The light at the end of the tunnel

[cornerofmadness]

Is only a motorcycle not a train so maybe I can dodge it. I did go to the school to put those three skeletons in my office so I can stop driving around with corpses in my car. They FINALLY after 8 months fixed the a/c.

The good news most of my stuff in the green house is alive. the bad new, in the severe heat much of it is stunted. I should have dragged it out today but I didn't have the energy.

In other good news, I a) figured out how to use the VidGrid recording software b)was able to upload from HERE!! YAY. I won't have to sit in my office which means less interruptions and frankly my coworkers are so damn whiney right now I prefer not to interact with them.

I got the first draft of my next novella's cover and it was super cool except the guy had a leather jacket on in Florida. In Summer. I kicked it back and said can we do this without a jacket? I know it's not easy because they're using stock photos. At least this guy is Italian. Last time there were NO Native American models other than ones in full plains INdian war bonnets etc (way to be exclusionary AND racist, stock photo companies)

I finished a story for fandomgiftbox just one, that's all I had time for and yes it's Prodigal Son. One of my frequent readers was in that and thought I HAVE to do this for them (also it was the only PS one that wasn't super specific, most wanted videos only, no fanfic, weird)

I finished another PS story for getyourwordsout's Christmas in July challenge. Both of these will work for allbingo's Winter in July challenge too

I'm getting some progress on my wipbigbang story too. So things are a bit better.

Comments

[bladespark]

I hate trying to use stock photos SO MUCH.

My characters aren't even human, augh!!!!!!! I have gotten gorgeous art commissions of them, but of course when working with a publishing company they won't let me use them, I have to be "on brand" and blah, blah, blah. :(

[cornerofmadness]

I hear you. I have to say the stock photo they found IS really nice and I like it. On the other hand it was a huge disappointment last time that there weren't even Natives (actually to their credit the editors/owners of the company seemed as disappointed as I was)

But like you most of my characters are often non-humans. The one good thing about DSP was they had artists. Ninestar doesn't. Given as little as I sell half the time I wouldn't easily make b ack the commission on good cover art. sigh.

[frith]

Having worked for two years in a small photo stock agency, I'd venture to guess that there are few employees/managers adding photos to the inventory and making the selections. Fewer people means that they are not only less likely to be familiar with the nuances you are looking for, but they are probably gravitating to images that are not subtle in message. Ergo, Italians in leather and First Nations in feathers. We'd call those ID shots, like a picture of a bird that shows the bird in a way that it is immediately apparent what kind of bird it is. Boring, but some clients want exactly that and a lot of the business is second-guessing the client. The idea is to send few images to the client so it is easier for them to choose one but send enough (on target!) images that the client feels like they have received a variety.

Now it's up to the photographers to properly identify their pictures, but there are more hurdles. For you to get what you want, the photographer has to take pictures of First Nation people without the feathers etc, identify the subject properly and send in enough stock to the agency for the agency to add them to the inventory. The more mundane a picture, the more likely it's going to get buried in a mountain of pictures it most closely resembles and it also could rapidly become unavailable for a book cover by virtue of being the only picture representing a rare combination of subject, situation and background.

[cornerofmadness]

Hey thanks for the insider look at this conundrum. I'll be honest I have no idea how any of it works but this helped. Well it doesn't help with the frustration that more photographers don't do a more diverse portfolio of people but on the other hand I have zero idea how well (or not well) they are compensated for stock photos.

It makes sense. And it makes sense that fewer PoC end up on covers which is something that probably needs addressed somehow to quiet the howls of representation which I can absolutely understand.

[frith]

There are standard ASMP rates that dictate how much an image use sells for and thus how much the agency/photographer is paid. The rates are dependent on the use (calendar, book cover, textbook illustration, postcard, poster and so on), the size and the number of copies printed. There must also be rates for website use too, but that would have emerged years after I quit selecting chromes for the agency I worked at. Where I worked, photographers got 50% of a sale.

Since rates should be the same regardless of the agency, clients would usually send their requests to several agencies and every photo stock agency has their own strengths. The strength of the agency I worked at was in nature photography and the knowledge thereof gave us an edge over much larger agencies.

It's possible that photo stock agencies have cut out the photo-selection aspect of the process in favor of a self-serve web interface model. That would be pretty shitty. Photo-selection is an art.

[cornerofmadness]

Thanks again. Yeah I have no idea because I do have a publisher doing all of this for me (if I did self pub I'd probably still hire a cover artist because I doubt I could do it well.)

I will say the cover artist I've been working with with Ninestar is good. She has picked out some decent models. (With another publisher I asked for a 20 something Hispanic man and got one who was clearly a 50 year old Middle Eastern. I said no) so you're right on the money with photo selection is an art. It definitely is

[frith]

You're welcome. ^_^ Trying to pass off a 50 year old for a twenty-something sounds like a Python-eque prank (how about this terrier? 'd make a lovely parrot). Pretty sloppy on the part of the publisher.

[cornerofmadness]

Snort, that's funny and yes it was sloppy. Luckily the other options were better. Still not Hispanic (but now I have a better understanding of why) but at least dark haired and 20 something