Seeking advice about commercial licensing

[manifestphoto]

Hi all,

I mostly do nature/art photography, but occasionally I pick up commercial work with people who need something that I know I can do well. Last year I did a job involving some night photography for a landscape lighting designer. I charged him a session fee to cover my time, plus a fee of $75 for each image that he selected to license for promotional purposes.

He recently contacted me and said that he is writing a book for Timber Press, would like to use some of the images, and wants to know what my fee for this will be. I'm enough of a newbie to the world of commercial licensing & rights that I'm not really sure what my answer should be.

To clarify, here are some of the relevant terms in the license agreement that we already signed:

1. I retain copyrights to the images
2. He is granted non-exclusive, non-transferrable right to use and reproduce the images for commercial and promotional purposes, including web and print publication.
3. He does not have the right to grant third parties permission to reproduce the images.
4. Photo credit and/or web links are to appear with print/web uses of the images.

I guess the truth is that I'm not entirely sure what I've already given rights for, or whether this is something that I should charge more for. And if I do charge more, I have no idea what's reasonable/normal.

Can anyone give some insight into this?
Thanks!

 

[tirediron]

It sounds like you're in good shape so far, with the exception of "volume" that is, how many times he can use the image at what size, in other words, using the image in 1000 flyers at 3x5 is a LOT different, price-wise than using it at 1200x764 as the banner image on a website that gets 10,000 hits/day. As for the book, it would depend on the number of images, size of the images, anticipated print-run, etc. $500 - 1000/image?

 

[manifestphoto]

Hi, thanks for your quick reply. Maybe it was naive of me not to specify use or volume in the original license . . . honestly I assumed that since he paid me for the shoot and a small fee for the images, that would basically allow him to use the images for any web/print collateral without additional payment.

Something like a book does seem like a different ballpark, though. I'll ask him about the print-run. I believe he wants to use 5 images, not sure how large. Suppose they'll be a half-page each, about how many copies of the book are you estimating to come up with the $500-1000 number?

I really appreciate your help!

 

[orljustin]

He's not going to pay you $500 per image. You might get another $75 per. Tell him that's for the first 5k, and then another if it goes over.