Small Run Licensing Help

Hi all

I'm wondering if you may able to provide some advice to a novice. I was recently approached by a designer who is asking to use one of my images for a holiday greeting postcard. The output is only supposed to be 250 total. They've asked for a 300dpi file and what my licensing fee would be. I've never licensed anything but would definitely love to give this a try. Any suggestions on how to best determine a fee and whether or not any sort of signed agreement would be necessary. I've done a little looking on this site and through google but I'd really appreciate any help some of you may be able to provide, even if it is just to point me in the right direction. Thanks in advance!

Mike, I know nothing about the fees but yes, you must have it in writing and signed. I doubt whether any individual photographers' websites would actually state up front what they charge, since it varies so much according to print run, etc., but have you tried Googling something like "Best business practices for photographers"?

Also consider licensing FotoQuote software. It's a big help when it comes to coming up with quotes and estimates.

Max

For such a small run I'd expect the licensing fee to be minimal. Your client is going to be paying a lot for printing and won't have much margin while remaining competitive in many markets. It's a tossup, but have you considered a trade- use of your image for "x" number of cards for your own use? That might be more palatable to your client while creating the opportunity for you to derive a little more from the use.

The postcard is being created for a physician who is sending out the cards to existing clients, colleagues, etc. So I don't know if that makes things more unique in this case or not. I figured the fee should be relatively small especially due to the small run. I guess I'm at the crossroad where i don't want to price too low or too high. Thanks for all of your responses thus far!

Since no one else has quoted a price, my $.02 is that I would charge $50.

You could try pricing out any rights-managed image on Corbis, Getty, Alamy and see what you get. Weigh that against what you feel would be worth it to you.