going exclusive with stock agency

<p>Hello<br>

I am starting to supply photographs to stock agencies. I am wondering if its better to go exclusive or non-exclusive, with the stock company. Please can someone let me know their thoughts. Thank You. </p>

<p>Depends on which agency you're talking about. All agencies I'm with I've signed non-exclusive contracts with. But that's what works for me. For you things might be different - hard to know without any more info.</p>

<p>I have contracts with several of the larger agencies and have never seen or been offered an exclusive contract . Nor do I see any particular merit in tying oneself exclusively to one agency- for example because it would prevent you from taking photographs not selected by Agency A to Agency B.<br>

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Are you getting the question of <strong><em>Image Exclusivity</em></strong> confused with that of photographer exclusivity? Most of the worthwhile agencies expect you to give them exclusivity on the images they accept and similars. If you won't accept that you will be ruling yourself out of a large portion of the market. The definition of "similars" will vary by agency.</p>

<p>Thank you. I am sorry for not explaining my question well. <br>

Yes, I am talking of image exclusivity. I want to be a part of the bigger market with worthwhile agencies. So I think going image exclusive is the better thing to do. <br>

I have been searching for a honest and worthwhile agencies. Please can you guys let me know of about 10 worthwhile agencies. Is there any website where I can find worthwhile agencies? I used to be a part of a very big agency, which does not pay the photographer its dues. <br>

Thank you very much once again. Kind Regards. </p>

<p>Cobis, Getty, Alamy, AGE Photostock, Scanpix, Photo Researchers, Black Star, Magnum, V the list can go on forever pretty much since there are a lot of great agencies out there. What do you shoot? I mean you don't want to take a bunch of macro flower photographs to an agency like Magnum...</p>

<p>I photograph children. Please can you let me know of a good agencies to supply children photographs to.<br>

Are photolibrary.com and plainpicture.com , good agencies to sell children photographs ?<br>

Thank You Mikael.</p>

<p>Just a thought - Being exclusive is betting that the agency you choose will a) survive, b) continue to represent you, and c) continue to be a company you want to be associated with. It's putting your one egg in one basket and hoping for the best. Beyond just surviving as a business, what if the agency you choose decides to shift to a different market (from microstock to RM or from RM to microstock) and you dont want to be in that market?<br>

Granted I am just starting but I have taken a three pronged approach - two agencies and direct sales. Right now that is as many as I can really focus on and make successful. If all three fail at the same time, I probably have bigger problems. And I am not welded to those two agencies (30 day written notice to terminate). As I grow, I will add a 4th/5th selling channel to further diversify. Mutual fund laws say no stock can represent more that 20% of the value of the fund. Someone smarter than me decided that was a safe number so my long term goal is to have no one channel account for more than 20% of my income. <br>

Good Luck!</p>

<p>Thank you Robert. Its a very clever decision to take three approaches. You are right about putting the egg in one basket.<br>

I am starting to sell through 2 companies to begin with. However the decision is about image exclusivity with these companies. Since both companies I have been supplying photographs to are asking for image exclusivity. I only want to be in the RM market. I will be selling children photographs through these stock companies. <br>

From the opinions stated by people above, I think I should , go image exclusive with companies (since bigger companies ask for image exclusivity), and should have 2 channels of image exclusive companies and one channel of non exclusive companies. So thats 3 channels. I think, thats how much I can focus on right now. When I grow I can add more channels. Thank you. Regards,</p>

<p>I'd look at Corbis and Getty first. The more "real" photos you make (kids going to the doctor, kids first day at school, i.e. doing stuff rather than portraits etc) the easier you'll find agency life. I'd stay very far away from the micro agencies (anything where your images sell as RF for anything less than at least a few hundred $ / image).<em> Very far</em>. Especially for kiddie photos. I'd find a respectable agency I could really communicate with regarding what's OK and what isn't when it comes to image usage.</p>

<p>Thank you very much Mikael.<br>

I have applied for Getty. Waiting for their reply. I will look at Corbis. Please can you let me know of any other companies who sells photographs at very high prices. <br>

If I agree with the agency about what's OK and what isn't with it comes to image usage, is there anyway a stock agency keeps check on the image is being used. Since a buyer can download a photograph from the stock agency's site, I am not sure how this can be checked. <br>

I am new to agencies, and do not know the ones who are respectable. Please can you tell me, is there anyway I can find out if an agency is respectable or not. Any websites which can give me this info ? Thank you once again. I appreciate you time and help very much. </p>

<p>Agencies that license images Rights Managed (as opposed to Royalty Free or RF) does keep track of where images are used, by whom, for how long etc. Part of licensing RM images is knowing where and for what images have previously been licensed. Example: I often license (and so does the agencies I work with) images for use in textbooks. Typically the license is issued for a specific amount of copies of the book (aka print run) as well as a defined time-period. When the time-period is up or the publisher needs to print more copies, or a new edition, they contact me for a new licensing agreement.<br /> <br /> You have to trust the agency you sign with - there really is no other way. RM agencies are set up so that high res images can only be downloaded by registered users. They keep track of this stuff, they also lose money if images are stolen.<br /> <br /> As far as I know there's no list available of "trustworthy" agencies. If I consider signing with a new agency I generally find 10 to 20 photographers currently with the agency (just check out a bunch of photos on the agency web site and you'll get the names) and shoot them an e-mail asking about their experiences with the agency in question. Some will answer some will not, but those that do seem to be pretty honest about it. You can also search the web for agency forums for contributors. Alamy has one for instance that is open to anyone to read (and post I think once you register with the forum). Don't trust everything in forums since some agencies seem to have almost a cult following where people will post glowing reviews of everything the agency does/doesn't do. Check the names of people posting and do a search for their personal web sites. That's a good way to see if the poster has a lot, or a little, to offer photographically on their own site. <br /> <br /> Aside from Corbis and Getty I'd personally recommend that you check out Alamy, Scanpix, Danita Delimont (only if you have extremely good travel and related images), and Jupiter Images. There's a good list of US agencies available at: http://www.aspp.com/index.php/find-a-pro/spapro<br /> <br /> Look at signing up with an agency like any other business transaction. You want to make sure they are reliable, have been in business for a while and has a good track record. Some of the questions I'd ask are:<br /> - I want to have the right to perform an audit, or have the ability to hire someone locally to perform an audit for me, of my images and how they have been licensed etc if I decide I want to.<br /> - What do you expect from me? A minimum number of images added per month/quarter/year?<br /> - How will you market my images for me?<br /> - What is my cut of licensing fees?<br /> - Is there a termination period?<br />- Do you have a minimum licensing rate and what is it?<br />- What are your technical requirements? If I have a large number of images for an initial submission would you accept those on DVD or HDD rather than me having to upload many thousands of images?<br />- Do you have image exclusivity and what does that mean in practical terms?<br />- Which licensing models do you offer clients? (e.i RF, RM, Exclusivity etc)<br /><br />Before contacting any agency think about what you want out of the relationship. Stock is about long term commitment and - to me at least - that is why it's important to try to get things right from the very beginning.</p>

<p>Thank you very much Mikael. I am going to check those things with the agencies which I am thinking of working with. I understand I have to get things right from the very beginning. I have gone totally wrong with my first agency. I never got paid a penny. And I know my images were being sold. Thank you very very much once again for helping. I have a lot of groundwork to do. <br>

I have another question. Do you know if there is an economical way to photograph children and get model releases signed from parents. Since paying a huge modelling fee for each model is just impossible. I wonder how much some photographers (who photograph children) pay as modelling fee, since they supply many children photographs to agencies. Also how do they manage to photograph at locations (considering that production costs are high). Since I am assuming if I want to be a successful stock photographer, I need to supply the agencies a certain number of photographs at regular intervals. Please can you let me know your thoughts. Thank you very much. I appreciate you help very much Mikael. </p>

 

<p>I wouldn't be a good person to answer questions about model releases and modeling fees since I don't do that at all. All my images are "real life" as it happens editorial images and I extremely rarely get a release - less than 1% of my images are released and I have never ever considered paying a modeling fee.<br /><br />Hopefully someone else can pipe up on modeling fees and getting parents to sign releases. This is one of the reasons I prefer photographing arrests and drug busts instead of children and portraits! ;-)</p>

<p>Thank you very much once again Mikael.<br>

I have a lot of homework to do. I just couldn't manage to get an answer from an agency , regarding image usage about whats ok and what isn't . They just dont want to answer my email!<br>

I prefer to get a model release signed , since I want to save myself from any trouble in future, just incase the photograph gets used for an advertisement. I want to sell only for higher priced RM collection. Thank you very much Mikael. </p>

<p>I somehow think, its best if i sign up with getty or corbis. I will sign up with only getty or corbis. That way, I can make sure I am in safe hands. I saw that getty gives only 20% commission to photographers. However its better to earn lesser commission for protecting the interest of the children in my photos. </p>

<p>Sounds like a good choice to me. Good luck.<br /><br />Are you sure about the Getty commission though? Seems low.</p>

<p>Yes, its low i know. I decided to sacrifice money to be in safe hands. Probably in a few months, if I identify a honest agency who can have control over the usage of the photographs, I will probably go with that one. Just now since I am a beginner and hardly know about agencies, I should go with Getty. <br>

Thank you. I wish you good luck with all your future assignments. Thank you very much once again Mikael. I appreciate your time. </p>

<p>You're welcome. Alamy is another agency I'd personally recommend. As long as you're not submitting images as RF they keep track of usage and you can set your own restrictions on what you <strong>don't</strong> want your images to be used for.</p>

<p>Thank you. If alamy keeps track of usage, and if i can set restrictions, its a great thing. I think I can go with alamy too. Thank you. </p>

<p>You sure can, just not the same images, or similars as defined by Getty. Check out the contributor section of the Getty website (http://www.gettyimages.com/contributors ) to apply for acceptance.</p>

<p>I passed the questions. :) Now I have to prepare some pics to upload to a gallery and send them a link . Yes similars is something I need to keep in mind. Thank you very much. </p>