Month: July 2008

Heather Morton has some really great stuff today. She asks other ABs about their attitudes on photographers contributing to the art direction (how far is too far) and, even more importantly for us marketing folks, whether delivering images on a DVD with hand written labels hurt you. Note that the responses generally fall under the theme of “we notice everything and more attention to detail is good.”

I hear often from photographers who say that they get terrible contracts but they “have to sign them” or they won’t get the project. I counsel to try and negotiate the contract, but if it’s lousy and the client says “sign it as is or no project,” to walk away. Often photographers will say “you don’t know what that is like” when, in fact, I do, both from my experience as a rep and studio manager (where I first learned that a Sharpie is a photographer’s best tool) and in my current business. Take what happened earlier this week as an example.

I got a call early Monday morning. Actually, my phone rang, but I did not recognize the number and, as I was in the middle of something else, I chose not to answer. No voicemail was left. 5 or so minutes later, same thing happened, and still no voicemail. About 10 minutes after that, I had completed my other task when the same number rang in. I answered. By this time I was curious (and a bit annoyed, honestly, for the lack of voicemail–that’s just rude) about what could be so important that someone called 3 times in less than 30 minutes. 

The caller was from a web company that “distributes content” and which monetizes that content through advertising and pays the “contributors” a share of that advertising revenue. The guy on the phone talked about how he noticed that I had all these articles, etc., and that he thought I’d be a great fit for their “digital photography channel.” He explained that, essentially, they would post my articles and I would get a cut of the advertising. On the surface, this sounded like it had some potential. As you all know, I have been looking for alternative methods of monetizing my work especially since school is going to cut into my income here very shortly. So I told the guy to send me more info.

He did. He sent me two docs–one which described the site and how it worked and the other was the contract. And OMG what a contract. It had an entire section devoted to the contributor assigning all rights to the web company with it then granting the contributor the right to publish the material only in book or ebook form. Yeah…right. This wasn’t a line or two snuck into the contract–no, it was an entire numbered section with multiple sub-sections. Clearly, they wanted the rights and I could tell negotiations were right out.

I sent the guy a reply email this morning politely explaining that I didn’t think we’d be a good fit because the channel he described was really not for pros, who are my audience (it was maybe “prosumer” at best), and also that I advocate creatives defending their rights–not signing them away as his contract required (you’d think he’d know that if he had read my site and articles, as he had claimed). I ended with a line expressing my hope that he would amend the contract to be more equitable, but I am not really hopeful that he will do any such thing. 

I know I would have made money if I had agreed to that contract. I also know I could definitely use that money. But more importantly, I know that my price for selling out is one hell of a lot higher than a portion of advertising revenue from some About.com-wannabe site. 

This makes me think also of a Carl’s Jr. ad that is airing these days. If (big if, but this makes it look so) this is legitimate, then the woman must have signed a release (or else boy does she have a nice fat lawsuit). If she signed the release prior to dining, then she didn’t read it or else she would have known that something was up (if afterwards, then it’s even more sad).

The point is that we ALL get crappy contracts–bad releases that permit others to humiliate us for profit, rights-grabbing “agreements,” etc. We have to take the power we all have and say “no” to them. To do otherwise is to sell out, and usually for far too little…like the price of a burger.

No big surprise…Getty will cull images from Flickr for licensing. Smart move on their part–most of the people on Flickr will probably agree to get pennies on any dollar earned via Getty, if anything, leaving more $$ for Getty in each transaction. 

Not to get all “think good thoughts and the world is your oyster” or anything, but have you ever noticed how people who give are often the very same people who are very successful, especially in the creative industries?

Sure, there are total jerks who make great money out there, but I think they aren’t half as successful (read: happy, liked, peaceful) as those people who also give of themselves, just to help. 

I’ve been pretty lucky on a recent project–I’ve asked some people for permission to use parts of their work and not one has been even the slightest bit difficult about it. And all of them are successful (yes, on various levels) and all of them certainly had the right to make demands, but none exercised that right. They were each gracious.

We talk all the time about not “giving it away” when it comes to your work, but I think that sometimes we accidentally lose the compassion and humanity that giving can engender because we lump together not commercially giving away work with not giving at all. 

Something to think about…

Gary Matoso sent me links to the fabulous Ira Glass discussing what it means to be a creative and, more importantly, to make creative work. In these videos, he talks about how persistence is the greatest virtue and how you need to make a lot of work, and dump the crap. And about taste.

I couldn’t agree more…on everything.

Don’t let the fact that he’s talking about a different medium…you are doing exactly the same kind of work he (and his colleagues) are.

(Oh, and there are more of these vids in the series…on YouTube, of course)

For some of us Americans, a British secret decoder ring might help a bit, but you’ll still get enough out of this to have a good laugh anyway:

 

Hat tip to Barry Schwartz and artsjournal.com

As I mentioned in some previous posts, I have been looking for ways to monetize this blog and a few other things I have been offering for free to you fine readers. What with law school eating into my time to work one-on-one with clients, I need to shift my revenue generation sources a bit, doncha know.

I really did not want to start a subscription-based service, but I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of running ads either. While they are getting much more acceptable on blogs, I still think they look kind of cheesy. I have also been approached by some photo-related vendors about sponsorship, but again, that’s still essentially putting ads on my stuff.

Then I thought about what NIN and others have started doing: offering their products for free or whatever you want to pay. Ding! Here’s a potential solution! So, starting today, you will find a button there on the right (when you are on the main page, or click here to see) where you can make a contribution. 

It’s a simple system: Like what you read here? Then pony up some buck-os, if you want…or not, your choice. The contribution will be processed by e-junkie.com and GoogleCheckout, so it’s safe and legitimate, and pretty simple to do, too.

If you listen to Creative Lube, there are similar buttons on that page (this one, actually, not on iTunes) too. Again, totally voluntary–nothing has a price. 

As I’ve already noted, hopefully this system will permit me to NOT add advertising to any BAP items. That would make me happy, too. 🙂

Thanks, as always, for reading and being a part of this. I couldn’t do it without you. 

P22 type foundry did a cool deck of cards a while ago and sold them. They were, essentially, promos, but because they were just so fabulous, people bought them up and they sold out very quickly.

Now they are doing it again and I was lucky enough to get one of the decks (click for much larger version):

This is just beautiful. Each card is a work of art. And yes, I paid for it. 

This is the kind of thinking I want to encourage all of you to engage in. When you have a great idea, figure out some way to make it happen–like selling the promotional piece or how about making a contest where the winners get the high-end piece (reducing the number required to be produced and making it a limited edition!).