Selling work and what prices etc

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Hi
I recently took a pic of the old royal naval college London (as a hobbyist no intention of selling. It was for my Instagram page)
I have just been contacted by the marketing officer of the old royal naval college who would like to purchase the picture for their own use.
I’ve never sold anything before and was wondering what I should be charging etc.

I’ve checked the rules regarding the sale and as I didn’t set out to make money from it I’m within my rights to sell
It if someone asks.

The fact it’s the actual college enquiring is a bit daunting as I don’t want to undersell my pic and definitely don’t want to overprice it.

Thanks for your help.
 
Since you didn't take it for profit and you don't have any $$ invested in it sell it for whatever you want. Even if you sold it for $25 you're ahead. But you and ONLY you can price your work.

  • How much time do you have invested in it?
  • How hard would it be to re-create this pic if someone else wanted to?
  • What is their intended use for it? One time on their IG page or are they going to use it in multiple marketing campaigns and use it for years to come?


It's not an easy answer when you're doing this for hire but since it was a one-off and you're not in it to make $$ sell it for a fair price and enjoy your work being used publicly.
 
Since you didn't take it for profit and you don't have any $$ invested in it sell it for whatever you want. Even if you sold it for $25 you're ahead. But you and ONLY you can price your work.

  • How much time do you have invested in it?
  • How hard would it be to re-create this pic if someone else wanted to?
  • What is their intended use for it? One time on their IG page or are they going to use it in multiple marketing campaigns and use it for years to come?


It's not an easy answer when you're doing this for hire but since it was a one-off and you're not in it to make $$ sell it for a fair price and enjoy your work being used publicly.
Hi
I recently took a pic of the old royal naval college London (as a hobbyist no intention of selling. It was for my Instagram page)
I have just been contacted by the marketing officer of the old royal naval college who would like to purchase the picture for their own use.
I’ve never sold anything before and was wondering what I should be charging etc.

I’ve checked the rules regarding the sale and as I didn’t set out to make money from it I’m within my rights to sell
It if someone asks.

The fact it’s the actual college enquiring is a bit daunting as I don’t want to undersell my pic and definitely don’t want to overprice it.

Thanks for your help.
Sell it for $150.00
 
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It is nice (and a friendly compliment) that there is interest in your work, but you continue to realize that you do it as a hobby. If the price is too high, there will be a semi-professional who does it cheaper.
 
Personally I would donate the picture, perhaps asking them if you could come back and take some more.

By the way, as a guide to the value of photos nowadays, the gutter press pay the princely sum of of £1.50 per photo for their website
 
Personally I would donate the picture, perhaps asking them if you could come back and take some more.
By the way, as a guide to the value of photos nowadays, the gutter press pay the princely sum of of £1.50 per photo for their website
I would agree with that. Maybe the best you can get is a good impression and some future work perhaps.
 
$250
 
Hi
I recently took a pic of the old royal naval college London (as a hobbyist no intention of selling. It was for my Instagram page)
I have just been contacted by the marketing officer of the old royal naval college who would like to purchase the picture for their own use.
I’ve never sold anything before and was wondering what I should be charging etc.

I’ve checked the rules regarding the sale and as I didn’t set out to make money from it I’m within my rights to sell
It if someone asks.

The fact it’s the actual college enquiring is a bit daunting as I don’t want to undersell my pic and definitely don’t want to overprice it.

Thanks for your help.
Have you considered licensing use rights as opposed to an outright sale of the image? Selling implies a transfer of ownership and copyright and losing the right to later do anything yourself with the photo. Licensing implies granting permission for the photo to be used for a fee (or not) with restrictions (or not) as specified in the use license. A non-exclusive license allows the copyright owner to retain ownership and to re-license to other parties as long as it doesn't violate other licenses granted. The advantage of a non-exclusive license is the licensor can then potentially grant additional licenses and potentially collect additional fees. Create once/sell multiple times.

Sample forms for use licenses can be found online, I'm sure.
 
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All this is useless unless you state what it is exactly that you are selling. Are you selling them a print they can hang in the lobby? Jpegs that they can use on their website? Unlimited rights for any use that they can come up with? Are you giving them the master hi-res file? Are you selling the rights to reproduce and profit from the sales?

Is the image quality good enough to make a large sharp print? What do they want to do with it?

These are important considerations before you take Russ's advice.
 
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All this is useless unless you state what it is exactly that you are selling. Are you selling them a print they can hang in the lobby? Jpegs that they can use on their website? Unlimited rights for any use that they can come up with? Are you giving them the master hi-res file? Are you selling the rights to reproduce and profit from the sales?

Is the image quality good enough to make a large sharp print? What do they want to do with it?

These are important considerations before you take Russ's advice.
JeffreyS is spot on. Things need to be clear in any business transaction.
 
I would look at Getty Images to see what they charge for the size (in pixels) that the college wants, then go 1/3 to 1/2 that. Getty charges 60-80% 'commission' on their sales — which is one reason I'm no longer with them — so this would give you more than you'd get going through a stock agency while saving the college money as well.

If you truly don't care about the money, then maybe ask them to donate that amount to a charity in your name.

I've sold images for $100 to $400, depending on how big they were, who the customer was, and what rights they wanted.
 

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