Customer Reviews

Publishing Photography: Marketing Images, Making Money

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The book is teribly outdated. Even though the copywright date is 2006 the author neglects to deal with a lot of the very current issues at hand in the photography market. A lot of the book is cut and pasted from other books he has written in the past and many of the examples he uses will simply not work in today's market. Save your money, find the websites and forums online where peoople are talking about what is and isn't working today. Honestly I felt like the author was merely trying to make some money off a another book with very little effort. cheers- jono.

There are a lot of good photographers in the world. Many would like to see their pictures published and to make some money in the process. But most of them don't realize this goal. That's because they don't know how to market their work. This book can start them in the right direction.

After clarifying the difference between stock and assignment work, the book is particularly good in cataloging and describing the types of markets that exist, such as advertising, corporate, editorial and merchandising clients. The author tells you how to find the clients for your work. He suggests research techniques that will enable a photographer to target his efforts to the segment that is most likely to be interested in his or her photographs.

The author also describes how to link clients and contacts to get the most exposure. Weisgrau then gives a list of good business habits for the professional photographer. He describes licensing of photographs and its variations, such as exclusive and non-exclusive, as well as the relationship of prices to these variations, although he does not suggest particular prices. He finishes with some rules that are followed in each of the market segments. There is an extensive list of resources for the professional photographer, including the URLs of web sites.

What Weisgrau does not do is tell you how to make the actual approach to clients. For example, those interested in magazine editorial work will probably want to contact the photo editor of a publication. Should one approach the editor by e-mail or snail mail? How many pictures should one send? What should follow-up materials look like? Similar questions can be asked about the other market segments. Occasionally, the author implies some method of approaching a client, but the specifics of the approach are not covered. This may be common sense but I know that there are procedures in the various markets that enable you make the necessary contacts more effectively. For example, this book does not mention that it usually pays to ask a magazine for its photo submission guidelines before actually submitting anything.

Nevertheless, if you are a photographer just beginning an effort to market your pictures, this book will help you understand the milieu that you will be operating in. But this book will not provide the actual techniques you need for marketing. Instead I suggest that you then look at something that provides more detail about the practices that you need to follow to get your foot in the door, like Scott Bourne's handy little guide, "88 Secrets to Selling & Publishing Your Photography."