Can PACA Give You
A Fair Shake?
A Fair Shake?
Note: In our November issue we published an article, "Dealing With The Flakes," a warning to photographers just breaking into the field of stock photography. We counseled them to proceed with
Spencer Grant:
"Dealing With the Flakes" was OK so far as it goes, but I can say from personal experience that PACA's imprimatur isn't necessarily a guarantee of financial stability.
About five years ago, my wife and I had amassed close to 20,000 stock slides -- captioned, organized, and hungry for profitable representation. Wishing to avoid the very pitfalls outlined in your article, I called PACA and asked for a solvent, reliable agency who'd be interested in the mass submission. They recommended a newcomer, TexStockPhoto of Houston. I queried; they were interested. I asked for references and checked 'em out. Photographers spoke well of the personnel of TSP, saying the boss was decent and honest. Regards clients...ah, there I found things I didn't like: the Houston art directors I spoke to all professed to do their stock buying from the biggies, none from TexStockPhoto, but I rationalized that a newcomer couldn't expect to have a track record yet. That was my first mistake.
I signed with TSP and was told that I was expected to pay an upfront fee to submit my work. FORGET IT! I replied. They backed down. I relented. That was my second mistake. I should have smelled something fishy about an agency that expected to be paid to edit submissions. Still, they edited the slides, made selections, filed same, and ran a flattering number in their next catalogue.
Maybe there WAS a future at TSP.
Sales? Yes...what about those? There were a few small-money successes, but I rationalized that from the tiny acorn grows the mighty oak. That was my third mistake as I waited for TSP's next statement.
The "statement" wasn't quite what I'd expected: It was a form letter saying that TSP was going out of business. Financial stability seconded by PACA? Tell me about it!
OK; fair's fair. TSP returned my work, and one of my pictures in their by-then-distributed catalogue produced some posthumous sales...I got calls from art directors all over the country for six months or so. That was that. I divvied up the slides among my existing agents, producing little interest since they had most of the images already. The material was largely wasted.
There's a moral: BEWARE OF PACA! They may mean well, but in my case their membership criteria didn't seem to have been based on meaningful financial analysis.
If you're wooed or tempted by an unestablished agency, DON'T TAKE ANYONE'S WORD FOR ANYTHING. Ask them to cooperate with a thorough study and projection of their financial underpinnings by a CPA -- at your expense, of course. It might cost you a couple of thousand dollars. Believe me, the time my wife and I wasted on those twenty thousand slides was worth a lot more than that.
If the newcomer agency bridles at such intimate investigation, don't walk away from them -- RUN!!!
I only wish I had. I've made many mistakes in my 35 years of pro photography, but taking PACA's word for TexStockPhoto was one of the real deusies. Worse yet, it was totally unnecessary. I already had enough agents...I was simply trying to get some extra action out of superfluous material which I could have more profitably thrown in the trash.
The late advertising mogul David Ogilvy told the tale of an agency president soliciting the business of a potential mega-client by promising to assign thirty copywriters to ballyhoo his product. The wily client countered with, "HOW ABOUT ONE GOOD ONE?" and took his business elsewhere. There's a lesson there for all of us: more doesn't necessarily translate into better. And one winner's worth more than any number of losers.
Cheers -- Spencer Grant
In reply to Spencer Grant's letter, Allen Russell, president of PACA responds:
Spencer's first sentence stating that PACA membership does not necessarily guarantee financial stability is absolutely correct. Regretfully, from there, Spencer's comments seriously digress.
His self-told story qualifies for an example of "what not to do as a Stock Photographer." His proclaiming to 35 years of pro photography experience certainly proves a favorite saying of mine true, "Just because you have been doing something for a long time doesn't necessarily mean you are doing it right."
PACA's membership application is based upon conducting business ethically and professionally within the guidelines of our bylaws. It is not, and should not be, based upon financial analysis. In our country, thankfully, it is not wrong or unethical to make an honest, hard working effort and fail.
TexStockPhoto was everything PACA presented them to be -- "an ethical, well run, small, new
Spencer verifies this himself in his letter. In my opinion they were also exactly what Spencer thought they were, "an ethical, well run, small, new agency that was spoken highly of by photographers AND desperate enough for images to take his (self-proclaimed) trash."
Is it any wonder that they failed if their other photographers did like Spencer and supplied them with rejects and seconds from the established stock agencies they were struggling to compete against? Spencer has no one to blame but himself for wasting his time. He himself says it best, "I was simply trying to get some extra action out of superfluous material, which I could have more profitably thrown in the trash."
I must conclude, regarding the Spencer Grant/TexStockPhoto relationship, "it seems obvious the 'Flake' does not reside in Texas."
(Allen Russell, Picture Agency Council of America (PACA), 109 Redtail Road, Livingston, MT 59047, 406-222-0339, 406-222-0349 - fax, allen@allenrussell.com)
(Spencer Grant Photography, 31512 Flying Cloud Drive, Laguna Niguel CA 92677; (714) 248 0767; Fax: (714) 495 2164; Email: pandagrant@aol.com )
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