Photographers should be alert to any requests from textbook publishers for a new license to extend the print run on books already published. In many cases they may be entitled to high retroactive usage fees for copies already printed and distributed as well as a fee for the new books the publisher intends to publish.

One of the first things to do if you want to sell your still photographs is to understand who the individuals and organizations are that might want to buy your images. You also need to be aware of the changing trends taking place in each market.

Stock image producers often have two misconceptions about subscription licensing services: They believe subscription licensing is simple and that for a very low monthly fee customers are allowed to use any image for any purpose. Neither is true.This story compares the subscription offering of Shutterstock and Britannica Image Explorer to drive home the point that two services can both be justifiably called subscription, but offer very benefits for both the customer and the image creator.

U.S. educational publishers are admitting to more and more unauthorized uses during the past decade and quietly entering into out-of-court settlements with an increasing number of image suppliers for large numbers of uses. In cases where the original license fee was well under $1,000, publishers are now paying multiple thousands of dollars to settle claims.

U.S. educational publishers are admitting to more and more unauthorized uses during the past decade and quietly entering into out-of-court settlements with an increasing number of image suppliers for large numbers of uses. In cases where the original license fee was well under $1,000 the publishers are now paying multi-thousands of dollars to settle these claims.

In light of pricing declines for textbook use and publisher attempts to avoid paying for future electronic uses, some image producers ask: "Why don't all the sellers just say 'no'? Shouldn't the producer be setting product prices?"

If you license rights to your photos for textbook use then here are a few articles you should read.

In addition to raising print quantities and extending license durations, textbook publishers are increasingly asking for the rights to publish the same information for the same time period on password-protected Web sites. While publishers intends to charge for those passwords, they expect content producers not to count such uses as part of the circulation.

From a stock photography point of view, the future is bleak for those trying to sell images for textbook use. This segment of the stock photography business is on what appears to be an irreversible downward spiral.

Is it time to institute a system of floor prices for the use of rights-managed images for editorial purposes? Is there any price so low—$50, $30 or $20—that the image creator would prefer not to make the sale? This article explores this issue and suggests a strategy that could benefit rights managed photographers and agencies alike.

A San Francisco-based photographer recently asked: "There is a lot of speculation about tablets like the Kindle and the iPad possibly leading the way for more image use and therefore a possible boon to stock-photo licensing. Do you have any thoughts on that?"

Books and education are changing. Consumer looking for information or entertainment will turn to "vooks" -- books they can watch, instead of the old paper kind they can only read or audio books where they can only listen to narration. These vooks blend text and video into a single integrated and uninterrupted reading and viewing experience that can be accessed and read on the Web or an iPhone.

In the next few years, there will be two major trends in the education business: There will be less demand for books as a teaching resource. Electronic “learning objects” will be used to a much greater degree in classroom and online instruction. Photographers who agree that these changes will occur, and who supply images to those producing materials for educational use, should begin to restructure their businesses and produce content that will be in demand by this new educational delivery system.

The opportunity to interact with editors from publishing companies, picture researchers, stock agents and photographers at the American Society of Picture Professionals’ (ASPP) Reinvention weekend in Boston provided a clearer picture of where the business of producing images for publication is headed.  Here are a few of my take-aways from the three day conference.

Only a couple years a researcher for a major book publisher told me they would never use microstock for a textbook because of the difficulty of “securing rights.” That puzzled me because I knew that virtually all microstock images had solid releases. Because they are such sticklers for releases they often don’t accept some of the more candid editorial images that many book publishers tend to favor.

For those who think that the use of photography in book publishing and for educational purposes will remain the same in this years ahead this story provides some numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau to consider. Significant changes can be expected in the near future.

For much of the past decade textbook publishers have tended to license rights to print a minimum number of copies of the books they published and then proceeded to greatly exceed the authorized press run without informing the content creators. Only recently have photographers become aware of this problem which we discussed in previous articles: Declining Textbook Market For Photographers and Publishers Owe For Past Uses. This articles provides a list of federal court actions for infringement of copyright that have been initiated against the major publishers in the last few years and names the photographer plaintiffs and the publisher defendants.

Current established usage fees are so low that many photographers and small agencies that have specialized in selling to textbooks have either gone out of business, or are on the verge of doing so. Nevertheless, the excessively low prices were still not enough for the publishers. To press their advantage it now appears that many of the larger publishers have systematically, not occasionally or accidentally, printed many more copies of books than they licensed rights to print.

From a stock photography point of view the future is bleak for those trying to sell images for textbook use. This segment of the stock photography business is on what appears to be an irreversible downward spiral. A few photographers and agencies have specialized in producing images for textbooks, but for most it has always been a secondary activity. It is hard to point to anyone who has become rich by producing or selling images for textbook use.

As prices for stock photo uses drop, the joke has been that pretty soon, publishers will start asking photographers to pay for publication of pictures. That idea may not be as ludicrous as it sounds. The time may not be too far off. In the last few weeks, photographers and stock agents have been receiving the following letter from India.

Textbook publishers now have total control when it comes to setting prices and have no reason to want a dialogue with sellers on the subject of pricing. However, past uses is one area where publishers might want to open a discussion, seeing the outcomes of several recent court cases.

The following is a list of general categories of imagery that are often used by educational publishers. This list is used by the Universal Images Groups and by Encyclopaedia Britannica in categorizing images for their purposes. In one sense the list might be viewed as covering all types of imagery, but if you think of each category in terms of images that might have an educational application you see that many images that might broadly fit into the category will have little or no education value. 

This article provides prices for use of images on Educational and Retail Posters. For more information about educational uses see Stock Photo Prices - Textbooks, JHP2067

The business of licensing rights for textbook and educational use has been changing dramatically in the last year or so. Photographers and distributors need to make some major adjustments in the ways they calculate prices for uses compared to what they were doing a few years ago. This article outlines some new pricing strategies and explores some of the options. Those who continue to use the old strategies are leaving huge amounts of money on the table.

Recently, I asked a Chicago-based picture researcher, who specializes in research for book publishers, if she used microstock, Â since such sites offer extensive image choices for textbooks. She said no, since a big problem was securing rights.