Country: Canada | United States

Your Images - Our Templates

Because of the promotional longevity calendars offer, many of our clients create a calendar as a gift to send clients.

We're putting together some classic calendar templates that won't overpower the images, offering a selection of premium and environmentally-friendly papers, and looking to photographers to provide interesting image selections on a royalty basis. To make it a true custom calendar, clients will be able to add their logo to each page and insert date square information (e.g. trade show dates, etc.).

Each calendar will contain a series of images from one photographer only, and also a "Meet the Photographer" section containing a short introduction, including your website address (if desired). Photos can be submitted using our secure online wizard. Once an image series is selected and prepared it is added to our image gallery and you're ready to start earning royalty income. We pay an image royalty of US$0.40 per calendar, up to a maximum of $500 per calendar order. At any time you can log in to your account to view the royalties your photos have earned. Calendar Design Royalties are paid out in full on February 15th each year. Click here to see examples of how image royalties are calculated.

Click here to make an image series submission. You'll be given a confirmation number and will be able to print a receipt that includes thumbnails of your images.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's):

How many pictures are required for an image series?

We offer 12-month and 16-month calendars. The number of photos required for each is:

  • 12-month calendar with one of the images repeated on the cover - 12 photos
  • 12-month calendar with a different image on the cover - 13 photos
  • 16-month calendar with one of the images repeated on the cover - 16 photos
  • 16-month calendar with a different image on the cover - 17 photos

What type of images are you looking for?

Each series should be related in some way. All series must be oriented either horizontally (landscape) or vertically (portrait), and not a combination of the two in the same series. As for the subject, it can be anything that you think might make an interesting calendar. Here are some subjects that some of our clients have expressed an interest in:

  • Scenes from a specific geographic location (e.g. Southwest USA, Alaska, New York City, etc.)
  • Scenes from across America or from across Canada
  • Animals or birds
  • Sexy females
  • Cars
  • Golf courses

In addition, we think these might make nice calendar subjects: barns, boating/sailing, children of the world, paintings or other pieces of art, etc.

Do the images have to be photographs?

No. We'll gladly consider any images you think might be interesting.

Are all the images you receive put on your website for clients to use?

No. Although we gratefully accept all submissions, it would be too overwhelming to our clients if all of them were available to choose from. Our selections will be made on the basis of artistic quality, other submissions and suitableness for a calendar.

How long does the selection process take and how will I know if my images are selected?

We respond with a decision to all submissions. A decision on images uploaded from January to March will be made in May. You can expect a response to submissions made from April to June within six weeks and submissions made after June 30th will be held and considered for the following year.

What steps do you take to ensure my images don't show up all over the internet without me getting paid?

Your concerns and our concerns in this regard are in alignment. To grow the business we need exciting images that aren't found elsewhere and we need the trust of the photographic community so that we can continually enhance our image offerings.

What is your usage guarantee?

We promise that your images are for the specific purpose of producing a custom calendar by our customers through www.custombuiltcalendars.com. Further, you have the opportunity to include special requests, such as term of usage, etc. in the "Comments" section of the submission form. If your images are chosen, all conditions will be discussed and agreed before images are available on www.custombuiltcalendars.com.

Do you require that any designs I submit be exclusive to you?

No, although we'd prefer not to see the same images on another online calendar site.

Why is there a $500 cap on the image royalty that can be earned on any single order from a customer?

Like most other businesses, ours is a competitive one. For small orders, an image royalty of $0.40 per calendar is a manageable and appropriate cost that can be justified to clients because of the high quality of the images we offer. But with the growth of stock photography sites, a royalty of $0.40 would simply make us uncompetitive on larger orders. Our cap of US$500 per order is intended to fairly compensate you, the photographer, while at the same time allowing us to be competitive.

What image resolution do you require and what is the submission process?

All images need to be at least 8.0 mega pixels, ideally 10.0 or more. We have a 2-step submission process:

Step 1: In your initial image submission you'll be asked to upload all images as separate files using our online submission wizard. Images in this step should be lower resolution jpg's.

Step 2: Once your image series has been accepted for inclusion on our custom calendar website, you'll be asked to upload the high resolution images and provide additional information.

What, specifically, do you require regarding submissions?

Initial image submissions should be low resolution jpg or tif images. Submit the entire series as separate files and include any descriptive text you'd like us to have. Our online submission wizard can accept files up to 20MB.