{"id":290,"date":"2010-03-02T15:03:04","date_gmt":"2010-03-02T20:03:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/?p=290"},"modified":"2010-03-02T15:07:26","modified_gmt":"2010-03-02T20:07:26","slug":"the-blue-in-the-face-list-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/?p=290","title":{"rendered":"The Blue in the Face List- Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Everyone seems to be in love with lists<\/strong>.\u00a0 There’s Craigslist, People Magazines “List of Most Beautiful People”,\u00a0Letterman has his Top Ten List, the AFI List of the “100 Greatest Movies of All Time”.\u00a0 Just how could we exist without the list of “The Greatest Reality Shows in TV History”.\u00a0 Somewhere there must be a \u201cList of Lists\u201d.\u00a0 And so it goes.\u00a0 So we decided to give the creative community what it wants – a list of money making and equally important, money keeping ideas. Far from complete, but it\u2019s a start. We\u2019ll post the first ten today and another ten this week.
\nNumber one on the list is by far the most important, first, numero one, rule one. Got that? The rest are in no particular order of importance.<\/p>\n

1. Register all of your work, all of the time, without exception, no matter what.<\/em><\/strong> Don’t ask, don’t ponder, don’t question – just register period. It\u2019s what we say until we\u2019re blue in the face. Photographers realize how important this is when, surprise, surprise, a photo they never thought twice about gets infringed and they find out how unfair life is without proper registration.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 Your paperwork should be as good as your photography. Your forms should look and be every bit as good in their content, style and professionalism as your imagery. Bad paperwork has caused more sleepless nights than a bad burrito.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 Your client is not your “partner”.\u00a0 Your spouse is your partner.\u00a0 Your client is a customer. <\/em>And no matter how friendly your clients are, you dear friend, are a vendor. Trust us on this one. It\u2019s broken many a heart.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0 Run your business as if it were <\/em>a business because (drum roll here) it is!<\/em> <\/strong>Sounds simple, but many photographers lose sight of this.
\n<\/em>
\n5.\u00a0 Do not seek or rely on advice regarding tax or legal issues from non-professionals especially, photographers.\u00a0 A layperson that writes a blog or a book does not morph into a licensed experienced professional lawyer.<\/p>\n

6.\u00a0 Obtain and retain model releases all of the time and keep them FOREVER.\u00a0 Do not expect or rely on any one else doing this – ever.<\/p>\n

7.\u00a0 Thoroughly interview and retain accountants, lawyers, bankers and so on before<\/em> you really need them.\u00a0 Satisfy yourself that such person has some familiarity or understanding of what you do for a living.\u00a0 In so doing never, never<\/em> rely on any advertising for such services that any such person may have.\u00a0 We subscribe to the view that such advertising should disqualify the professional from your consideration.<\/p>\n

8.\u00a0 Do not assume that reps or agents know more about the business than you do.\u00a0 Remember that their business interests do not necessarily <\/em><\/strong>parallel your own.<\/p>\n

9.\u00a0 Do assume<\/em><\/strong> that any contract offered to you by a stock agency, rep or agent is written in their interest and not yours.\u00a0 Any agreement which seeks to appropriate any percentage of your income must be reviewed by a lawyer of your choosing with input from your accountant. If the contract “looks simple that it does not need such a review”, congrats you have been duped.\u00a0 Such “simple” contracts are carefully written in such manner so you won’t have them looked at by an objective expert.\u00a0 Its a trick that very, very often works with creatives.\u00a0 The complications come later when you are informed by a lawyer and\/or your accountant that by signing this unreviewed, simple letter agreement, you have (simply) screwed yourself and your family for years to come.<\/p>\n

10. Even with reputable clients, if your paperwork says 30 days net, and you have not gotten paid by day 31 or 32, call the accounting dept. Call now. For any payment question, bypass the art director, the art buyer, or any other non-accounting person. They don\u2019t have a clue. Call the accounting department directly. That\u2019s who cuts your check. If it\u2019s a large invoice, you may want to call two weeks into the 30 days just to \u201csee where you are\u201d in the payment queue.<\/p>\n

Look for Part 2 of our list in two days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Everyone seems to be in love with lists.\u00a0 There’s Craigslist, People Magazines “List of Most Beautiful People”,\u00a0Letterman has his Top Ten List, the AFI List of the “100 Greatest Movies of All Time”.\u00a0 Just how could we exist without the list of “The Greatest Reality Shows in TV History”.\u00a0 Somewhere there must be a \u201cList […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-copyright-info"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=290"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":297,"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290\/revisions\/297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}