everyone.

Thank goodness.

Saxon Holt

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