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From your initial contact you will receive many rejections - if you receive any response at all! Be prepared to have most of your submissions returned with no explanation, but do not take this rejection as a comment on your photography or on your approach - it is merely a reflection of the way that picture selling works. However, it is important that you can accept this rejection and maintain your motivation to keep going - a dogged, persistent approach will pay off. When you get a positive response to your initial suggestion act promptly and thoroughly. Read the response carefully and set-out to deliver what you previously promised or modify as required by the response that you receive. Take particular note of any deadlines indicated or any limits placed on word length (if submitting an article) or picture numbers - don't be tempted to provide more than suggested, it will not be appreciated. It is important to package your material carefully and professionally - creating an impression that you are professional in your approach can certainly do no harm. Provide any written material in both hardcopy and electronically (on a floppy disc). I would suggest that you package your slides in the clear plastic file pages - which for 35mm slides usually accept 20 slides per page. These are very convenient for picture buyers to use - they can quickly scan the images, they can examine each image under a loupe without handling them, and they can extract an individual slide from a page with ease when making a selection. No other form of packaging offers all of these advantages.
Make sure that each slide is captioned - I would avoid providing a separate sheet with captions cross-referenced with the slide number - this is very inconvenient for the viewer to use. Much better to have a clear, computer generated label attached to the slide mount. Always provide a full caption, providing as much detail as you can. Finally, make sure that each slide also has your name on it, together with the copyright symbol. I also recommend buying envelope stiffeners so that you can sandwich your slides between them, thereby keeping them very in the post. Of course if you want to save money, you can make your own using cardboard in 'Blue Peter' fashion - but this will look less professional. Digital submissions are increasing, particularly as printing shifts from film based production to printing straight from pdf files. Magazine production, postcard and some greetings card production has already begun to shift, but products requiring larger picture sizes, such as calendars, are still not making this move. Enquire whether a digital submission of high resolution scans on a CD is acceptable - if it is, then you can save the hassles and risks of sending your valuable originals or expensive dupes through the post. If you read books on selling photographs that have been published in the US, you will no doubt read about the importance of sending out a delivery memo and also including a standard set of terms and conditions. It is important to keep a record of all of the slides that you send out, but in my experience including a delivery memo with all of the slides listed is of very little value to the picture buyer and any terms and conditions that you send are highly likely to be ignored. Step 7 - Pricing
When picture buyers buy an image they do not acquire the image itself, or the copyright to that image - this is very important and you should avoid any publisher that wants to buy the copyright to an image - unless they pay very well for it. Invariably picture buyers are purchasing the right to use the image for a specific purpose and for a specific period of time. For example, most magazines will purchase single-use rights for an image - which means that it will be used in one edition of the magazine only. It is an interesting question whether this allows them to also use the image on their internet site as well. For other types of products the rights purchased will be for a specific use - for example picture post card rights, and for specific geographical areas - e.g. UK Only, or Worldwide, and for a specific period - such as 5 years. Book publishers sometimes refer to the geographical distribution in terms of language - e.g. English language rights - meaning that the image will be used in any English language edition of the book, where-ever it is sold. Some publications use royalties as the basis for paying for pictures, either with or without an upfront payment (advance). Smaller publishing companies will often use this method of payment as it significantly reduces their risks and it also helps their cash flow - they are not having to pay up for images ahead of getting revenue in the door. The downside for the photographer is that he or she shares the risks of a poor selling product with the publisher - the upside is that they share in the benefits of a good selling product. The table below provides some indication of how royalty based remuneration works - taking as an example a calendar that uses 13 photographs (including the cover) and retails for £8.99 and where 3,000 calendars were sold.
The table below provides some indication of the current rates paid for images for different uses. This should only be used as a guide - these are actual rates quoted from specific publishers and picture users and they are accurate at the time of publication (April 2002). Please note that there may be considerable variation around these levels.
Greetings cards and calendar publishers often use royalty payments rather than purchase of usage rights. There is considerable variation within the magazine market. I have selected a few magazines to show the variability, in rates. To some extent the rate paid will vary depending upon the circulation of the magazine, with the larger circulation magazines often offering the highest rates - competition to get into these magazines, however, will be intense.
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