Your Guide to Selling Video to the Media

[James Langford]

Personally, I think this is an excellent idea. I suspect it will do well also. There are many similar books for pricing and selling photography, and they are excellent resources for someone who is trying to break into the market. When I first started selling my photography, I had no idea what to charge, how to protect myself, what forms to use to be professional, etc. I ended up giving away a lot of my work for pennies in licensing deals. A book was recommended to me, "Pricing Photography: The Complete Guide to Assignment & Stock Prices" (http://www.amazon.com/Pricing-Photography-Complete-Assignment-Prices/dp/1581152078/ref=cm_lmf_tit_19) This book was a great resource, and gave me sample forms, pricing, etc. It helped me to define my business strategy and pricing structure, and gave me an idea how to approach licensing opportunities. It has paid for itself many times over.

Anyway, those are my two cents.

 

[Brett Adair]

My comments above were not intended to offend....hence the wink at the end of my posting. It was more or less humor. I apologize to those touched by the subject. lol

 

[Jason Foster]

And correct me if I'm wrong David, but this is geared toward chasers and severe weather videographers only. As I have learned over the years (and particularly in the past year), there are a lot different rules for different kinds of markets. Some parallels, but many more differences.

My comments above were not intended to offend....hence the wink at the end of my posting. It was more or less humor. I apologize to those touched by the subject. lol

Eh....it's the internet, and it's a forum. Folks should NEVER take anything literal!!!!

 

[Marcus Diaz]

Hey David, quick question. Is there a way I can just give you a money order or something and I can somehow get a copy of this? I've closed out my bank account so I can't pay online, and my credit card is in worse shape than a college girl wasted at a frat party. Let me know bud, I'm really interested in what you've put into it. Even IF I dont sell stuff, I'd still like to get some good advice on this subject.

 

[David Drummond]

Yes Jason, it's primarily geared to weather shooters, since this of course is what I do and am most familiar with and the types of markets it works in. That said, the information within can be good anyone that might have considered making money off any video with the media, as it has stuff that will really help newbies that need a crash introductory course to freelancing in this business.

Certainly there is way more than can be put into 31 pages, but this is geared to all those that (are often new to selling video) and have what amounts to basic questions about how to handle things.

Marcus: shoot me a PM about the money order. Sure, you can send me one.

 

[Darren Addy]

I also find the negative (sorry, HUMOROUS) comments in this thread a little surprising. I guess you can trash someone's offering in Marketplace if you want to be identified as a horse's patoot, but IMHO the Golden Rule applies.

Kudos to David for sharing his insights. If anything it should help to educate those who are silly enough to give their stuff away for free that they are only helping the media companies and not themselves. If you sell video to the media (or would like to), I would think that anything that educates those that give their work away is a Good Thing.

 

[Bill Hark]

Since the price was reasonable, I decided to purchase the guide. It is a nice summary of the ins and outs of selling video for storm chasers. A lot of the info is basic to someone who has been selling video for years but absolutely essential for those new to storm chasing who plan on selling video. There are some things that are not obvious that I have picked up over the years that are in this guide. I also learned some new things even though I've chased and sold video. I woud recommend it mainly for those with little or no experince selling storm video or for those who would like to increase the quality of the work and hopefully their earnings.

Bill Hark

 

[David Drummond]

I've been getting some great feedback both here in this thread, but even more via email, so I have decided to leave it at the $29 price for a bit longer.

Thanks to all those that offered feedback.

http://daviddrummond.com/latest-weather-news/90-how-do-i-sell-video-to-the-media.html

 

[J Tyler]

I really am baffled at the negative attitude of SO many people on this site. Not just in this thread either. Does storm chasing attract a lot of miserable people?

I'm a new guy around here, yet I've already purchased Mike Smiths book "Warnings: How science tamed the weather", and now Davids book. Why? Honestly, a lot of it was just to support fellow weather nuts. Both were priced VERY reasonable, so why not. Hopefully when the day comes that I offer something, people will support ME.

Hey, I even bought John Fausetts entire album "Weather Music Gallery" on iTunes! I figure any dude that loves his job THAT MUCH deserves my support! I started to just buy "Tornado Comin' To Your Town", but after hearing "One Team", I was in for the whole album.

I'm only about half way thru Mikes book, but I've really enjoyed it. It seems like in the thread where Mike announced his book for sale, there were floods of posts with people griping there too.

As for Davids guide, I was one of the people who gave him feedback by email. I told him because he does this for a living, I would NEVER have asked him for this information. Like asking a restaraunt for the recipe to their signature dish. You just don't ask. BUT, if the restaraunt SELLS the recipe for $10 in a book at the checkout, then that is perfect! For a very small price, David shared with me what he has learned over the years. I told David I was glad he did not include a bunch of fluff to fill out the guide to make it 400 pages long. I don't have the time for that. He told me exactly what I would have WANTED to ask him had we met somewhere. If the charge had been $100, I might feel different, but this is less than one tank of gas. Personally, I would not call this a "book", but rather a "guide". Happy customer.

Best of luck, David.

 

[Wes Carter]

I bought the guide also. You know, I could have found all of the information in it if I searched long and hard enough. I could say the same with almost any guide or instruction book out there. But here's the deal; I'm willing to pay a reasonable amount for someone to do it for me. I don't know how long it took him to accrue the info in that guide, but I know that it wasn't over a course of a few hours hours. I feel like I got my money's worth, now it's up to me to actually use it and sell some footage. I'm glad David made this guide, and have no regrets about buying it.