Quote for Commercial use

I got this email today and am looking for advice on a response.


"Hi Sherri,We are a small wholesaler to tourist shops in San Diego.
I would like to try using your photo on top of some tins of mints we sell in San Diego.
What would you charge for me to use this photo in this fashion?
thanks"

I'm thinking my question should be to know how many tins they are making and how long they'd like to use the image?

I think that would be a good start. Depending on how many tourist shops they distribute to it could be a lot of tins that would have your image on them. Personally if it were me I'd find out that question and depending on what they wanted probably tell them it's $X for commerical usage + $Y/tin sold basically as a royalty. Only reason I would say that is it's one thing if it's in a brochure or something that the client makes no money on directly however it's another when the image is used on a product that is sold directly to the consumer over and over and over.

First: way cool!

I used my free account at http://www.stockphotop​ricecalculator.com to get the following. You'll need to adjust some of the variables.

Usage Type: Consumer Goods
Usage Details: General Product Packaging
Duration: Up To 1 Year
Size: Up To 1/2 Area
Print Run: Up To 5,000
Placement: Front
Region of Use: North America

Calculator Price : US$725.82

"This is the base figure in US Dollars generated by our calculator for single non-exclusive use. Photographers should make further adjustments for any additional rights that might be required. Some photographers may wish to make further adjustments for the quality and uniqueness of the image."

Hope this works out for you!

Keep one thing in mind. It is likely that they have found several photos online, all of which would suit their purpose equally well. If this is the case, they have probably contacted the other photographers, too, and are most likely to go with the image from the photographer who is the easiest to deal with and does not want much money. Just be careful not to lose the sale because you are one of those who stipulate multiple conditions upon the sale, or want royalties of some sort.

I have lost a good number of sales because I asked a bit too much, and wanted to include some protective phrases in the agreement - things that would limit their use or give me more $ if they exceeded a certain number of units, etc. While insisting on these things may make good business sense in some cases, it will also lose you a good number of sales.

I have learned my lesson, and now I sell for a fraction of what I used to ask, and I allow the clients to use the image without many limitations at all. I close many more sales because of this easy approach, and net more dollars than I used to when I was paranoid and greedy.

Thanks everyone for their input. I asked for more info and will see if they respond.

btw, this is the image:

SJPHoto wrote in post #15784707
I got this email today and am looking for advice on a response.

Where did you have this image posted that had your contact information that they could get in touch with you?

is this something you do professionally?

I would be very practical in what I would charge for this image. Because, and no offense intended, anyone could take that photo and they might find someone else to shoot the shot if the terms become too difficult to deal with, as Tom pointed out.

sophies-mom wrote in post #15788200
=sophie's-mom;15788200]Where did you have this image posted that had your contact information that they could get in touch with you?

is this something you do professionally?

I would be very practical in what I would charge for this image. Because, and no offense intended, anyone could take that photo and they might find someone else to shoot the shot if the terms become too difficult to deal with, as Tom pointed out.

I'm pretty sure they found it by doing a google search or on yelp. The statue is no longer there so it'd be very hard for someone to take the same image again.

So are you negotiating with the wholesaler?

you are going to get ZERO advertising/marketing out of the deal. the only money that is going to come from this is the money that they pay you for the tin. google "pay the writer"

SJPHoto wrote in post #15791065
I'm pretty sure they found it by doing a google search or on yelp. The statue is no longer there so it'd be very hard for someone to take the same image again.

great point, which means that you can negotiate harder!