Know Your Worth & 4/52: Katya
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The other day I wrote a post on my Facebook page:
A “luxurious and huge” LA entertainment company has contacted me asking for license to use my work in their flyers and marketing. Upon asking their budget, they respond with “By allowing us the rights to your work, in exchange we will offer you great exposure through our marketing outreach. Apart from your work’s visibility, your name will also be mentioned in the flyer.”
HA, tell me all about how I can pay for my equipment, studio, software, and my TIME, with exposure. Tell me all about how “luxurious” you are. Trying to rip people off and hope for handouts? Please.
I hope this will serve as a reminder to all my photographer friends, KNOW YOUR WORTH. The “exposure” they promise, will amount to nothing. Been there, done that. Sorry to say.
I have fallen into the “we will give you exposure, give us rights to your work for free” trap before. You know that exposure they speak of? It won’t do squat for you. The company sent me screenshots of their Facebook page with the numbers of impressions and how many people were reached by each flyer they post. To that I say, so what? Did any of those people care who did the photography, the creative, the design? No. Who cares how many people saw the flyer if the flyer is promoting THEIR own brand, their event, their venue. Most of the time flyer designers use stock photography because no one really cares about the actual photography on that flyer, the point of the flyer is to communicate and promote the EVENT.
Say, the company wanted to use a photo I took of Robbie Rivera and use it for a flyer. Would any of the people that saw the flyer on their Facebook page say “Oh wow, that photo is so awesome, who took it!?” Ummm, not a chance in the slightest. The people will say “OH cool, Robbie Rivera will be a XYZ club on March 2th! Can’t wait!” Who cares what the image is, right? That’s not the point of the flyer. The point of the flyer is to communicate and promote the event itself!
The only satisfaction from knowing how many people saw the flyer with your photo on it is your own. You would be the only person who knows, who cares. I assure you, you will not get any leads from such a “promotion”.
Just a word of caution, my fellow artists. Know your worth. Ask for budget. Tell them your price. You spend a lot of time, work, passion, effort, and dedication to come out with the work you do and you do not deserve to be shat on by some scummy company who brags about being super exclusive but yet has no respect and appreciation for artists.
That is all.
Have a great evening!
Comments (3)
Urban Lithograph
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Totally agree. I myself was in this situation before, and yes, they can only get you few times like this when you’re starting out and looking for exposure, because you don’t know any better. Sure, sometimes that can in fact lead to assignments, but very, very rarely. Anyhow, good word and advice, and I love your work.
L.
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kgornia
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Thanks for the comment. Sadly, they will continue to exploit beginner artists like this because we simply do not know any better in the beginning. I sure didn’t when I started out, I was just thrilled anyone wanted to use my work for something of theirs. As a person who’s usually pretty trusting of others and believes in others’ best intentions, I found myself disappointed after taking such an “opportunity”. We live and we learn.
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kamgornia
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@Urban Lithograph Thanks for the comment. Sadly, they will continue to exploit beginner artists like this because we simply do not know any better in the beginning. I sure didn’t when I started out, I was just thrilled anyone wanted to use my work for something of theirs. As a person who’s usually pretty trusting of others and believes in others’ best intentions, I found myself disappointed after taking such an “opportunity”. We live and we learn.
Reply