Most stock photography libraries have to restrict contact between their photographers and their photo buyers.
These libraries operate on a commission, so if the two start connecting on their own, then the library is going to lose money and eventually go out of business.
Unfortunately this approach is rarely ideal for the photographers or the photo buyers.
It's just what they've been stuck with...
until recently.
There's a new breed of stock library emerging that not only allows direct contact between photographer and photo buyer, they actively encourage it.
They have gone back in time in a way, to when the stock libraries were partners and facilitators.
For many photographers and photo buyers, it's a very welcome change.
For the photographers, the most important advantage is that they finally have the ability to build their own list of responsive buyers, people known to use the subjects they shoot.
This means the photographer can go to their existing customers to offer more images of the same subjects, to suggest alternate images and float ideas for new work.
This direct contact also allows them to hear valuable feedback for the first time.
In the current hyper-competitive marketplace, this is essential if photographers are going to really understand a specific Client's requirements and anticipate their future needs.
For years marketing books have told us how valuable an existing customer is -- it's many times easier and cheaper to sell to an existing customer, than it is to find a new one and sell to them -- and yet the entire stock photography industry was built on a model that precluded photographers from knowing who was buying their photos and forbade any direct follow up on previous purchases.
So this new direct-contact marketing model offers photographers a whole new level of control over their business and the means to develop long-term relationships with their customers.
This takes their stock photography operation from being a passive business, totally reliant on the stock library, to being a viable and sustainable business that can generate it's own leads and sales on demand.
Photo buyers are seeing some advantages to this model as well.
Most photo buyers are extremely time-poor.
They are under pressure to locate dozens of new images every week, and as more and more libraries start catering to the lowest common denominator, photo research becomes a nightmare.
So when they discover a photographer who can supply one or more of their regular subjects, it makes sense that most photo buyers would prefer to go straight to them as a first point of call, than surfing through hundreds of pages on multiple stock library websites.
In fact, many photo buyers are now using their own mailing-list of specialist photographers, so they can cut to the chase and go to the 'most likely' source first.
The stock libraries are still there as a back up, but if the buyer knows a certain photographer shoots a certain subject they need, and they've done business with them before, it's always going to be a preferred option.
It's also worth noting that many photo buyers got into their current jobs because they have an existing interest in photography.
In fact many we deal on a daily basis with are also active photographers.
So it's no surprise that they'd rather deal directly with another photographer.
The added bonus is, most of these direct contact libraries have done away with research fees and agency commissions, making it an even sweeter deal for photographer and photo buyer alike.
So whether you're a photographer looking to sell your photos, or a buyer looking to license images, if you come across one of these 'direct contact' stock libraries, take a moment to check it out.
You might be quite impressed with their alternative.