pictures in a biography

[mcsimard]

A french author who's writing a bioghaphy of Charles Aznavour has contacted me

because he would like to use one or more of my pictures in the middle pages of

his book. www.photo.net/photo/5578832

This writer specialises in biographies of famous people and seems to be very

prolific. He would like me to send him a selection of pictures (low

resolution), and will pick a few he likes. I would like to send him a quote,

along with the lo res pictures, but I don't have a clue on how to estimate a

price for book publishing? Anybody can help me coming up with a professional-

like submission?

Also, this guy operates a fan club website and he has already posted my

picture, along with an article I wrote, in the "press release" category of his

site. He gave me the credit, but never asked for my permission: how do I deal

with all this?

Thanks for your comments.

[J.W. Wall]

Have you contacted a French lawyer? Are you in France?

[mcsimard]

Hi J.W. I'm located in Canada (Montreal), and no, I haven't contacted a lawyer. Should I?

mc

[mikael_karlsson]

Marie-Claude:

 

The photo usage fee would depend on a number of different factors such as how many

copies of the book that will be printed, where (geographically) the books will be

distributed, how many languages the book will be printed in, how large your photo(s) will

appear, and where in the book they'll appear. Once you have those details, you can go to

an on-line price calculator and determine a usage fee. Most stock agencies have on-line

calculators, and you can find one at http://photographersindex.com/stockprice.htm

 

If you don't want him to use your photo on the site, just ask him to take it down. Or, make

that usage right part of the package you negotiate with him and tack on the appropriate

amount for web usage.

 

For the vast majority of books, the publisher acctually negotiates the photo usage rights,

so unless he is self-publishing, it might be better for you to ask him who the publisher is

and negotiate directly with them.

[mcsimard]

Mikael, this is very useful, thank you very much. I think I have enough info to start negotiating. MC