My latest images for sale at Shutterstock:

Monday 25 October 2010

The first fifty

I have now finished uploading my first fifty images to my initial three sites and have begun sending them to some of the other sites on my list.

Shutterstock continue to be frustratingly picky, with only 29 of 50 accepted (58%). All of these were images which were previously accepted on iStock (where I had an acceptance rate in the high seventies). Probably the most annoying rejections are for 'limited commercial value' when applied to images which have sold well previously and therefore have a proven commercial value.

Something seems to have gone wrong at Dreamstime and all my 50 uploads are stuck in their queue, uninspected. I have sent an email to support and am waiting to hear back.

The only other site worthy of note at the moment is CanStock, who have reviewed all my images very quickly and accepted a very high percentage of them. No sales there yet, or anywhere else either with the continued exception of Shutterstock, where sales have been reasonably brisk. I have also had a couple of non-subscription sales there, which helps a bit. I think I could do well there if I could just get more images accepted.

19 comments:

  1. Interesting on the acceptance levels. I was under the impression istock was the gold standard, if it got in there it would get in anywhere. I guess I was wrong.
    Good luck Bridget.

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  2. Big changes in the images arena will bring even further challenges for image makers. It is not a bad move to diversify, but why do you keep opting for agencies outside of the UK and Europe? I'm interested in hearing the logic behind your chosen strategy.
    All the best.

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  3. I have signed up to a couple of European agencies so will see how those go. The bulk of my sales have always come during US office hours so I have assumed that is the biggest market...

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  4. Watching with interest, Bridget. Friends keep nagging me to diversify but I'm not brave enough yet. BEst of luck, Dave (Leadinglights)

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  5. You could try uploading your istock rejects to SS and others. Acceptance/rejection at different agencies goes both ways.

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  6. Don't worry Christina, I will in good time. I have actually already sent SS my most unfathomable iS reject and it was accepted and sold several times right away (it's the ice-cream van btw - not a thing wrong with it technically or artistically yet even Scout upheld it). That one had always pissed me off so there is some vindication there.

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  7. Your experience just reinforces my belief that stock photography is far from a science. In fact, acceptance/rejection is just down to one person's opinion - which makes the unfathomable rejections a little easier to accept.

    I have a friend who is uploading to several sites (I warned him off IS) and the variation between what is and isn't acceptable on the various sites shows it as a complete lottery. No single image accepted to all and no single image rejected by all!

    When one is cocooned as an exclusive on IS, it's easy to accept the Gold Standard BS that they put out and to think that your rejected images are all somehow falling short, when in reality they ain't.

    Good luck.

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  8. Yep, totally agree - it is a completely subjective process. I am trying to take the broad view and hope that all of my images will make it somewhere rather than everywhere. I read once that Yuri Acurs has an acceptance rate of 90%, ie that one in ten of his perfectly shot, processed, manufactured images didn't make it. That just highlights the craziness of it for me. It is hard not to take rejections personally, but I am trying to rise above it :-)

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  9. Thanks for keeping us posted. Must be satisfying to see an image that you always felt was good doing well after it was rejected at iStock.

    Out of interest, have you tried StockFresh yet? I've heard good things about them, the site looks good, and other recent 'non-exclusives' seem to be working with them. Actually just checked out their blog, it sounds like there's a pretty big bottleneck with getting new work live.

    I'm still not nearly as brave as you, and haven't decided whether or not to go independent, but at the moment iStock somehow seem to be achieving the impossible - alienating artists and making them feel even less valued than they did following the royalties announcement.

    At the moment it's hard to tell if this is being done on purpose for some reason, or if it's due to staff there being too stretched or completely unmotivated.

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  10. Hi George, Stockfresh was one of the first agencies I looked at. They seemed to me at the time to have very high acceptance criteria, but I think I have re-assessed that since. They are also not actively marketed yet from what I understand - this is the reason that when I last checked their highest selling image (one of Yuri's) had just four sales. I have also heard that there is a long wait to be accepted as a contributor so to be honest I have been focussing on sites that seem more likely to give me some return sooner. I will get round to them at some point, but I don't think there is any hurry.

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  11. Glad you're keeping this blog, Bridget. Will be very interesting for those of us who are also de-crowned (or planning on it).

    Are you also considering StockFresh? That's one of the ones that I plan on contributing to, as soon as my crown comes off. I like the idea that it was started by veterans of the microstock industry and is relatively new. So starting to upload there in 2011 will still be essentially on that site's ground floor (would have been a nice place to get in on iStock, eh?). For this reason, I'll probably start submitting there first. Before all the well-established agencies.

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  12. Doh! I see you'd just answered a StockFresh question above. Sometimes I'm slow. Please bear with me. LOL :D

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  13. Lol Marisa, I know what you mean re getting in the door at StockFresh early, but for me it is far more important to get my images onto sites that are going to sell them quickly. When I looked at the StockFresh application it was the only one that asked how many images you have available to upload. I suspect that the answer given to that question dictates the length of time you will have to wait for your application to be processed. They are looking to get their content built up quickly and so will focus on those applicants that can do that for them.
    Just a wee hint ;-)

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  14. I see. What you say makes sense. Since I do have quite the pile o' files that I could upload to them the second my crown is off, I am going to focus my efforts there, first. I'm using the next few months to prep files for just that purpose.

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  15. I wish I had spent my month's notice putting keywords into the metadata of my files. I would have the lot submitted by now if I had....

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  16. Hi Bridget,

    Reading and hanging onto your every word here ;)

    Keep plugging away Pet! :D
    Sue

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  17. Jolly good Sue - there will of course be a test on this later ;-)

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  18. lol Oopsy There's me in Trouble again ;)

    Congrats once again on being up and Running and the good acceptance rate at Dreamstime, it will be interesting to hear if your Portfolio eventually follows the same pattern as mine regarding Royalties once you are fully establish at the main Four Sites. Please keep me posted on your findings at your second tier selection BS and CS

    Cheers, Sue

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  19. Yep, don't worry, I will be blogging about all the sites in time. Not a great deal to say about some of them so far, only fair to give them time.

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