Using my pictures for a Greeting Card company..

[Silhouette_drummer]

Ok so I searched for a while and couldn't really find quite what I was looking for.. A lady my Mom works with is starting a greeting card company and wants to use my photos for the cards. She is asking me how much I would want for them and such and I just want to make sure I don't short change myself. I've been doing tons of research but I cant really find any solid numbers for someone starting out like me.

Would it be best for me to just charge a one time fee per photo for her to use? Or do you think it would be better to go for a percentage of cards sold?
Sorry for all the questions I just don't want to mess this opportunity up! Any help would be greatly appreciated.

-Todd

Depends....

How well do you think she will be at selling her cards? And how much do you trust her book keeping?

[Silhouette_drummer]

Interesting points.. Do you think that I should know more of her business plan and where she intends to market to? That way I could decide if a percentage would be smarter I guess.. Hmm

[Jim Bryant]

Yes you should. You could have her purchase the cards directly from you (so that you get your money back) and she can mark up to sell to clients.

[Silhouette_drummer]

Not a bad idea Jim, but I know she already has a graphic designer and such.. I dont think she would be willing to let me middle man her like that. I think she wants it to be her thing and she just wants the pictures. If thats the case how much do you think I could get away with asking her for? Is $50 a picture plus 3% royalty to much for a starter price?

[Drkranger]

Perhaps for reference, I contacted a postcard company on the Northern California coast about publishing photos with them for their postcards. They said that depending upon the photo, they'd pay $75-$100 per photo for a 1 run print. I don't actually remember how many was in that run so that might be the only variable.

[ramirez0715]

I don't know how much to charge. But I would definitely copyright the images and "lease" the images out to her via contract. Be sure to list the exact details of the terms of use.

Great video (not free) on how to protect yourself.

Edward C. Greenberg & Jack Reznicki | Copyright | Kelby Training


If it helps try some educational math...

Wholesale/Retail price of greeting card
- Cost of printing greeting card
= Net Profit / card
Allows you to roughly come up witha price range

So for example: (Random #"s)
$2.99
- $1.50
= $1.49 / Net Profit

Of Course ther is overhead and what not but if she is printing say 500 greeting cards per image that is a profit of $745. This lets you charge $100 + per image with TOA per 500 prints. Or whatever your terms might be.

You will have to do some research on how much printing cost and a rough wholesale/retail cost and do some math depending on how she will be selling them. But hopefully this will help you make a somewhat better decision.

You may also want to consider what the license for stock images is as well as the cost to use them for this purpose so that you don't outbid yourself out of business.

Hope this helps a little.

Good Luck

[Silhouette_drummer]

ok wait.. Images are copyrighted from the moment you take them though. I will definitely right up a contract stating everything we decide on, but as far as I knew there is no reason to "copyright" images. I can license them to her which means I could still use them depending on what is in the contract. Or am I wrong?

[ramirez0715]

Technically you are right. They are copyright from the moment you click the shutter. The difference is how much you were to get should someone infring on the copyright. So technically you should always copyright your images properly. You should definitley look into that online learning I think it is worth it. The copyright process is quite simple from my understanding. Never done it. Not a professional but if I were to start selling them then i would. It is inexpensive. Also, check out this site if you've never heard of them they are great. I know it really is geared towards photoshop. But they have a guest Ed Greenberg (copyright attorney) that explains it very well.

Photoshop User TV

[Jim Bryant]

Yup, they are copyrighted from tne moment you click the shutter, but you still have to register them with the US Copyright office in order to make it legal in a court of law if someone used your images without permission.