Charging for a magazine cover

[waple]

I have a client that hired me to do some shoots for her: an in-store party, and some product shots. She also asked me to shoot a portrait of her for the cover of a magazine. She isn't the owner of the magazine, but they approached her to be the cover model since they're doing a feature story on her.

I'm really not sure how to charge for this. Who is the client in this case, her or the magazine? I'm assuming her. Since this is really one of my first real portrait sessions and I'm getting a cover credit, I'm not too worried about this one. But if others come to me, i'll need to start knowing what to say.

We had a 2-hour session and I typically charge $50/hour for the session and $50/hour for the post work, which I have been telling them is equal to the session time, so in this case, a total of 4 hours. However, post time has been taking a LOT longer so I either need to say it's 2x the session time, or just charge more per hour.

When a client pays for my time to take and process photos, what should they be given in return? Should they be obligated to receive free 4x6s from me or any of the digital files? Should the digital files be something they pay for in addition to the session fees?

And in this case, if I were to charge, let's say, $70 for an 11x14 print, do I just charge her that much for the digital file to send to the magazine or should I charge more since it's actually for a magazine cover and will be seen by 10,000 people?

I'm really not sure what to do with all this stuff. But I've had several people ask me for portrait sessions lately, and it'd be nice to pay off the lights I bought for it.

[Unkl Buck]

What was the agreement you made with this lady? What did you say you would give her? As for the magazine, they pay a certain amount for the cover and a different amount for different sizes inside. It's not an amount you determine. It's amount they have determined. At least, that's what I've found.

As for not being worried about just getting cover credit, what you establish now can become precedent for future jobs. You need to determine now what you are gonna charge and stick with it for a period of time. One thing that customers hate more than anything is inconsistent pricing.

I would charge a flat amount and that would include all pre and post production of the images. Before you even shoot the job, find out what the intended use will be and negotiate a fee for that. But, keep in mind future uses as well.

I kind of shot myself in the foot with a golf course I photographed. We agreed that they could use the images for any promoting of the golf course. That happened to include 3rd party companies/businesses that wanted to use the images to promote them. Doh. Had I negotiated for their own marketing and no one else, then I would've been able to charge something for these other uses. As it stands, I'm out of luck. I learned my lesson.

I would definitely charge an extra fee (3x a 1 time use rate) to hand over the digital files. Especially if they want unlimited use.

[Bloo Dog]

The model is your client.

You need to establish a rate for your commercial work. Since the end user is a magazine, and the magazine is a commercial entity, your price for an image should be higher than what you would charge for a portrait. The magazine will be using the image for the cover, and the magazine will make money from the use of your image.

You need to control the end use of the image. Since the model intends to allow the image to be used on the cover of a magazine, you should limit her usage of the image. I would not allow her to publish the picture unless you can collect media rates for the image. The model won't want to pay your day rate (provided that you have established one) so you'll have to approach the magazine and ASK the magazine if it would like to use it for its cover.

At this point, you should be ready to quote your price. If your price is not within the rate that the publication pays (as Unkl Buck alluded to) then it will tell you.

My city magazine (which is owned by the newspaper, a Knight-Ridder publication) is a full-color monthly, glossy affair chock full of advertising. The city is mid-sized but its audience is very affluent. I would charge a minimum of $1500.00 per use for front or back outside covers if one of my images were to be used by the publication. Take a look at your mag's advertising and then call the magazine and ask how much it would charge for an ad on the the rear outside cover. I would use that number and charge 25- 30% of what you are quoted, or I would negotiate from that point.

You could always get an ASMP handbook and see what the prevailing national rates are for locally distributed magazines. The pay changes from local to regional to national publication. Your magazine may not support ASMP rates, though. ASMP used to have a rate sheet online. I couldn't find it.