Rights Problem between Customer & Author

[rcashdan]

A customer posting a public request said she wanted an article + quality photos for $15-20. When she saw my proposed query in the view panel, I said $20+$5 for photos. She was agreeable. Then I began to wonder what kind of rights she wanted. I explained that the $25 was for usage rights, $35 for unique rights and $45 for full rights. I got a curt note back saying she could not possibly pay $45. In hindsight, I see I should have made my price scale clear in my query. I did write her to explain that I thought she could go for usage rights as few travel articles sell through CC as far as I can tell, but I never heard from her again. Wondering how other CCers have dealt with similar problems.

[Celeste Stewart]

Communication is essential. You do have to spell out what is obvious to you but not necessarily so to the customer. Remember that people see what they want to see and that their perceptions are their reality. . . If you say that you can do something for $25 without spelling out exactly what it is that you can do for that rate, you could get burned. From the customer's point of view, you said you could deliver at a specific rate but then it turns out that ambiguity affected you both. The customer perceived a different reality than what you perceived - a miscommunication accident waiting to happen.

In this case, the customer's stated budget may have had some wiggle room but it appears she wasn't willing to more than double her asking price. I can see both sides of this one. Granted, she wanted a lot for under $20 bucks but may have felt mislead when she agreed to $25 only to find out that she wasn't getting full rights.

Live and learn. . .

[Elizabeth Ann West]

I also find most customers are willing to pay the higher price once they see the quality. I understand photographs complicate this particular situation, but I've seen requests for example on articles for online banking. I knew this topic to be fairly ubiquitous, so I wrote the piece first. Then, I attached it to the request and after calculating my hours, the article was double the budget. I believe I priced it at $80 for full rights, and the budget was $40-$50. The buyer loved the article and bought it.

Thinking that was the end of it, 4 months later I received a private request for a piece on mortgages, and guess what? The buyer put the budget this time at $80-$100....... I also had a buyer quibble over a $10 article where they bought usage rights, then threw a fit over the byline which I refused to permit removal of since from our Q & A the buyer was clearly not ignorant of the licensing standards here. You have those buyers that want to work with authors, and any business will have those who want something for next to nothing.

<Shrug> Every customer is different and you just never know.... but I would say most of our buyers are really quality people willing to pay a fair price. The only thing is they rely on us the authors to tell them what that fair price is for what they want.

[rcashdan]

Thanks to both of you for spelling out your helpful perspectives.