Sell of photo for a book cover...what to charge?

<p>Hello, all. I was contacted by a university press today about purchasing the rights to one of my photos to be used as a book cover. Using one of the stock photo sites calculators, it appears that anywhere between 650.00 - 1500.00 is the right price for a book cover of a print run under 10,000. (Although I'm not sure yet of the print run, I'd bet on the under 10,000 coming from a university press.)</p>

<p>I write and do photography monthly for a magazine and have done various commercial jobs, including a sports celebrity on a billboard, so this is definitely not my first sale, but it is my first book cover. So, all that being said, I'd love to solicit a few opinions on what I should charge. I'm thinking of 750.00, but I'd like to hear what you guys think. </p>

<p>Also, I use a pretty simple, rather homemade license. For something like this, do I need to have a more formal license agreement? </p>

<p>Thanks in advance!<br>

Karen Mitchell Smith<br>

Link to the photo: <strong>http://tinyurl.com/2dbda3y</strong></p>

<p>No book covers but I have gotten a few local magazine covers and distribution was probably around 10,000 maybe more, but I only got $250.00. Not enough but the company was el-cheapo and they were not going to pay more. I did a trade with local visitor guide for full page ad of my business in exchange for cover shot and more pix inside. The visitor guide got me lots of referrals. Won a photo contest for a phone book cover last year and distribution was over 100,000 and I got $500.00 for that one. But I also got a free ad and of course photo credit. Thought I would get some business from that but I don't think I got one call from the free ad or the cover shot. The years before they were paying $1,000.00 for the winning cover but I think the economy hurt them. This year they did not even have the contest. It was fun to win the contest after trying for 3 years and the cash came in handy. I'm sure other members can give you better ideas on what is fair. Some will say don't undersell yourself but at the same time you want the sale. I gave the phone company rights to use my photo however they liked but I retained rights to the photo. I had them agree to this by email so I have a record of them agreeing to my terms. Sorry I could not help you more.</p>

<p>$750 -$1,200 sounds just about right.</p>

 

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<p>do I need to have a more formal license agreement?</p>

 

</blockquote>

<p>Don't know. Haven't seen your license agreement.</p>

<p>I've sold plenty of book covers. A minimum for a low press run would be around $500.00 so your range is about right. Don't forget, that with a cover, it's usually expected that you're including print and online promotional rights, including tradeshow, direct mail, yada yada yada... A University Press should be well aware of traditional pricing, and most likely they will also have a contract regarding use that would spell out the terms of the license. If they do send you a contact, you should also feel free to black out any terms that you're not willing to agree to.</p>

<p>Thanks, all! I appreciate your input.</p>