Claiming sales income without being robbed by middlemen

[Finnbloke]

Please explain to me whether or not it is possible for me to avoid any fees charged by middlemen like DACS and claim my sales directly from Alamy. I would be grateful for advice step-by-step on the procedure how to do it, or where on the Alamy website to find such instructions .

 

Cheers,

 

Finnbloke 

[spacecadet]

You can't claim DACS royalties yourself. Under English law you can only go through a collecting society.

It's not 'sales income', as you call it, but royalties for secondary uses such as photocopying or broadcast and Alamy has no control over it.

Calling it 'robbery' is quite unjustified. DACS is a non-profit organisation whose administration costs less than 20% of what it collects and which gets more efficient each year.

[Niels Quist]

Yes, Mark is right.... DACS royalties are an extra income. In Denmark we have a similar association, COPYDAN. I think your similar one may be Kopiosto.

[CandyAppleRed Images]

The last thing I'd ever consider DACS to be is a bunch of robbers.

 

Anyone who effective pays me money for nothing each year is fine by me. As Mark says, they are non-profit, and the only people who profit from them are ourselves. Long may they reign.

[York Photographer]

You can make a claim directly through DACS, provided you can quote the ISBN no's containing your your images, or you can let alamy handle it for your in respect of your book sales via alamy.

 

DACS don't deduct a % (although their admin costs, will come from the organisations paying into the scheme), alamy will deduct commission for making a claim regarding sales made through them. Either way its money on top of the initial license. If you haven't got direct book sales, just put the alamy commission down to the cost of doing business and enjoy the extra cash.

[Marianne]

You can also send your Alamy printout to DACS showing UK sales. They accept that if you don't have the ISBN numbers. They are very helpful. I had eligible sales from other agencies besides Alamy but only a handful altogether and even after taking out VAT (they sent me a form so I can claim it on my taxes - I could have gotten it waived but the IRS charges an $85 filing fee for the form and I figured that would be far more than 17-20% of my DACS payout ) and my bank's wire transfer/fee for converting pounds to dollars, I was quite surprised by how much I got last year. The only tough thing is when you have RF sales in the UK and can't find them to determine if they are print magazines, books (both eligible) or web/newspapers (not eligible). Alamy said I had more eligible image sales than I counted, so I'm guessing some of the UK RF sales were for books or magazines. 

 

A google images and tineye search can help a lot - as can searching google books and amazon with your name and pseudonyms. 

[Phil Robinson]

It is DACS who collect the money, so only they can distribute it.

If you want to cut out any middle men, then apply direct yourself rather than through Alamy, who will take a percentage.

In the past, DACS payments have counted as a 13th month for me, and a good month at that, so it is well worth doing.

[Stokie]

It is DACS who collect the money, so only they can distribute it.

If you want to cut out any middle men, then apply direct yourself rather than through Alamy, who will take a percentage.

In the past, DACS payments have counted as a 13th month for me, and a good month at that, so it is well worth doing.

 

Last year my DACS income was my best month!