We recently read a reviewer’s note on Amazon, regarding our book “Photographer’s Survival Manual”, now in its second printing. We are a bit confused, as supposedly people who purchased and read the work write such reviews.  This “reviewer” never read our book, yet decided since it doesn’t have electronic forms and really doesn’t have “everything” a photographer needs to know, he didn’t want the book.

Ed is “dubious” and Jack is thrilled! Mainly because someone saying something like this, and pointing out he’s found many other books on the subject, makes us think  A) it’s a plant and B) that we’re doing something right!   Dogs don’t bark at parked cars.

Not buying it for that reason reminds us of one of our favorite jokes:
Fred finds his buddy Tom in the street, late one dark night, looking for something down on his hands and knees.
Fred asks “What’s going on?”
Tom replies that he lost his keys just up the street.
“Up the street? Then why are you looking over here if you lost them up there?”
Tom replies, “It’s too dark there, the light is better over here.”

The problem with the “reviewer’s” comment is really that he doesn’t want the tedious task of transcribing the forms we provide in the book and customizing them to his own business.  Oh my, torturous work indeed!.

We want to take this time to point out to everyone that while we’re happy to provide paperwork templates to work from, and we’re thrilled when people use them as a starting point, but we strongly  advise everyone to customize all forms to their own needs and then have a lawyer review all your paperwork so they may be pronounced “good to go”.  Despite the yearnings of photographers from coast to coast one size does not fit all.

There are many contracts we’ve seen and reviewed.  Many are free for the asking. Some you must pay for. Still others appear in books and are available online. Some are drafted by trade associations. Some are awful, others are useful as a good outline but using any of them without it being tailored and modified to your business, your state’s laws and then approved by a local lawyer, is an invitation to a disaster.

A major problem with any generic contract is that local laws are not generic.  Each state in the United States, and even within some counties or cities within a given state, has its own laws with respect to the form, style, requirements and contents of contracts. While copyright law is Federal and thus does not differ from state to state, contract and privacy laws vary widely. That means model releases, invoices, terms and conditions, they all need local involvement and expertise when used in real life.

In the end, the best protection, more than any easy to copy form or template, electronic or manual, is to simply hire a local lawyer after you have reviewed the forms in our book (and others if you like).  Bring them along with any questions you may have to a consultation with a real live lawyer. The lawyer will then go over your paperwork and customize it to your needs and the local laws. Don’t limit the task, provide all of your paperwork. Invoices, change orders, model releases, everything. Yes, it will cost you a few bucks for this one time project, but trust us, it’s a lot cheaper than hiring that same lawyer to defend your behind when you get blindsided by a lawsuit or have to hire a lawyer to collect your fee because you used a free form that falls short in your village, city, or state.

Our book does not purport to instruct the reader on “everything” one needs to know to be a professional photographer.  We have been writing a column for Photoshop User magazine for years. This blog contains dozens of articles. We have been lecturing and/or giving all day seminars at (plugs coming up!) Photoshop World  (next in Orlando, FL (April 14 -17), B&H Learning Center (first time February 26th – it’s free), Photo Expos, APA panels, The Hallmark Institute of Photography, and at the School of Visual Arts. We have spent thousands of hours on educating photographers on how to run a business, register their copyrights, collect unpaid invoices and on and on.  Any book purporting to tell the reader “everything” one needs to know would run a few thousand pages in length and be out dated by the time it was printed – even as an e book. There is nothing contained in our book that represents that it contains  “everything” you need to know. There is no business where everything can be learned from reading a book and one would need to be rather naive’ to believe such a thing.

There is nothing in our book that makes such a claim. This critic states it nevertheless. The fact that we never said it… well we guess that doesn’t matter much. It is ironic that we spend so much time trying to bust web myths that someone is trying to use one on us.

That great philosopher and boxer, Mike Tyson, once said fittingly:
“Everyone’s got a plan ’till they get punched in the mouth.” 

Oh, and if you did buy our book and feel like writing a review at Amazon, we wouldn’t complain and would appreciate it. That is if you did like our book. If you didn’t like it…well, never mind then.

Happy New Year to all from Ed and Jack