I am self publishing a small run of a children’s biography of a sport’s star. I contacted the photographer whose photo I wanted to use for my cover and he told me to make him an offer. I explained that it was a small run, print on demand situation and he said that was fine but to make him an offer. I asked him what he usually charges and he said anywhere from 10.00 to 10,000 and to just make him an offer. He was very nice but he obviously didn’t want to set the price himself. Any ideas on what to offer him or can someone suggest a web site which may give some advice on what to offer for a cover photo? Since this is print on-demand, I have NO IDEA how many copies my book might sell.
Offer him 20.00 and if he comes back and says no then get him to price it properly - as he should be doing.
you can use this calculator if you want a rough idea.
http://www.photographersindex.com/stockprice.htm
It would be editorial use and under 10,000 print run.
It doesn’t actually seem to give a cost for a front cover but play around with a bit.
HEHEHE… Basically he was asking you what is it worth to you. If he quoted you 5 grand you would say it was a short run… he was trying to be fair but how can he…. If you were to only sell say 5 books… where is you profit? And you really can’t ask him to base his price off of 5 books.
Haggle. Start low and see when he goes with it. Since he won’t set the price and you’re not sure how many prints your selling, you might as well start at ten dollars. Maybe he’d take an incentive like a small percentage of your sales rather than a set price.
I was offered between £500-800 per image for the use of front cover publishing, but I was a recent graduate and it did not guarantee any income.
Depends on how sort after the photographer is but I would offer around £400 and see if he laughs in your face.
Offer him a contract on a commission per unit sold basis. That way you can make your profit regardless, you just have to agree to track sales and send him a percentage of your sales as his royalty.
Go to one of the stock photo sites such a Istock and see what usage rights for a cover would cost from them. This gives you a good objective, competetitive rate from which to argue.
I think you’ll find it’s not really all that expensive for a short run book.