Over the weekend I reported that there were
71 live briefs on
ImageBrief worth a combined total of over $150,000.
Allyson Scott, who has been responding to briefs and submitting images for more than six months, points out that actually making a sale is not as easy as I might have made it sound. Here’s what she had to say.
"I was accepted as an IB contributor in August 2013, and have participated in a wide variety of briefs ranging from lifestyle to animals to travel. It takes a significant amount of time to participate, since I must review the brief, locate the appropriate files in my archives, and then of course ensure no similars exist with any of the 4 traditional stock agencies currently representing my work.
"The vast majority of briefs I see are for $500 or less. Sometimes the fees are fixed, and sometimes there is a very wide range for one brief ($500 - $1,500 per image). It’s pretty rare that the potential award is within the range IB is claiming as an average, in my experience. It is also comical how often the value is less than $300, when clients are using adjectives like “stunning”, “award-winning”, “unique” and of course the inevitable “non-stocky”. They seriously want stunning, unique, award-winning, fully released images for $250, of which IB will take 30%!
"I’ve been selective about which briefs to respond to, and have been shortlisted several times now. Not only have I not been awarded a single sale as of yet, but of all the briefs I participated in, only three or four have actually resulted in sales through ImageBrief for anyone at all. It is shocking how often the deadline passes and there is no feedback or information from the client at all for weeks on end. The IB employee managing the brief simply has to close the job and say the client did not select anything.
"This is not IB’s fault, the problem is that clients are simultaneously sending the exact same image request to IB that they are sending to a dozen stock agencies. The concept as I originally understood it was that clients would often approach IB for fresh material when they could not find what they wanted in stock agencies, but that is not usually the case. I have verified that researchers at stock agencies are receiving the same image requests word for word that I am receiving from IB, at precisely the same time.
"I worked at a stock agency for close to 20 years, opting to leave last summer to focus on shooting. It was just as frustrating from the agency side to receive image requests from clients, have our researching staff rush to put together lightboxes for clients on tight deadlines (knowing full well that ours was one of ten the client would receive), and then be unable to reach the client for follow-up. The concepts change direction, the art director went with a competitor’s image, or - our favourite - they decided to save money by using an existing image from their own library of stock. Ouch.
"Winning a sale on IB feels a bit like the odds of holding a winning lottery ticket, but of course it’s still possible. In discussing the potential of IB as an additional sales venue, it would be prudent to offer a word of caution to photographers that they devise a system to expend the minimum amount of time and effort. For myself, that has meant often submitting only brand-new images that are easy to locate on my hard drive, and have not yet been submitted as stock. The experience overall has been disappointing, and reinforces the need to work smarter as opposed to harder in the current sales climate."