[stevegong]

The rich bastards of the Alumni Association at my university want to use one of my photos for a full page ad in their next issue of the alumni newsletter.

This is the image:

http://people.virginia.edu/~rg8s/lawnsmall.jpg

How much do I charge them for running it once?

Anyone deal with this shit before?

Thanks a lot.

[Windowsrookie]

1 million dollars!

[PKIDelirium]

I'd say $500-$1000.

[AWR]

The going rate, perhaps.

Nice photo, btw.

[Mugge]

I don't know bout the charge, but make sure you get your name and email on it. Perhaps more business will come your way,

[stevegong]

Originally Posted by PKIDelirium I'd say $500-$1000.

Do you know this for a fact that this is the going rate?

Right now the art director of the magazine is asking me to name a price. Do you guys think i should ask him what the going rate is?

[PKIDelirium]

Nah that's just a wild guess. Thinking back to some things now, a couple years ago a newspaper was paying $250 for one-time run, small size photos for articles.

[Fahrenheit]

Firstly, I love the photo. Secondly, I would ask him what he thinks he should pay, based on previous experience. By naming a price you could go badly wrong:

1) You could understimate it: "5 bucks! ";
"You want us to pay $5? Fine by us!"
"No, I meant!!"

2) You could over estimate and offend him:
"2500 dollars"
"No thanks buddy"
"oh."

Either way, by pricing yourself badly you're going to come off looking a bit amateur and putting them off. As its your first go, take a bet and go with what they say...if they still want you to name the price, be honest with them and then just blow out a figure of about $400. If they go "Wo, thats high" you know that you are not in the write area.

I know that I have been absolutely no help, but then, the only photo I ever sold was to my mum.

[Suddoo]

Originally Posted by Windowsrookie 1 million dollars!

Please don't tell me that was you

[Windowsrookie]

Nooooooooooooooooononononononononono. no.

[stevegong]

Originally Posted by Windowsrookie Nooooooooooooooooononononononononono. no.

Cut it. Everyone knows you're "1lonelyangel"

[Windowsrookie]

lol

[Banana]

Idea!

Call up another university art director and ask him what's the going rate for photos that usually go in their magazines or whatever it is. Call a couple. That'll give you the market rate to offer your university art director.

[zsummers]

Originally Posted by stevegong The rich bastards of the Alumni Association...

Why are we talking market here? If I read stevegong's question right, they are rich and they are bastards. The going rate for photos for rich bastards has to be at least 10K.





p.s. I keed, I keed. But nice photo, regardless.

[Partial]

Originally Posted by Banana Idea! Call up another university art director and ask him what's the going rate for photos that usually go in their magazines or whatever it is. Call a couple. That'll give you the market rate to offer your university art director.

Excellent advice right there.

[drewprops]

If they pay money for stuff and don't have a regular photographer you could:

1. Find out the going rate.
2. Cite the going rate, then back off of it by X dollars IF they agree to use you three more times during the course of the year.
3. Welcome to the world of reciprocity!

[intlplby]

that photo is really really nice.... i think you could get more for it than your standard picture...

it's not like your standard picture of students walking around campus... it's a very well composed picture of a major campus location and i think it really sells that part of the campus well...

see if you could negotiate it into a much larger deal... i.e. try to sell more rights to the picture for more.... i.e. full rights for maybe 5-10 more or something....

considering it is UVa that means you could get more than for most other schools... there is a lot of money in the alumni association there...

heck you may be able to talk to the school bookstore about running large size prints of it.... there would probably be some alumni that might be interested in having a picture like that on their wall or people giving it as a graduation gift

[chucker]

I'd charge $300.

[Windswept]

Originally Posted by Banana Idea! Call up another university art director and ask him what's the going rate for photos that usually go in their magazines or whatever it is. Call a couple. That'll give you the market rate to offer your university art director.

Not a bad idea. But you might not get past the secretary. Ask her. She might know.

Originally Posted by intlplby that photo is really really nice.... i think you could get more for it than your standard picture... it's not like your standard picture of students walking around campus... it's a very well composed picture of a major campus location and i think it really sells that part of the campus well... see if you could negotiate it into a much larger deal... i.e. try to sell more rights to the picture for more.... i.e. full rights for maybe 5-10 more or something....

Of course, this is what people have agents for. I don't know if photographers have agents though.

considering it is UVa that means you could get more than for most other schools... there is a lot of money in the alumni association there... heck you may be able to talk to the school bookstore about running large size prints of it.... there would probably be some alumni that might be interested in having a picture like that on their wall or people giving it as a graduation gift

You should have large size prints made, matte a few up, maybe have at least one framed with glass. Tell the college bookstore that the alum magazine wants to use your pic in their magazine, and you wondered if the bookstore would be interested in selling your matted/framed prints on consignment. You could make some major bucks with a nice photo like that, selling to students and alums.

On second thought, have some smaller prints matted up too. Students would be more likely to buy those. Maybe have a few posters made, and see if the bookstore wants to sell those.

Also put an ad in the alumni magazine. Might be expensive, but you're bound to cover the costs with a few nice sales.

About how much to charge the alums: there are books called Writer's Market, where writers find publishers for their work. In it, magazines generally list what they pay for short stories/articles, etc.; publishers list what they're looking for wrt fiction/nonfiction, with price ranges for payment.

I imagine there's some kind of Photographer's Market type book. If so, you *really* need to find a copy. Call the university library and see if they have such a volume. In it, you could find a million places to sell your photos, with price ranges of what publishers pay.

Be sure to look into ways to protect your work so it doesn't get stolen, as does so much intellectual property, in Asia and elsewhere.

[macleod]

Originally Posted by stevegong The rich bastards of the Alumni Association at my university want to use one of my photos for a full page ad in their next issue of the alumni newsletter. This is the image: http://people.virginia.edu/~rg8s/lawnsmall.jpg How much do I charge them for running it once? Anyone deal with this shit before? Thanks a lot.

Wahoowah! Beautiful picture stevegong!

[Wyatt]

Originally Posted by macleod Wahoowah! Beautiful picture stevegong!

Yeah, that is an amazing shot. I'd probably charge them $300-500, but I don't have any more experience with this than you do. (Just make sure you get your name and contact info in there as well--as others have said, that might lead to future paid work.)

[stevegong]

Apparently while this is a full page ad, my pic will only be a strip in the middle of the page, so if you imagine it horizontally on a vertical orientation page (us letter size), then my pic would be pretty small in it.

They also cropped it so that it doesn't show the golden leaves blowing in the wind, which is what I think makes the pic interesting.

Fuckers...

That pano is quick and dirtily made and has imperfections. I'm going to try to make it better tomorrow with the help from my friends.

Great ideas, thank you all for the support. Finding jobs upon graduation aint easy...

[Wyatt]

Originally Posted by stevegong Finding jobs upon graduation aint easy...

Neither is pimpin'

Seriously, though, good luck, Steve.