Selling Your Photography To Agencies.

Have you ever tried to sell your images to an agency.

Anyone
with the ability to use a camera correctly has the potential to sell
their images. Picture agencies handle images of every subject and are
always looking for emerging talent.

Pictures
libraries and stock agencies are in the business of selling images. The
don’t give you advice on how to take better images. Their purpose is
business – they sell images to magazines, book publishers, the travel
industry and many other industries that use images.

Many
photographers look upon agencies as a last resort to sell their work;
if you have been unable to sell any of your images, the chances are
that most agencies won’t accept them.

If
you are interested in an agency selling your images, you must be able
to produce high quality images which are suited to the agencies market.
Check out their website to view samples that are currently in use.
If you feel your work meets their standards and suits their customers –
then approach them by e-mail or by standard mail.

But,
before placing your work at an agency make a short-list of the agencies
that seem to suit your work. Contact each agency outlining your work
and which magazines have already published your images. If an agency is
then interested they will ask you to send them samples.

If an agency accepts your work, don’t take this as a guarantee that your images will sell.

Don’t
approach an agency until you have a large collection of images. Minimum
first submissions can consist of anything from 50 images to 500 and
regular submissions are normally required thereafter. Most agencies
work on a commission basis – 50 % being the standard rate. If an image
sells for two hundred euro – the photographer receives a one hundred
euro fee.

When
an agency takes on a photographer’s work, they normally require a four
or five year retention period. Agencies normally sell the reproduction
rights of a pictures – the image being licensed to a buyer for a
specified purpose.

It
may take as long as six months before an agency sells a picture
belonging to you. First they need to scan your images if they are
submitted by film; then they need to contact their clients and let them
know that there is new material available – all of this takes time, so
you must look at supplying a picture agency as a long term investment.
It is only when you have several hundred images placed in a library
that you’ll start to see regular sales.

Remember:
agencies can’t sell images if there isn’t a market for them and placing
images at an agency does not guarantee you sales.