R
Ranger 9
Guest
A couple of years ago I helped a university-professor friend who wanted to produce some teaching materials to use in her dance classes. Over the course of several months we did three or four studio sessions photographing students [yeah, okay, beautiful college-age female dance students] demonstrating correct form for various exercises... probably a couple of hundred shots in all.
It was fun to shoot, my friend bought me a few dinners in the process, and she got the university to pay me a couple of hundred dollars in honoraria, so I was pleased with the way it turned out.
At the time she mentioned that she hoped eventually to turn the materials into a textbook, but I figured that was just a dream. Last week, though, she emailed me that they've found a publisher, and the book will be coming out next year!
Apparently academic publishing works differently from commercial publishing: the publisher deals with the university, and the university deals with the contributors. For my part, I was given a release -- which I've already signed -- granting permission to use the photos in the current and any future editions, for which I'll be duly credited.
And my friend said she has requested, and the university has already agreed, that they'll pay me $1,000 for use of my photos in the book. (Note that this is coming from the university -- a big, well-endowed private university -- rather than the publisher, making me feel more confident that I'll actually get paid.)
All I want to know is: Is this the sort of thing for which I might get pilloried and pelted with rhetorical eggs by photo professionals, like they did to the guy who shot the stock photo used for the now-infamous $30 Time magazine cover?
Or would people be inclined to feel that, considering the limited market for this kind of textbook, it was legitimate for me to accept this deal? (No, I don't know what the author is getting, or the student/models... I hope at least they all got A's in their class!)
Any thoughts? Do I need to buy a fireproof suit or get a new identity from the Lowball Photographer Protection Program?
It was fun to shoot, my friend bought me a few dinners in the process, and she got the university to pay me a couple of hundred dollars in honoraria, so I was pleased with the way it turned out.
At the time she mentioned that she hoped eventually to turn the materials into a textbook, but I figured that was just a dream. Last week, though, she emailed me that they've found a publisher, and the book will be coming out next year!
Apparently academic publishing works differently from commercial publishing: the publisher deals with the university, and the university deals with the contributors. For my part, I was given a release -- which I've already signed -- granting permission to use the photos in the current and any future editions, for which I'll be duly credited.
And my friend said she has requested, and the university has already agreed, that they'll pay me $1,000 for use of my photos in the book. (Note that this is coming from the university -- a big, well-endowed private university -- rather than the publisher, making me feel more confident that I'll actually get paid.)
Now, I'm not posting here to ask if I got scr*wed or if I should have bargained harder; I am thrilled that my friend is getting this boost to her academic career, and tickled pink with my share of the arrangements. I certainly wouldn't have turned it down or tried to negotiate something better.
All I want to know is: Is this the sort of thing for which I might get pilloried and pelted with rhetorical eggs by photo professionals, like they did to the guy who shot the stock photo used for the now-infamous $30 Time magazine cover?
Or would people be inclined to feel that, considering the limited market for this kind of textbook, it was legitimate for me to accept this deal? (No, I don't know what the author is getting, or the student/models... I hope at least they all got A's in their class!)
Any thoughts? Do I need to buy a fireproof suit or get a new identity from the Lowball Photographer Protection Program?