I like Ellen and feel she is one of the few in the industry with the experience and overview of the stock industry as a whole, to actually write intelligently on the subject.  If there is yet-undiscovered information to be had she would be the one to have it. 

OTOH, every time one of these books comes out the industry gets further diluted with a wave of new contributors.  The more people are encouraged to join up the harder it is for any of us, new or veteran, to make significant money. 

Whoever the contributors are whose images are used as examples in the book had better prepare for hundreds or thousands of copies of those images to hit the micros.  I am assuming the contributors gave permission for their images to be used that way, so maybe they don't care.  Would definitely HATE to find one of mine used, even if it was bought with an EL.   

Quote from: ShadySue on September 04, 2010, 16:47

I hear what you're saying about increasing the competition, but if bought from a micro, I can't see why the images would need special permission to be used 'that way'. At least I can't see any problem with the iStock user license. And at least from iStock it probably wouldn't get an EL: how likely is it that the book will have a 500,000+ print run?

For all I know this use could/would be perfectly within the limits of the micro license.  The point I am making has nothing to do with licensing.

The issue I am concerned about is that for the price of one microstock sale, those images will now be in danger of losing vast amounts of earnings because of being featured as examples in a book targeting aspiring contributors.  

oh crap!

I am sooo sorry Lisa!

I went to write "The last thing I would want is one of your photos in that book" meaning anyone in general, but then thought some people would like it and it might not be clear what I meant so I changed it to what I thought was "yes, the last thing I would want is one of my photos in that book, luckily for me I don't think it is likely" and obviously I stuffed it. My sincerest apologies I really didnt mean anything against you and I admire your work.

Phil

I have a picture and interview in Rob Sylvans new book.  He promised me he would only sell copies to be motivated enough to buy the book, but not motivated enough to actually do anything with the information.  . He was nice enough to buy a Vetta for it.

Seriously, I'm not concerned about copies showing up or anything.

Oh there will be copies. I have to agree with Lisa here. Not everyone who will buy the book will start submitting images, but those who will are going to copy the images from the book as their first exercise:) 
I don't know if I'd feel threatened though... a concept is important, but execution is also important. If a nicely executed concept already exists in the library, it won't be threatened by the poorer image of the same concept. And if a reader of the book turns out to be an excellent photographer, then we'll have to worry book or no book:)

The most successful people are those who help others succeed.

Thanks for all the good words. I hope that many will find my experiences of over 30 years in the stock photo business helpful and notice that several times I say, "Don't be a copycat. Respect copyright!"

I paid for the images in the book and the press run is far, far less than 500,000.

Also the medical photo mentioned in these posts isn't in my book.