In addition to the submission process, most Rights Managed agencies want hundreds of photos submitted with your first batch. I've seen some that ask for 1000 or more, and others that ask for 100 or 250. Submitting hundreds of photos does not guarantee you'll be accepted to the agency either, these are needed just for the initial review of your work. If you're just starting out in the Stock Photography industry, you're not likely prepared with that many high quality pictures.
Standard Royalty Free Stock Agencies seem to be handled in a similar way. You must have a large number of photos to submit for review, they often must be submitted via regular mail, and often there's a long wait time to find out if you've been accepted or not.
Some Rights Managed and Royalty Free Agencies also require exclusitivity. Meaning you're not allowed to submit your work to other agencies.
Now of course on the upside: Rights Managed stock photo agencies carry more clout, and have much higher end clients. As a photographer, you'll earn much more money per license agreement - generally several hundred dollars to several thousand dollars for just one photo.
The catch 22 of the higher earnings however, is that you'll generally see less sales of each picture. One picture might sell once in a year, or it may sell multiple times. Old pros in the Rights Managed photography world say that as a general rule of thumb, you can expect to earn approximately $1 per year for each photo in your portfolio.
So if you have 300 photos in a Rights Managed Stock Photography portfolio, you can reasonably expect to earn about $300 per year. And since you're earning hundreds of dollars per picture, then of course you've already figured out that most of your pictures won't sell over the course of that year.
Another benefit of being with a Rights Managed agency is reporting. Each time an image of yours is licensed, there is information logged. And that information is shared with you in the form of reports. You'll know who licensed the images and what they were used for.
These reports are usually sent along with your royalty payments, and this is one other sticking point for me: Most rights managed stock photography agencies still pay on a quarterly basis. This means you get checks once every three months... if you've earned the minimum required to actually get paid. Some Rights Managed agencies are changing in this regard, however those are not yet the norm.
Section 2: Royalty Free Micro Stock Photography
Introduction: Rights Managed vs. Royalty Free Stock Photography
© 2006, Kathy Burns-Millyard. All Rights Reserved.
• Photographers: Rights Managed vs. Royalty Free Micro Stock Photography
• Stock Photography Tips: Creativity vs. Saleability
• Can Photographers Make Money With Stock Photography?
• Stock Photography of People: Model Releases
• Are You Using Stock Photos In Your Business Illegally?
• Fotolia
• Bigstock