Published photo #2
I now have a second photo in print, however it was the first one I granted approval for, and I made some mistakes. I've noticed that there are people who are publishing books and are looking to get something for nothing. The author of this particular book asked if she could use my photo for free, and if I said no, she'd have asked someone else until someone was willing. I'll admit that it is easy to do for something oft photographed, like the Knoxville Sunsphere. Here's my photo of the Sunsphere in all of it's brass/bronze/fool's gold glory.
If I said yes to the request, I wouldn't get paid anything for it. If I said no, I'd still not get anything out of it. At first, it seems a little unfair, especially since it's a book of photos. (This could be quite a business model. Find a bunch of photos you could print for free and then print up a bunch of coffee table books to be sold for $49.95 apiece.) However, it was the first time I was approached to be in a book, and I thought it would be cool to say I was in a book. Besides, I put a Creative Commons license on most of my photos which allows people to use my photos for free in a not for profit way, so who knows how many of my pictures are lurking out there used in a way I don't know about. By egosurfing, I know about these 50 which have been used by someone somehow, mostly on the web.
(funny yet unrelated side-note about egosufing: The first time I had ever seen it done was at a weird job interview when I was just out of college, and it was done by the interviewer. He also told me he often smoked pot with Crosby, Stills & Nash. Quite a funny story and I might tell it here someday. In the unlikely event that I am ever asked to give a chapel talk at Lipscomb, I will draw from this event. A sermon-ette outline has been crafted in my mind for about 7 years. But, I digress...)
Here's the big mistake I made with this published photo: I failed to ask for a complimentary copy of the finished product. I have since been asked to provide photos for 4 books since and now I always expect a freebie. (Scratch my previous idea for a great business model; I've got a new idea: Find a bunch of photos you could print for free and then print up a bunch of coffee table books to be sold for $49.95 apiece. Then, don't give away any of them for free and everyone who submitted a photo will want to buy one themselves and their family. It's a new variant on the Who's Who book scam. Anyone want to donate $10,000 to help me start a project?)
I just don't feel right to pay for a book that I made a contribution to. The book has been available for purchase for a couple of months now. Now, Thanks to Amazon.com and their "search inside this book" feature, I can see the finished product and not have to pay for it. Here is the cover of the book, and my photo which appears on page 25.
This particular book is in a series of books by Arcadia Publishing called Images of America. The series, several of which I have looked at, contains over 2900 books, all of which deal with local history and tell the story through usually vintage pictures and their captions. This book is about the Knoxville Zoo and the author is Sonya Haskins. I'm not going to buy the book anytime soon, but it's available new with a list price of $19.99 ($15,99 on Amazon.) If you click on my picture, you can see why a sunsphere picture was used. Essentially, the zoo was hoping the tens of thousands of people coming to the Knoxville World's Fair of 1982 would help zoo attendance, but it actually hurt attendance.
Now, here's the happy ending: Despite me not asking for a copy of the book, a representative from the company saw this blog post and offered to send me a free copy, when they didn't have to do. I really appreciate the classy move on the part of Arcadia Publishing. In the meantime, I am waiting on 4 other books which are using my photos and will send me a copy.
If I said yes to the request, I wouldn't get paid anything for it. If I said no, I'd still not get anything out of it. At first, it seems a little unfair, especially since it's a book of photos. (This could be quite a business model. Find a bunch of photos you could print for free and then print up a bunch of coffee table books to be sold for $49.95 apiece.) However, it was the first time I was approached to be in a book, and I thought it would be cool to say I was in a book. Besides, I put a Creative Commons license on most of my photos which allows people to use my photos for free in a not for profit way, so who knows how many of my pictures are lurking out there used in a way I don't know about. By egosurfing, I know about these 50 which have been used by someone somehow, mostly on the web.
(funny yet unrelated side-note about egosufing: The first time I had ever seen it done was at a weird job interview when I was just out of college, and it was done by the interviewer. He also told me he often smoked pot with Crosby, Stills & Nash. Quite a funny story and I might tell it here someday. In the unlikely event that I am ever asked to give a chapel talk at Lipscomb, I will draw from this event. A sermon-ette outline has been crafted in my mind for about 7 years. But, I digress...)
Here's the big mistake I made with this published photo: I failed to ask for a complimentary copy of the finished product. I have since been asked to provide photos for 4 books since and now I always expect a freebie. (Scratch my previous idea for a great business model; I've got a new idea: Find a bunch of photos you could print for free and then print up a bunch of coffee table books to be sold for $49.95 apiece. Then, don't give away any of them for free and everyone who submitted a photo will want to buy one themselves and their family. It's a new variant on the Who's Who book scam. Anyone want to donate $10,000 to help me start a project?)
I just don't feel right to pay for a book that I made a contribution to. The book has been available for purchase for a couple of months now. Now, Thanks to Amazon.com and their "search inside this book" feature, I can see the finished product and not have to pay for it. Here is the cover of the book, and my photo which appears on page 25.
This particular book is in a series of books by Arcadia Publishing called Images of America. The series, several of which I have looked at, contains over 2900 books, all of which deal with local history and tell the story through usually vintage pictures and their captions. This book is about the Knoxville Zoo and the author is Sonya Haskins. I'm not going to buy the book anytime soon, but it's available new with a list price of $19.99 ($15,99 on Amazon.) If you click on my picture, you can see why a sunsphere picture was used. Essentially, the zoo was hoping the tens of thousands of people coming to the Knoxville World's Fair of 1982 would help zoo attendance, but it actually hurt attendance.
Now, here's the happy ending: Despite me not asking for a copy of the book, a representative from the company saw this blog post and offered to send me a free copy, when they didn't have to do. I really appreciate the classy move on the part of Arcadia Publishing. In the meantime, I am waiting on 4 other books which are using my photos and will send me a copy.
posted by BrentKMoore | 4:07 AM
1 Comments:
Brent,
I work for Arcadia Publishing and just received a Google Alert for your blog because Arcadia's name was mentioned. If you email your mailing address to kdepoppe@arcadiapublishing.com, I will make sure you receive a copy.
~Katie
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