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Paltry Editorial Rates
Yesterday I received an email from a former client wanting to license an image.I shot over 200 assignments for this client over a 10 year span, giving discounts when I could, and busting my rear to stay within budget (on expenses). Then, when they stopped working with me on a regular basis (no explanation- I'd only heard "you give us better and better work" during the last few years), my business took a hit. In 2004 when we talked about working together again, the new editor said, in a condescending "Well maybe we'll work with you if you'll give us discounts". I said "I did give you discounts....for 10 years". Today when they came back with their stock image rates, this is what they were: Cover: $1000.00
Spread: $600.00
Full Page: $300.00
1/2 Page: $150.00
1/4 page: 125.00 Keep in mind, this is one of the biggest travel magazines in the US. And if you think this is good money in this economy, think again- these rates or at or lower than 1990 rates- 19 years ago- and back then they rates stunk (and hadn't risen for 15 years themselves). On top of it, they gave me a "let us know when you're sending the image, take it or leave it" attitude, as many editorial clients have in the past. I left it. By the roadside, next to dead squished newspapers that never paid diddly. I refuse to be strong-armed from an industry (editorial) that will get you no where if you except the ridiculously low rates. A professional photographer isn't someone who gets published, it's someone who makes a living from their photography. And you can't go and shoot, catalog your work, buy digital gear, computers and software, market your images, do your accounting, run your website, so on and so on, at 1990 rates. This is why, in the history of art, artists have make less on their own work, and others make out like bandits - too many photography don't say "no".
March 10, 2009
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