Does anyone sell prints here? I need advice. I recently sold a couple of large metal prints to a local company. Now I have been contacted by another person in the company about purchasing print rights.
He is looking to make very large prints (about 153 inches) on fabric and gator board. I am perfectly fine with selling a one time print license and let him manage the actual printing.
However I don’t know what to charge. Obviously I want to protect my business and not charge too little. For reference, one of the metal prints I sold was a 96”x40” metal print for $1,949.
What do you all think? What would you charge for a one time print license?
Sounds as though you’re a prime candidate for photoQuote from Cradoc. . I’m out of date by over 5 years now, but that was the industry standard we used in developing all our quotes and bids. Up til then anyway, it was more or less the standard used by many stock houses, too. In our version it did other things almost as valuable as price determination. It also included guidance on things most of us never consider: Duration of licenses, renewal terms, license limitations and more. They all play into the quote you develop.
Frankly you’re on the best track for photo sales. We made much more from licensing than outright sales, and to this day 5 years after retirement we have a few accounts still paying annual licensing fees. Our principal business was selling photos that didn’t exist (i.e., contract photography), but as a matter of course we also licensed photos from our stock files along with the new. Frankly our hourly rate beat most magazine’s cover rates, and we got licensing fees on top. Who would ever want to enter the fray of blind submissions or stock houses after that?
Thanks for the suggestion! Fotoquote definitely looks like it would be useful. I need to consider if I would use it enough to justify a $150 price tag though.
I can relate, as we tarried quite a while before investing. But we more than recovered the cost with our first license prepared using it and continued to rack up the income with each new proposal/contract. Well worth it to us in the end, but the ticket price at the gate is not cheap.
With contract shooting as our own example, shooting fees without licensing were basically “one and done.” But with the licensing agreement rolled in, we made many X the income from those shoots over subsequent years. You might realize the same benefits in your own prospective license.
I’ve done this before by taking the normal cost of my print then substract my overhead cost that I would have to pay to produce the print.
Similar to what Richard said, I would suggest to charge enough so that you’d make the same profit as you’d make for a similar sized print that you’d provide yourself. Don’t short change yourself just because the customer wants to print it themselves.
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I have used fotoquote in the past and it was an amazing resource. Unfortunately it has not kept up with the times and the prices are stuck in the past. In many cases you’ll be lucky to get half of what fotoquote suggests. It still has a lot of great information, but the price tag is questionable anymore.
My suggestion is the same as Jack’s, price it as you would if you were selling a print, it’s not the physical print your selling, it’s the photograph.
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That’s sad to hear. Guess we got out just in time! 
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Luke,
Sorry I can’t help you with the actual price, but thought I would mention this. The price should be relative to the terms? What are you selling them and what are they contracting to pay for? One time printing rights? What size? Or are they wanting to purchase unlimited printing rights? Print whatever size and however many prints they want? in perpetuity? Whatever price you set needs to reflect what “rights” you’re giving them? North American rights? World wide? 1year, 5, 10 years, forever? Once you give them the bits, you need to have a contract stating the terms (I’m sure you know this, but wanted to bring it up anyway.)
Good luck!
Lon