Weldon Owen, Inc., ? Legit?

Has anyone been contacted by Weldon Owen, Inc., about a book being published as Get That Shot! Popular Photography? They say they are partnering with Pop Photo to do a "best of" Pop Photo book. They are only offering a free book and 25.00 for my egret shot and I wonderd if any one else has gotten an email that has been published in Pop Photo.Thanks

Google to the rescue:

Pre-order the book at Amazon.

The same illustration and boilerplate text at Simon & Schuster.

Looks legitimate. Only you can decide if the payment is adequate.

Just an FYI - I've had some book deals lately and the industry standard is $50 + free book. And that's for pretty small photos

Thanks you two. I did some more looking into and it is legitimate.I don't think I have a choice on payment as it is contracted to be used by Pop Photo from the start and hey I'll take another publication anyday!

So, tell them your shot is worth the $50.00 and see what happens! Negotiate!!!!!!

Yes. Most certainly negotiate.

A protege of mine once was offered $50 for an excellent photo that a company wanted to use in an Ad Campaign. I told het to go for $95 and they IMMEDIATELY accepted

AND...
She retained copyright !!!!!

I agree - if they really want your image then they will pay a little extra for it. The last deal I did was for a Gyrfalcon photo that to be honest the book author wasn't going to find anywhere else - the publisher had a photo budget of $50/shot but the person I was dealing with was raving about how great it was and felt bad that was all he could offer. I guarentee I could have squeezed him for more, but there was no point in doing that. In this instance you're dealing with a company that is looking to make a profit off of your image which is a little different than my scenario - if you ask for $50 and they say no and you walk away you are only missing out on the $25 they offered - that's pretty small potatoes.

Problem is in this case... They aren't asking me to send theimage only the invoice for the $25.00. To me that means they already have it because of my contract with Pop Photo and they are offering me a 25.00 bonus (that's what they called it). They are getting the image from PopPHoto from the contest I won not from the cover deal. That's what I figured out. Here's the email:


Dear Cheryl,

I am the Photography Coordinator at Weldon Owen, Inc., a San Francisco based book publishing company with international titles and distribution, contacting you with exciting news.

We recently partnered with Popular Photography magazine to create their first book titled, Get That Shot! Popular Photography. The book, slated to debut in October this year, will largely consist of tips and ideas for the aspiring photographer with accompanying stories and photographs.

To maintain the initial intentions and integrity of the magazine, a team of publishing experts sifted through several thousand submissions provided to Popular Photography magazine over the last few years in order to identify the best and most representative submissions to be considered for this project.

We are pleased inform you that your Contest winning image featured in Popular Photography magazine has been selected to be included Get That Shot! Popular Photography. As the book is intended to represent and index the magazines' creme-de-la-creme examples, this will be wonderful addition to your portfolio.

Attached is a jpg. of the selected image that will be reprinted for Popular Photography's first full length book.

Once the book is published, we would like to mail you a complementary contributor copy along with a $25 bonus check which we are offering all contributors as part of this congratulatory package. If you would like to receive both items without hesitation, please:
1) Respond to this email with a mailing address for receiving packages and a phone number to best reach you, and
2) Please email an invoice for $25 so that it can be speedily processed through our financial department.


Lastly, If you would like to be credited in any other way than Cheryl Molennor, please indicate in your response.

On behalf of Weldon Owen and Popular Photography magazine, we offer our sincere congratulations in having your submission translated into a timeless shelf-piece! If you have any questions or comments, I am best available on email.


Sincerely,

Conor Buckley
Photography and Illustration Coordinator
Weldon Owen Inc.
415 Jackson St # 2
San Francisco, CA
www.weldonowne.com

What's missing from this narrative is the original usage statement from Popular Photography under which you submitted the image for the contest in the first place. What sort of agreement did you sign at the time? Since this is a popular Photography publication you may already have granted them every right to use your image in whatever way they want. Surely you read all the fine print associated with the contest submission? I'd certainly review it before trying to get more money out of them for a second use of the image.

I've decided to leave it as is and just be humble for another publication Connected with popular photography. They have already paid me a nominal fee and a great opportunity to be on the cover of their magazine So I will just take it is another great publication and hopefully more work coming from it.
thanks everybody

Its all about negotiation. I told them I wanted $200 per image, they accepted right away and I changed some terms on the contract.

Darwin