Has anyone been contacted by this company. I received a package in the mail from them for some image request. I've sold many images in the past but never received a request in this manner. It is a well prepared, detailed and professional looking package. But something about this request just smells a little fishy. First you would have to consult with a lawyer to understand all the legal jibberish contained in the package.
Any info would be greatly appreciated.
Ronnie G.
You're not the only one who thinks there some smelly fish with this one. They are contacting dozens of photographers and promising to pay big bucks for lots of images. Everything looks very professional with them and their dealings. I just can't figure it out.
Kent hit is right on. I am also one of the photographers they have contacted and have no interest in dealing with them until they can show me exactly where and how they will be marketing this product and send me a check that clears. Their website is brief, non-descript and basicly pointless outside of a mission statement (http://www.pplandscape.org/publications.html). It makes no mention of other publications, funding for such projects, involvment in similar projects, sales, ect. I even called them once and "Stephanie" was very brief and reffered me to email, dodging any direct questions. It looks like a load of garbage. I wouldn't deal with these people. It seems to be a very complex scam, yet probably legal.
If you actually read the contract and ignore the fluff you will see that you are selling "sole and exclusive book publishing rights"
to your images except for books that only contain your images. So all stock book sales.
The money is just average for 1 time rights and a give away for what they want.
The package looks good in the trash also.
I received an email from them in early April and basically asked the same question at http://www.naturescapes.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=65967. I haven't received anything in the mail though and sent them an email last week to find out if they were still interested since they had selected images they were intersted in, but I hadn't heard from them in a few weeks. I hope they are legitimate.
I finally recieved a copy of their contract and must say it looks legit, but the prices are ridiculously low. $300/image is absolutely absurd for exclusive rights. Especially since several of the images they are attempting to aquire from me have been previously published and collect more than that on a yearly basis. You're really selling yourself short if you grant an exclusive license for the cost of a short photo trip. I've expressed my various concerns to their director and I'll be interested to see whether he responds.
My first introduction to photography was taking a photojournalism class at Ohio University in 1970. I was a senior and that summer I took a trip to East Europe and had an experience that would influence me profoundly.
I was in the city of Sofia and I saw a storefront that had an exhibition of photographs. They were of America. However, they were pictures of garbage piles, city slums, and homeless people living in cardboard boxes. This storefront exhibition had an influence on thousands of people who had those images to base their impression about America.
I graduated with a degree in Journalism and soon after graduating fell in love with large format photography. My first job was in a commercial studio with a 4x5” view camera, but on weekends I was drawn to landscape photography. After a year of studio work I moved to England where I became well known for making pictures of the New Forest. I published two books with Constable Publishers.
I also self-published 15 years of retail calendars of three prominent areas in the United Kingdom, as well as corporate versions and published almost half a million calendars in all. I also became an art director for a publishing company as well as a print buyer and have now been associated with the trade for over 30 years.
Anyone wanting to know the heart I have for landscape photography can look at my personal website www.krausphoto.com. Why am I telling you all of this? Because it’s the history behind the person who started Photography for the Preservation of Landscape. I’m not out to con anyone. If I was, I would be approaching everyone to publish their work for free, like many non-profit organizations do. I’m not saying that non-profits that do approach photographers are cons either.
If this was a con, I would be approaching companies to simply give money to us instead of offering a product in return. I didn’t want to start a no-profit that is always begging for money. I wanted to earn our way along the path of development.
If anyone curious about the fees did some simple money crunching, you would see that we are paying over $60,000 in photographic fees every time that the book goes to print. This is because every page will have a photograph and that mounts up. You would be extremely hard pressed to find any retail publisher paying that kind of money on rights to go to press. We are also paying the fees before it goes to press, another aspect that is very rare in the retail publishing world. If a retail publisher who puts a photographer on royalty does not do well, then the photographer gets very little.
We also didn’t ask for unlimited use, nor did we ask for a one time fee to print as many times as we want. We don’t know how many press runs will take place because marketing into the corporate world is very different than the retail trade. The retail book trade can sell with only a handful of images, but the corporate trade is different. We have to have contracts on the images before we can secure orders. We have two major corporations that are lined up for presentations. I have a number of experienced sales people who are currently selling high end corporate gift items that are awaiting our release of promotional material.
I would also like to put in perspective the issue of “exclusive rights”. We are only asking for a time limited “exclusive right” as a composite book. Rights for greeting cards sales, solo books, calendars, framed prints, and anything else remain with the photographer. The reason for this is that we want to promote the photographers that contribute as much as possible. In doing so, we intend to put the website address for photographers that want them posted in the book. No retail publisher would do this. We also leave ourselves wide open if we didn’t have and “exclusive” on a composite book for someone to approach the same photographers from the very references in our book and produce a cheap book printed in China that would be sold cheap, heavily discounted, and eventually remaindered. So I wanted to protect the photographers as well as our efforts.
I feel that some of the people in this forum have not given me a chance. I can’t control that. I’m disappointed not to have access to some of this great photography. But I would rather discover incompatibility from personal communications and part with respect. I believe that this book project will become my greatest career accomplishment and I intend to maintain integrity and a good reputation. I answer all emails. I even enjoy a healthy debate, even if a photographer doesn’t publish with us.
Discussion
9 repliesAny info would be greatly appreciated.
Ronnie G.
Kent in SD
Anyone would like to take a stab at what's the scam if there is actually one.
Ronnie
Kent in SD
to your images except for books that only contain your images. So all stock book sales.
The money is just average for 1 time rights and a give away for what they want.
The package looks good in the trash also.
Jeff
I was in the city of Sofia and I saw a storefront that had an exhibition of photographs. They were of America. However, they were pictures of garbage piles, city slums, and homeless people living in cardboard boxes. This storefront exhibition had an influence on thousands of people who had those images to base their impression about America.
I graduated with a degree in Journalism and soon after graduating fell in love with large format photography. My first job was in a commercial studio with a 4x5” view camera, but on weekends I was drawn to landscape photography. After a year of studio work I moved to England where I became well known for making pictures of the New Forest. I published two books with Constable Publishers.
I also self-published 15 years of retail calendars of three prominent areas in the United Kingdom, as well as corporate versions and published almost half a million calendars in all. I also became an art director for a publishing company as well as a print buyer and have now been associated with the trade for over 30 years.
Anyone wanting to know the heart I have for landscape photography can look at my personal website www.krausphoto.com. Why am I telling you all of this? Because it’s the history behind the person who started Photography for the Preservation of Landscape. I’m not out to con anyone. If I was, I would be approaching everyone to publish their work for free, like many non-profit organizations do. I’m not saying that non-profits that do approach photographers are cons either.
If this was a con, I would be approaching companies to simply give money to us instead of offering a product in return. I didn’t want to start a no-profit that is always begging for money. I wanted to earn our way along the path of development.
If anyone curious about the fees did some simple money crunching, you would see that we are paying over $60,000 in photographic fees every time that the book goes to print. This is because every page will have a photograph and that mounts up. You would be extremely hard pressed to find any retail publisher paying that kind of money on rights to go to press. We are also paying the fees before it goes to press, another aspect that is very rare in the retail publishing world. If a retail publisher who puts a photographer on royalty does not do well, then the photographer gets very little.
We also didn’t ask for unlimited use, nor did we ask for a one time fee to print as many times as we want. We don’t know how many press runs will take place because marketing into the corporate world is very different than the retail trade. The retail book trade can sell with only a handful of images, but the corporate trade is different. We have to have contracts on the images before we can secure orders. We have two major corporations that are lined up for presentations. I have a number of experienced sales people who are currently selling high end corporate gift items that are awaiting our release of promotional material.
I would also like to put in perspective the issue of “exclusive rights”. We are only asking for a time limited “exclusive right” as a composite book. Rights for greeting cards sales, solo books, calendars, framed prints, and anything else remain with the photographer. The reason for this is that we want to promote the photographers that contribute as much as possible. In doing so, we intend to put the website address for photographers that want them posted in the book. No retail publisher would do this. We also leave ourselves wide open if we didn’t have and “exclusive” on a composite book for someone to approach the same photographers from the very references in our book and produce a cheap book printed in China that would be sold cheap, heavily discounted, and eventually remaindered. So I wanted to protect the photographers as well as our efforts.
I feel that some of the people in this forum have not given me a chance. I can’t control that. I’m disappointed not to have access to some of this great photography. But I would rather discover incompatibility from personal communications and part with respect. I believe that this book project will become my greatest career accomplishment and I intend to maintain integrity and a good reputation. I answer all emails. I even enjoy a healthy debate, even if a photographer doesn’t publish with us.
- Richard Kraus
www.pplandscape.org
239-390-0434