the long haul
Not worried about making an instant killing with your photography? Then selling prints and books and building your reputation are good ways to spend your time
For many photographers, the holy grail is being able to sell prints to clients for plenty of money.
There’s still a market for traditional prints for people to hang on their walls, despite the growth of online sharing, and knowing that people enjoy your images enough to keep them on permanent display is almost payment enough. Almost.
There are a number of options when it comes to selling pictures. Some photographers opt for the exhibition route, often sharing the space with other photographers in order to split costs. These can be considerable when you factor in your time, along with the cost of printing, framing and suchlike. Budget well and don’t undervalue your work. The good thing about exhibitions is that you’ll attract people interested in pictures and more likely to be in a buying mood.
An alternative to going the full-blown exhibition route is to approach shops, cafes, pubs and restaurants, offering your prints on a consignment basis. This is an agreement where you provide the prints to hang in the space available and then split the money when an item is sold.
It’s a good idea to get some form of contract in place. This should contain contact details of both parties, plus the retail price and how the selling price will be split and paid. It’s also a good idea to get something in there concerning insurance: who covers the repair of any damage to the prints while they’re in the retailer’s possession.
The right light
Obviously you’re going to need to pick your venue with care. There’s no point approaching a shop where the lighting is poor and your pictures won’t be shown to their full potential. Look for locations where there are plenty of people who are likely to buy prints, such as tourist areas where there is a steady, if seasonal, stream of people passing through.
Galleries are another option. Arrange a meeting with the manager, and take along some of your work – small prints or a selection of your images on a laptop or
tablet are a good idea. The type of images that are suitable will vary according to the type of gallery, but if you live in a tourist hotspot then local views are likely to do well. Galleries will have different requirements and commission rates for selling your work and you may have to pay a monthly fee on top of a percentage of every picture that sells. The quality of your framing is important, and it pays to get this done professionally. Some galleries can arrange this for you.
If you don’t want to go public, or the idea of cold-calling shops and restaurants really isn’t your thing, there’s always the option of selling prints through your website. An all-in-one service like Smugmug can take care of the ‘gifting’ side of things for you, although you won’t have as much quality control as if you do the printing yourself.
You don’t have to stop at standalone prints, either. Self-publishing a photobook gives you the opportunity to showcase the breadth of your work. You can opt to print on demand, so you don’t have to splurge on a large print run up front. There are lots of publishers to choose from, but Blurb (www.blurb.com) offers direct printing through Lightroom’s Book module, making things that little bit more straightforward. Or how about starting a crowd-funded photo book project, where people get a copy, credit and selection of other benefits for financial support? See the likes of Kickstarter to see how other photographers are approaching it.
People enjoying your images enough to keep them on permanent display is almost payment enough