I wonder why those who send in pictures are given a share of the profits from the calendar sales in the first place. I would think that the honor and privilege of having your saxophone displayed would be payment enough. Even a complementary calendar to each of the 12 participants whose pictures are chosen would be more than enough IMO.
John
I do it as a bit of incentive. I think most amateur photographers would just say, "I'm gonna be published? That's good enough!", because that does look good on a resume. However, if I sell an obscene amount of calendars, a share of the profits isn't a bad thing.
However, the maximum amount I've sold in a year was a little more than 180. If I can sell close to 400, I can start thinking about putting ads in
The Saxophone Journal or something: IIRC, ads were $1600 for a 1/2 page. With that kind of advertising, I might be able to sell a lot more. In that case, you'd have a really good reason to want a share of the profits.
I also do it because I want to be very up-front with costs and such: there's a profit of $4 on each calendar sold and I take 1/3 of this. 2/3 goes to the people who want profit sharing, or 21 cents per calendar per month included (there are 12 months plus the cover). So, as an example, if your Buescher 157 was featured for February 2009 and that was the only month your pics were featured, your profit share was a little under $18.
Hey. You can buy a large pizza and drinks.
I also give the people that contribute pics the opportunity to buy an unlimited amount of calendars at a $4 per calendar discount. I'd like to say, "You gimmee a pic, you get a free calendar," but this is all on-demand publishing: I have no stock, so I can't give out freebies.
With the profits I've had from teh calendar, I've purchased some computer equipment (easier to upgrade stuff if you're a computer tech!) and software (discontinued copy of Dreamweaver MX for $50! Score!).
Now, if enough folks contribute pics this year for the
Woodwind Forum calendar to be created, I'll be taking no profit at all: my profits would go toward running this forum, minus the cost of a proof or two (and I generally need two). I have no idea how I'm gonna do profits on the book. In both of these cases, though, if you submit pics, you will have the option of profit sharing. I think it's only fair.