Publuisher wants to use my photo(s) in a book...

I told him that at this point I cannot afford to give my work away for free, but to contact me if his agreement changes and we can discuss terms.

We'll see what happends. Thanks for the advice.

Interesting thread and I agree with your final decision, although I would maintain that it has little to do with what you can afford and much to do with what you feel like your photographs are worth. If you choose to give your work away for free (hey, we love shooting, right!?) then that is precisely what they are worth. If not, you'll have less business, but you might just make a dollar or two in the meantime. Having said all of that, there are times (charitable situations) that free means you are worth a lot.

I would be interested to hear an update, if there is one?

I don't have a problem "giving work away" for good reasons, I donate framed prints annually to an auction for the Boys and Girls Clubs (I used to work there) and I plan to donate something to the YMCA's (current employer) auction in a few months.

I just don't see the point of giving stuff away to somebody else who is intending to make a profit themselves from it.

It's a good thing to donate your work for charitable purposes.

I also have no problem trading use of my images for something of value. I often license them at no cost for use by event organizers who are kind enough to hire me, give me unusual accesss and exclusivity at their events, help me promote to participants through announcements, reminders in their newsletters and links from their webpages. Hey, what's good for them is good for me, since I usually work with the same organizers year after year and at multiple events each year.

Another example would be a photographer licensing limited portfolio usage to a model, in exchange for a session without any modelling fees. Hey, that's fair.

I just have a problem giving my images "for the ego boost" to someone who is going to turn right around and make money off of my (and others') "contributions". Soon as the grocery store, gas station and my landlord start accepting "photo credits" as payment, I might feel differently. Meanwhle it takes a huge set of cajones to ask a photographer to donate their work, so then turn right around and sell it at a profit. Even local newspapers are "inviting" their readers to contribute images. What crap!

The worst thing is "photo contests" used to gather images for later sales as stock. That was really common a few years ago when a lot of royalty free stock was being sold on disks. It's still happening, though more for websites. Read the fine print of any photo contests you are asked to enter.

It's not far removed from what Getty is doing with photographers on Flickr. You can check a box to allow Getty free access to your images, and they will pay you if they use your image.... and not just $1 or 2 like some micro stock agencies. They pay 30% to photogs whose images sell that way. If the same photographer were to sign up to sell the same image as one of Getty's stock contributors, they'd receive 50%. If the same photographer were to sign up with some other stock agencies, they'd receive as much as 70%!

There's a sucker born every day, they used to say. Now with the Internet, seems like there are 10,000 suckers born every minute!