Selling rights to nonprofit for their giftshop?

jswoolf01

I've run across a new situation for me, and am looking for help in how to handle it.

Situation: I have a number of nature & wildlife pictures that I'd like to sell, via a local nonprofit nature center. Unfortunately, the center's gift shop has limited space and an equally limited budget. They can't buy merchandise from me and resell it in the gift shop; they simply can't afford to pay me a decent profit per item and still sell the items for a price that people will pay.

So I have a different idea: What if I sell limited rights to the nature center, giving them the right to use the specified photos on merchandise for a fixed period of time - say, five years? Then they can order what they want, and price it however they want. This seems more workable, but now I have a question: what price do I put on the pictures? A percentage of the receipts? A fixed price per photo? If a percentage, then what's reasonable? If a fixed price, then how much? And what terms should I offer them?

Any suggestions/comments/ideas?

Thx,

-- Jon W.

OffTopic

Typically this would be done via a consignment arrangement because there is no risk to the non-profit organization. The gift shop would give you space to display your photos/products in exchange for a percentage of your sales (or by adding a markup to your requested selling price, frequently around 50%). This means you bear all of the up front costs and don't make any money unless your photos sell. You still need to understand that you might not get the profit you want while allowing them to sell at a price people are willing to pay because they need to make money on the sale too. They need to generate a certain percentage of profit for every square foot of display space, so don't expect to be given much space unless your photos start selling and generating income for them.

Unless you have an extensive track record of sales and are a well-known name in your field, it would be extremely difficult to find any gift shop willing to make a wholesale purchase of your photos or to license rights to use your images on products (unless you have something truly remarkable).