Quote for a calendar

pgaviria

I put up an add to advertise my services as a photographer and today I received an email from someone that works at a local bar. She said they are looking for a photographer because they want to do a holiday calendar and requested a quote for "just the photo shoot."

In the mean time I let her know that I can design and print the calendars for her (and I thought I could use MyCanvas for this) but that I could also shoot and give her the pics in a disk. I also let her know my phone number (which she didn't have because it was a craigslist ad)

Now I'm thinking about the quote and reading a bit about it (because I have never done commercial photography, only event/wedding subcontracted so I'd have an hourly wage and I just turned in memory cards and that's all) and I realize that it's a bit more complicated now. I am living in a smaller town and get the feeling most businesses don't want to spend too much on photography. There are not that many photographers in the area but it's also like 1.5 hour drive from Dallas or Austin so photographers might be driving from there, I don't know.

I understand these photos are for commercial use since the calendars will pretty much be advertising for the bar. Right? I don't want to charge so little that it's not fair or they'll think I don't know what I am doing and not so much that they'll shy away from me.

How would you approach this quote if you were me? Calendars are $20 to print from MyCanvas, which I think is expensive because I'm going to have to add shipping my share, which would make the calendar rather expensive for something a bar would give away as advertisement... At the same time, if I give them a disk with the 12 retouched photos I will get nothing from prints either. When I give them a quote for a disk with images, should I be specifying that they may only be used for calendar and it would be a different price for any different use?

I don't want to lose this gig because it could be that great first step to getting a costumer base. So I am really cautious right now. What do you advice?

Cygnus Studios

pgaviria wrote:

I don't want to lose this gig because it could be that great first step to getting a costumer base. So I am really cautious right now. What do you advice?

You cannot go into a negotiation worried about losing it. Determine your price, quote that price and deal with the clients who accept it.

Before quoting a price, you have to determine what the client wants. You first stated that they wanted a photographer to take images, then you move on and talk about getting the calendars printed. Which is it?

Once you know what the client wants, you can quote a price.

pgaviria

Steve,

Thanks for your advice. It is true that I shouldn't go into a negotiation feeling like I'm at the bottom. Thanks for reminding me of that. It's just that this is a fairly small town and good jobs are hard to come by for someone with little experience. Anyway, they asked about a photo session and mentioned that the photos will be used in a calendar. I just let them know I can print the calendars as well because I prefer to sell prints than give out disks, particularly for a commercial job that will be seen by more people that say a wedding. The print quality can be very bad if someone else does it. I can make sure that quality of the prints is as good as it can be and attractive prints attract more business.

They have not responded with the details but I have a feeling that they don't know exactly what they need either because they didn't ask for local, regional, national rights or anything, just some photos for a calendar. I suspect they will need to use it only at local level as a calendar they give out to costumers, so probably not too many will be print. I will contact them again on Wednesday if they haven't emailed me by then.

I have a good idea of what I should charge for my creative fee, I am mostly not sure about how much I should charge for a disk with the 12 (let's say 13 if they need a cover) images and permission to print for local commercial use. I'd prefer to be ready with a good idea of what the quote will be when they ask me so I don't have to tell them that I don't know and I'll have to find out. Does that make sense?

Cygnus Studios wrote:

You cannot go into a negotiation worried about losing it. Determine your price, quote that price and deal with the clients who accept it.

Before quoting a price, you have to determine what the client wants. You first stated that they wanted a photographer to take images, then you move on and talk about getting the calendars printed. Which is it?

Once you know what the client wants, you can quote a price.

Blaker

pgaviria wrote:

I have a good idea of what I should charge for my creative fee, I am mostly not sure about how much I should charge for a disk with the 12 (let's say 13 if they need a cover) images and permission to print for local commercial use. I'd prefer to be ready with a good idea of what the quote will be when they ask me so I don't have to tell them that I don't know and I'll have to find out. Does that make sense?

Well, first of all, you are not selling a cd with 12 photos on it. You are selling them the usage rights for those photos.

So, you need to figure out what kind of photos they need- are these local photos that you already have in your portfolio, or will they be giving you a list of things to photograph?
If the latter, you have to keep in mind how much time you will spend taking the photographs, and time spent editing and post processing.

Then you need to know what their usage needs are.
You will retain your copyright, and license the use of the photos to them for :

1) a specific amount of time , and

2) specific placement ( i.e web use, ad use, billboard use, etc)

Is it a one time print run of 1000 calendars that they will turn around and sell? Is it the calendars, plus use on their web site, plus later on an ad in the local paper?
You need to sit down with them and find out what they need, and then price accordingly. Usage for a one time calendar printing would be less than usage in multiple media for an unlimited amount of time.

You also need to print up a contract with details of price, deposit, where photos will be used, how long they will be used.

You should take some time to read through the "Mind Your Business" threads to get an idea of what is involved with pricing, there are several threads asking the same thing- you can learn a lot by reading here and checking out the references listed at the top.

Good luck.

AlbertZeroK

See if they have calendars from other years and take a look at those - and ask the owner what they like or don't like about them. See if they are serious about this venture and have the capital to do it, or if they are just testing the waters.

If they are looking to give these calendars away and you are looking to get into the buisness, you may suggest to them that if they include a water mark or some type of contact information for you on the photos, you could reduce (or eliminate) your fee. If you are looking to start out, this would be a GREAT opertunity, but make sure you have the website and phone ready and get some buisness cards printed up.

Some will yell at me for saying give away your photos for their use, but advertising is expensive, so I'd personally trade out your services. (Well, I'd want some wings and beer too...)