[CWyatt]

Received an interesting email the other day:

Dear Camus

...

You are therefore pre-selected to submit work for inclusion in International Masters of Photography (Vol 1), a juried annual art photography publication presenting noteworthy photographers from all over the world.

Please note that this is not a free inclusion.
If you are interested you can ask me to send you more information, or you can visit: World Wide Art Books | Photography Application .

To get an idea of the quality of our publications, you can view our other books at World Wide Art Books !

Best Regards,

...

Note the fees. Does anyone have any experience in this kind of thing? Is it potentially a serious, well-renowned type of publication, or a money-making request that will end up with a few books covered in dust in the middle of nowhere?

Have asked for some more info anyway.

[alohadave]

Geez, they've gone up in their submission prices!

It's a total scam.

[jatrax]

Yep, sounds like that "Who's who of American college students" or whatever it is called. They get all the proud parents to pony up for a listing in a book no one will ever read.

[slip]

Received an interesting email the other day:



Note the fees. Does anyone have any experience in this kind of thing? Is it potentially a serious, well-renowned type of publication, or a money-making request that will end up with a few books covered in dust in the middle of nowhere?

Have asked for some more info anyway.

if your photos are great, they should be paying you
they sound like they might be a little shady.

cheers

[dgaies]

Yep, sounds like that "Who's who of American college students" or whatever it is called. They get all the proud parents to pony up for a listing in a book no one will ever read.

That's what it sounds like to me as well.

[Ash]

I've seen it a few times. A number of emails from (usually) US or Chinese companies that are publishing a book of photographers' work that express honour to have your image published in at the cheap price of $xxx.xx...

I consider such 'offers' as scams until proven otherwise.
Not worth devoting any time or interest in IMO...

[Thomas Tunberg]

I hope that I will be permitted to post an answer to remarks made about our company on this forum.

We are an art publishing company and we have been in business in one form or another since 1997. Originally we were art gallery owners , and the publishing started as a sideline about 10 years ago, but that has became our main activity. We have been publishing art books as World Wide Art Books for five years now, and presently we publish various series of books on an annual basis. We also curate and organize exhibitions for the artists who participate in our books, and we participate in international art exhibitions.

We are a reputable business, a member of the Better Business Bureau, and we enjoy the general esteem of the artists who work with us.

Perhaps the best indication of who we are, what we do, and the quality of our work is the opinions expressed by those artists (including quite a few photographers) who have actually appeared in our publications. Some of these can be seen on our website at World Wide Art Books | Testimonials | Testimonials . And on our website we also publish the contact information of all the artists who have appeared in our publications (unless of course they don't wish this) at World Wide Art Books | The Artists of International Contemporary Masters IV .So anyone can contact them and get their feedback first hand. I think our confidence in making the participating artists readily accessible speaks for itself.

Two of our publications, International Contemporary Masters, which covers the visual arts in general, and International Masters of Photography, which is exclusively devoted to photography, are juried books, and a participation fee is required for inclusion. In other publications of ours, International Dictionary of Artists and Important Artists of the World, the basic participation is free.

With all of these books, especially the first two series, our intention is to create a record of noteworthy art and photography being created around the world in our times. Each of the Masters series is a large coffee-table book of about 400 pages, with very high quality printing, featuring the work of between 200 and 250 artists.

Objections have been raised here to the existence and amount of the participation fees, and to the fact that we actively solicit the participation of artists who we consider worthy of being included.

We see nothing wrong with the way we work – on the contrary, we believe we are creating a beautiful series of products and providing a valuable service. We are perfectly clear from the outset about what we are offering and the terms of inclusion, and we deliver exactly what we promise. And we are, after all, a business, not a charity.

Maybe I should try to dispel a few illusions that some may have about the publication of large, high quality, expensive art books. The cost of producing such books, especially publications like ours, which feature a large number of artists, is very high. Apart from printing costs, a specialized curating, editorial and graphic design staff is required to find, and select the work of over 200 artists for each volume, edit and collate the material and design each of the 400 pages. And then a large number of copies are distributed free to selected galleries, agencies, etc. Such books are addressed to a limited audience and can never sell enough copies to cover their large cost. So the only way that we can continue to publish our two premium series is with participation fees.

Naturally, participation in such books as ours is not for everyone. I would say that we offer a worthwhile option for professional or very productive and talented amateur artists who want to expand the reach of their work.
Those artists who have participated in our books have told us that their inclusion in these publications has opened to them the doors of galleries and juried art events, has helped them in sales and commissions of works, and has increased the prices of their works. We are very gratified and proud that we have been able to assist the careers of so many worthy artists, and we think that the quality of our publications (visitors to our website World Wide Art Books can leaf through them page by page) speaks for itself.

Thomas Tunberg
Editor
World Wide Art Books Inc.
5383 Hollister Ave. Suite 260
Santa Barbara, CA 93111, USA
Tel. (1) 805-683-3899

[richard balonglong]

Hmmm... My works are being published many times until now from books to magazines to newspapers. All of my works are being paid for every contracts and/or every photographs. The company pays me, not me paying them. Cheers!

[RioRico]

We can view this as a juried vanity press, or as a marketing scheme where candidates pay for a chance of being marketed. I'll discount the former, but the latter remains true. You pays your money, you takes your chance; and maybe your photographic art will be "distributed free to selected galleries, agencies, etc", and maybe it won't. No, this isn't illegal nor immoral nor unethical; it's just business. That doesn't mean we'll like how it smells.

[Ron Kruger]

The only one, I think, who ever profits from these type of vanity publications is the publisher. If you're really good, people pay you to publish your work--not the other way around.

[magkelly]

Mr Tunberg is admitting in his reply that his companies books can't sell enough copies to pay for being printed. This indicates that the companies primary source of income is the photographers whose work is being solicited. In other words they're a vanity press.

Whether or not anyone takes them seriously who knows? Testimonials are something I tend to view skeptically myself, particularly when a company goes out of it's way to tout them as a reason to spend money. Ultimately it's your money paying for your work to be displayed in a coffee table sized book that likely you won't even be able to buy in a bookstore.

Worth it? Only you can make that decision, but I sincerely doubt it.