Creative fees/Image use and contract?

[alfonso_bresciani1]

I agree that the best way of pricing is a creative fee plus licensing

each photo according on media, placement, size, circulation etc.

 

But how do you actually write a contract with a company that wants to hire you

if they don't know exactly how and when they'll use your work?

 

Do you just get paid for the creative fees right away, hold on to the files until they get ready

to use them, and then, figure out a license price?

 

It can take months before they actually get the layout of a brochure and see exactly

where/how your images will be used.

 

How do you all set that up?

 

Thanks!

[rickvandenberg]

I think that's really all part of negotiating a contract :) But it would help a lot if sit down and think about all the possibilities and put together a price list or set of pricing guidelines that you can refer to in the contract. That way the client knows in advance what they can expect to pay, even if they are only estimating their usage.

[alfonso_bresciani1]

I'll do that...BUT...then you only get paid for the licensing later on?

Do you hold the images in the meantime?

 

"put together a price list or set of pricing guidelines that you can refer to in the contract.

That way the client knows in advance what they can expect to pay, even if they

are only estimating their usage. "

[rickvandenberg]

Well, you can't expect someone to pay you for something they _might_ do. If, for example, they can't decide between a run of 10,000 and one of 100,000, but they're sure that at least 10,000 will be printed, then charge for the 10,000 and keep in touch with them. Spell it out in the contract. If they decide to do more, then charge them the incremental difference between what they paid and what they should have paid.

 

If you think you might not get paid, then you should question your relationship with them. If you can trust them and you make everything perfectly clear, then there shouldn't be an issue.

[bill c.]

Alfonso-- Please see this thread:

 

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00F4Js

 

What you want to do is create an invoice that, while it bills for current use at whatever prices you originally agreed upon, it also specifies rates for any and all future use.

 

If the client uses an image in a manner that is outside the uses specified in the original agreement, the back of the invoice specifies the fees for those additional uses. All you have to do is bill, as the use fees are already set in stone and agreed to by the client when you have them sign the invoice or agreement. Whatever else you do, you want to avoid re-negotiation like the plague, and the contract written out on this thread helps greatly to that end.

 

Best of luck. -BC-