Stock agency question?

Has anyone ever heard of, or had any dealings with these guys?

http://www.akmimages.com/

They contacted me asking to use my work, but I have never heard of them before, and they seem pretty small. (not that I'm picky)

Also, here are there terms:


Payment / Terms: We pay 50% for color photos. Average price per image (to clients) varies for color photos. Terms specified in photographers’ contracts. Works with photographers on contract basis only. Offers nonexclusive contract. Contracts renew automatically with each submission for 5 years from date of signed contract. When contract ends photographer must renew within 60 days. To end contract photographer must give AKM Images, Inc. 60 days notice. Statements of photographer’ sales issued quarterly. Payment made quarterly. Informs photographers and allows them to negotiate when client requests all rights. Photographers allowed to review account records in cases of discrepancies only. Offers one-time rights. Model release and property release required. Photo captions are required.


Any opinions?

Thanks.

I haven't heard of them, but that doesn't mean anything because I don't keep track of stock agencies any more.

What about wish lists? Do they put out regular lists of needed shots? This is where you can really increase your income. It's almost like "assignment" shooting, provided you are very quick to respond.

I am acquainted with a few stock agencies nonetheless, because they often have trouble getting their photographers to respond promptly to wish lists. When all else fails they pay us our day rate to do the shooting.

Further to my post, I'm a little concerned over the quality of the website, and the images shown on it. I'm thinking this might be a scame and would appreciated any input.

Will check on them now, but in the meantime I'm updating your post of the address to make it a link, in order to make it easier for others to follow up:

akmimages

Hard to tell from the site. It's not very dynamic and it doesn't give you much info to go on. Could be a "diamond in the rough" developing company, but no way to tell. I tend to think that a scam would put more effort into their storefront, however.

They don't even use an email address from their own domain?

do a google search on akm+images, they sound a little fishy to me.

I found this post and its starting to seem more and more like a scam. The email this person received is exactly the same as mine. However, they were pretty quick to send a contract, and conditions to me when asked.

I've sent another email asking for a a list of there clients, and I'm curious as to how they reply.

Here's the other post:

naturescapes post

1st of all, I noticed that there's hardly anything on the website. How can they expect to be a succesful stock agency these days when they don't even have a searchable database of photos?

you should check out the pro stock photo forums to see if their name comes up, if not then it's probably not worth the time even if they are legit.

Um, yeah.... This is a business where image counts. Literally.

Look at the web site. It's like a opening a door to a restaurant and seeing rats and cockroaches scurry away from the bright light. You wanna eat there?

So, why put your images with a place that, assuming has put their best foot forward, looks like a bit of a dump.

The big red letters on the billboard read: P A S S

Someone on NSN requested a list of clients. AKM replied they would not provide it for confidentiality reasons. What stock agency would refuse to provide potential suppliers with a client list, especially when the agency directly solicited those potential suppliers?

Alamy doesn't provide a list of clients either and keeps the buyers confidential. Drives me nuts.

I asked for a list of clients too, and did get a reply. I also found their listing in the Photographers Market Book.

Im starting to think that they are probably legit, but maybe just not very good...

That makes me think they're more likely a "diamond in the rough" than a scam, but their storefront doesn't inspire me that they'll net you a lot of sales. Most businesses start out small and polish their image as they grow, so it might well be an opportunity to get in on the ground floor of something good. Judgement call for you at this point.

What rates do they charge clients for the images? They claim to represent 30 photographers and have 10,000 rights protected images. That is not very impressive to me. Find out what they charge clients. If it is below fair market values then carefully consider whether or not you will have them market your images. I say this for two reasons from mistakes/experience. If they are undercutting well paying agencies you are hurting yourself and other photographers as well. If you tie your images up with them for 5 years and the sales don't come along then what. I am with such an agency right now and they just don't pay well or sell enough and as soon as my contract is up my images will no longer be "tied up with them"
Hope this helps

As mentioned before, there gallary is not super impressive. On one hand your stuff could really stand out there, on the other, do you want to be lumped in with that?

It is possible they would eliminate the riff as the quality of submissions improved. Now I need to go take a closer look at these folks.