how much should i charge for photos being published in a book?
it is a book about Alzheimer's. the author wrote it as her thesis and her adviser told her to publish it- and now it is being published. she hired me to take pictures for the book- elderly people are modeling various scenarios for people with the disease. i am unsure what to charge though since i have never done photography for a book. it won't be a best seller or anything, but i do not believe it is one of those things where she is paying to publish it herself either.
The author is essentially paying you for your time and expertise. I would estimate how long it will take you to take all the photos (plus time to set up lighting and scenery if applicable, plus any time spent in the darkroom or in Photoshop). Then multiply that by whatever you think is a reasonable hourly rate. What's a reasonable rate? What else could you be doing with that time? What other jobs are you qualified for? You'll probably have to reduce the rate from what you could earn from an employer, seeing as - AFAIK - you've never been paid for photography before.
Your other option is to get some quotes from a few professional photographers and charge half or a third of what they want.
If the author says it's too much, you could try offering a lower fee in return for a share of the royalties - say, 1% (the author typically gets 10%), but since you think this book isn't going to sell in huge numbers, you could lose out. On the other hand, a low fee might be worth it for the experience and the exposure for your work.
I would make it clear to the author that your quote is based on taking a certain number of photos and/or spending a certain amount of time on the job. Tell her that if you go significantly over that because of changes that the author or the publisher wants, you may have to charge extra. (Obviously, you shouldn't charge extra for something that was your fault.)
I would also ensure that everybody is clear about who will own the copyright of the photos. The author and/or publisher will probably want to own them, but you may be able to get away with licensing them. At the very least, you should insist that they credit you as the photographer in the book, and that you keep the right to use the photos in your portfolio (assuming you work as a professional photographer or want to work as one).
EDIT: I was going to say you might get a better answer if you ask this question in the photography section, but having nosed around the categories, I'm not sure if Y!A actually has one.
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