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Book Publishing
Along with our creative partners, we will help you preserve your legacy in print. We are a hybrid publishing house, which means we combine the best of traditional publishing with the many advantages of self-publishing. Our main focus is on cookbook, art books and brand books where images make a significant portion of the content.
Our services include:
• Creative direction and concept development.
• Project management, production and logistics.
• Photography, food styling and prop styling.
• Layout design, branding and merchandise design.
• Writing, proofreading and copyediting.
• Recipe development, testing and standardization.
• Indexing.
• Behind the scenes content for social media, launch event and others.
• Deliverables: Print-ready files.
We divide each project into sections, which include: foreword, table of contents, preface or prologue, introduction, featured stories or chapters, recipes, acknowledgements, indexes, charts, cover, endsheets, etc. For example, if done continuously, a regular-sized cookbook with approximately 60-80 recipes will take an average of 6-8 months to develop plus another 2-3 months for printing and getting the books shipped to your door. We can provide advice on printing and distribution but won't be involved in the sales directly.
Investment for a large format, full-colour cookbook, art book or brand book:
Base CAD$35,000 + additional expenses (if applicable)*
*The price is for reference. Each project is different and may require additional expenses to achieve the expected results. The client covers the cost of printing and we won’t take any royalties from the sales of the books. 100% of the profit from sales goes to the client and it’s a great way to recoup the investment. We may charge a fee for second print runs that includes updates to the original work, corrections, new content additions if needed, and format and export the new print files. We may also invest in your book and purchase extra copies to help reduce the printing cost per copy.
Commercial + Editorial Photography
Last updated: February 4th, 2021.
There's a difference between commercial, editorial and social imagery.
Commercial photography is used to promote brands and sell products and/or services through packaging, websites, print material, advertising campaigns, billboards or similar. They are carefully planned, and each photo can take between 3-8 hours to craft (they're not improvised shots). The process involves brand research, briefing, pre-production, art direction, photoshoot, post-production, licensing.
Editorial photography is meant to be part of publications. They're used to promote ideas, teach, inform and share stories. Editorial photography is often part of larger projects like books, newspapers, magazines or similar. These projects tend to be larger in scope, and usually have smaller profit margins, so the pricing might be adapted to each specific situation.
Social media content is volatile. Images posted on Social Media platforms have a shorter lifespan than commercial images. These images are taken "documentary style" and are not produced or staged (similar to event photography). Social media and event photography come with limitations of time and use. They can't be reposted for more than 1 year or used as commercial or editorial images. They are meant to be used ONLY on social media platforms and tied to time and platform limitations.
*NOTE: Deliverables take a minimum of two weeks. Rushed deadlines are available for an extra fee.
Our photography rates are divided into three sections, as follows:
1. Creative Fee
Based on the shoot length, project deadline and image complexity. Starting at CAD$375/hour on location + other expenses if applicable.
+ Read more about creative fees
Consider that "an hour is not an hour." One hour of on-location shooting usually requires 3+ additional hours for pre-production, research, selection, post-production and format exports. Three hours of editing time are included for colour and exposure correction, but occasionally, some images require additional work in post-production to get the final stunning result. This phase is highly variable and can be just as time-intensive as the photoshoot itself, it is billed at $90/hour (if needed) in addition to the creative fee.
NOTES: I don't send RAW or unedited files, please don't ask for them. Consider that the number of images may vary depending on their complexity, it can range from 1 perfect "hero" shot per hour to 20+ casual shots for social media purposes.
Image-per-hour estimates: Have in mind that a photo of a coffee bag on a white background require less time and planning than a splashing beer in a bar setup.
•1-3 editorial "hero shots" for books or print media per hour shooting.
•4 catalog product shots per hour shooting.
•4-6 images for web banners and content.
•15-20 casual shots (documentary style) for social media per hour shooting. Exported at 72 dpi for digital purposes ONLY. For print usage, you must upgrade to an extended license.
2. Image usage / License
Rights granted to the client for using the images created based on time, region, publishing platform, reach of exposure and purpose.
+ Read more about license fees
A standard license is included in the base price and includes a non-exclusive/limited usage that is good for web, social media and newsletters. The extended license for printing can go between 50-200% depending on the estimated reach, time of use, region and image purpose.
Print projects have an additional fee depending on the number of copies and purpose, larger companies can expect an industry-standard fee as their images will reach broader audiences and often require unlimited use (extended license).
3. Other Expenses
Unique to every shoot and may include gear rentals, location fees, assistant, prop stylist, food stylist, food supplies, travel fees, props, urgent deadlines, others.
+ Read more about add-ons
Every project is different, and so is every quote. You can set the limits depending on what you'd like to achieve with the final images.
- On-location setup fee: $270 if professional lighting equipment is needed. Covers setup time on location and insurance.
- Food styling on site (prep assistance, cooking and assembly during the photoshoot): $270 per hour.
- Recipe development and testing start at $270 depending on recipe complexity. Minimum 6 recipes and ingredients are not included.
- Prop styling (style guide, acquisition, selection and composition): Starting at $180 per image + props rental/acquiring. Minimum 6 recipes.
- Mileage: Applicable fee for photoshoots outside of London, Ontario ($0.9/km).
- Additional photo-editing: $90 per hour.
- Transaction fees: 5% for credit card payments.
- Weekends and Holidays: 1.5 X hourly rate.
- Consulting: Starts at $180 per hour.
+ A few more things you should know about working with us!
•We love establishing long-term relationships with our clients and dedicate our full attention to each of them. We believe in quality, not quantity, so we prefer to take fewer projects with people we love and support than taking a million projects that we're not engaged with.
•We love having open conversations with our clients throughout the creative process, but we won't answer phone calls, emails or texts outside of our working hours or while on a photoshoot. See hours on our website's footer.
•We don't work on weekends or Holidays because we value our personal time. If it is an urgent matter and there are no other available dates, we will bill our hours at a 1.5X rate or higher, depending on the situation.
•We don't send RAW files under any circumstances, and we consider it very rude to ask any photographer for them. We already said this above, but it is an important message to reinforce.
•The first three revisions or three hours of editing are included. If more changes are required, the additional editing time would be billed separately.
•We often ask our new clients to choose two out of these three options, "Good, Fast or Cheap." If they leave "Good" out of the equation, we might not be the right fit for them. We value our work and aim to create images that we'd feel proud of adding to our portfolio.
•We send invoices on Mondays and start charging delay fees if they're not paid in full within 20 days.
We plant 10 trees through our business partnership with One Tree Planted for every hour of photography billed. We offset our energy requirements through Bullfrog Power.
A signed agreement and non-refundable 40% deposit are required before the start of any project over $750. The project balance must be paid in full before the final delivery of the files. All price references are in Canadian dollars.
