We use the Pickerell “Negotiating Stock Photo Prices” book and an old ASMP guide for quoting fees.

 

We deal with quite a few repeat customers, so we’ve established a set of rates for them which apply every time. I usually ask what they generally pay in order to get to a basis that works for their budget and to encourage them to come back again.

 

Very often, we waive or seriously reduce license fees for sister institutions and worthy “mission” oriented projects and charge a staff administration fee of $30-$50 for processing the order or just ask for credit.

 

We rarely waive reproduction fees, as they represent a cost to us. We do re-purpose existing scans and that’s a boost to revenue.

 

Other consideration we sometimes ask for if we’re waiving or reducing fees:

* publication of a short promotional piece about a given collection, e.g. our Rosenfeld Collection (www.rosenfeldcollection.org) or the Museum itself – we call this our “evergreen language”

* with the copyright notice/photo credit, publication of our website and collections email address

 

For purely PR and promotional uses, we usually waive everything and just get the credit. We work in concert with our Communications Dept. on this.

 

It’s a constant balance between “mission” and “market” considerations, but the overall test I use is to ask if it’s “commercially reasonable” in sharing the financial costs involved and looking at what consideration is exchanged.

 

Some fee schedules that I have found useful to consult are the New York Public Library, see esp. their use fee schedule: http://www.nypl.org/permissions/  and http://www.nypl.org/permissions/newpermissions.html .  Also, the Smithsonian Institution Libraries Image Use Fee schedule available here http://www.sil.si.edu/imagegalaxy/imageGalaxy_UseFees.cfm .  Even if you keep your own schedule much simpler, these detailed schedules may give you some guidance when faced with requests for waivers or reductions.

 

We often waive or reduce use fees for small print run books, especially for print runs under 1000-2000, but also for under 5000, and many other institutions do as well, by having a tiered fee schedule. We also sometimes offer a 20% volume discount, if someone is using 10 or more of our images.

 

It is also useful to consider who is making the request. Some publishers now make the authors do the permission requests, in order to save the publishers money, and we will sometimes give a price break or waiver to a struggling author, especially of a low print run book, in those circumstances. 

 

From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Benjamin Neely
Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 3:03 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [MUSEUM-L] defending fees

Dear List,

 

Our historical society receives a fairly substantial number of photographic reproduction requests from all sorts of patrons (individuals, for-profit entities, and non-profit entities).  I have been getting an increasing amount of requests from every demographic for a discount or to waive our fees for reproduction and usage altogether. Some causes are certainly more worthy than others but I want to be fair to everyone.  I certainly want to help one and all but our organization is a private non-profit, run by a small staff, and dependent on the income these fees generate. 

 

I am curious as to how other organizations handle such requests.  I would certainly be appreciative for any thoughts anyone would like to share. This is a link to our website where we posted information about regulations and fees: http://www.achs-pa.org/visit/rules.htm.

 

Thanks,

Ben

 

Benjamin Neely

Director of Historic Collections

Adams County Historical Society

111 Seminary Ridge

P.O. Box 4325

Gettysburg, PA 17325

717-334-4723 ext. 203

717-334-0722 fax

www.achs-pa.org

 

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