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Image Sales

John_Nevill

New member
I'm relatively new to the world of image sales and would like some guidance.

Here's the situation, I may have the opportunity to sell one of my images to a publisher, for cover use. The magazine has a circulation of ~1m and there may also be a spin off to sell fine art prints once the magazine is published.

Will the magazine want to buy the complete rights and limit my ability to sell prints, if so what would should I expect and avoid?

or,

Do I limit the image sale to magazine cover use only and sell prints myself, again what would one expect and avoid.

I'm not looking for monetary specifics, but rather an idea on typical size/quality/circulation of the publication scales. Are images price quantified in these terms?

The main reason I ask, is that back in June I sold the complete digital rights of three images for two years without any idea what I was doing. The money offered seemed good, but i've since learnt that I may have undersold myself.

Thanks in advance.
 

Paul Burwell

New member
John,

I would never sell the complete rights without some big money being involved. Publishers are typically used to dealing with photographers and the usual rights and pricing for using images.

For a magazine cover with a subscription base between 1 and 3 million you should be looking at compensation somewhere between $950 and $1800 US dollars.

Check out the site at http://photographersindex.com/stockprice.htm for some pricing and sale terms guidance.
 

John_Nevill

New member
Thanks Nikolai, I'll digest.

Paul, would those esimates relate directly for use in the publication rather than any subsequent print sales?
 

John_Nevill

New member
I got the elbow, not due to bargaining (I wish) but the photo editor went with a different image. It only took them 5 weeks to make their decision. BTW. It was National Geographic for Kids.
I was on tender hooks most of the time and finally decided to email them. They said it might be used inside but I got beat on the cover...que cera.
The image was an Ocelot Cub
On a more postive note my Great Grey Owl made the Canon One 2006/07 brochure along with two others this week, so i'm really chuffed.
Thanks for asking Ray, its appreciated.
 
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