Photographer Jacques Jangoux reports that Alamy has licensed two of his images - A3N0PR (2 boys in a canoe in the Amazon region) and A3AB62 (waterfall of Jari River, tributary of the Amazon) – for just
$25.00 each for textbook use. Of course the photographer will only receive 60% of these figures.
The license was for World English language rights in both print and e-books with a print run of up to 3 million books. The customer can use the image for the next 25 years. The usage is inside (not sure what that means in an e-book) and as large as one full page in size.
The name of the publisher was not supplied, but given the circulation figures one would assume the purchaser is one of world’s larger publishers.
Most textbooks are selling in the range of $100 or more per copy. Some of the larger books have as many as 1,000 images in them although when they have that many images most are printed one-quarter page or smaller. So let’s run some numbers. If the publisher sells 3 million images over the next 25 year that will be gross revenue of $300 million – and the prices charged for a book will probably go up quite a bit over the next 25 years.
Assuming 1,000 images at $25 each their total cost for images will be $25,000. Thus, that works out to a total cost of $0.0833 (8.33 cents), not just per image, but for all the images that appear in each book that is sold for $100.00.
But, of course, we know that the publishers are suffering. Photographers need to supply pictures to publishers as discount rates so future students can get a proper education. Here’s some figures that show how much two of the major publishers - and the investors who own their stock - are suffering.
| |
|
2007 |
2008 |
2009 |
2010 |
2011 |
| Pearson PLC |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Gross Income |
2,250 |
2,460 |
2,580 |
2,870 |
3,010 |
| |
Net Income |
311 |
382 |
340 |
529 |
957 |
| |
EBITDA |
780 |
745 |
992 |
1,160 |
1,210 |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| McGraw-Hill |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Total Revenues |
|
6,355 |
5,870 |
6,072 |
6,246 |
| |
Cost of Goods Sold |
|
2,518 |
2,339 |
2,295 |
2,400 |
| |
Gross Profit |
|
3,836 |
3,531 |
3,777 |
4,846 |
| |
Operating Income |
|
1,448 |
1,277 |
1,413 |
1,485 |
| |
Net Income |
|
799 |
731 |
828 |
911 |
All these numbers are in millions of U.S. dollars. Of course, photos aren’t the only costs the publishers have and both companies are engaged in a number of lines of business other than textbook publishing. Nevertheless, both companies have been able to steadily grow profits for their investors.
For more on the financial go
here for Pearson PLC information and
here for McGraw-Hill information.
Getting back to photographer Jangoux who has had significant costs in producing, and making available images of the Amazon region, he say, “I think I am going to look for work in a car wash or something.”