selling photos

[PsYcHoTiC_MaDmAn]

advise please.

I took a load of photos at the show I was at over the weekend, and would like to try selling them.

however, never done it before, and want to know what sort of things to expect, and best way to do it.

also things like going rates for photos etc.

 

[paradise]

It's not that simple. A lot of people can take good photos these days. Unfortunately it's not just about that. It's about knowing people at the magazines, editors, and being known for your photos. I sell quite a bit of photos to publications these days, both in US, and outside of US, and it's about relationships more than about specific photos.

In US, the 2 big publishers, TFH and Bowtie, are never going to make you a living. They pay very little for photos, their acceptance rate of photos you submit is TINY, and the people who do layout are a bit backwards, still preferring photo slides to digital images. I wont get info more details, but it's a situation that has a lot of improving to do.

Outside of US, in Asia, Australia and Europe, there is a much better appreciation for the art of photography, and the pay rates are better if you know who to deal with and work on a personal relationship. There are not standard blank contracts, they pay more for the right photos. But those relationships are hard to find.

Usually, most people start by being noticed by the Editors and being invited to submit photos. That is the best way. Post on the right sites (this one is one of them) and you may get noticed if they are looking for those specific photos.

 

[PixSell]

I’d suggest getting the ‘Photographer’s Market’ book (http://www.photographersmarket.com/). It’s published annually and is a listing of photo buyers and what type of images they need and how to submit them. It won’t help you a ton if you only have photos of fish or aquariums, but it will give you a really good general idea of how the process works for a number of different segments of the photo buying industry.

Another book that I’ve found really useful is ‘Pricing Photography: The Complete Guide to Assignment & Stock Prices’. It is pretty much what the title says.

Most editorial (magazines) buyers usually set the rates they pay so you won’t have very much to do with the pricing.

Find the ‘photography guidelines’ for the publications you are interested in selling images to. They will tell you exactly what the magazine is looking for, how to contact, how to submit and (sometimes) how much they pay. (TFH’s are here… http://www.tfhmagazine.com/inside-tfh/photo-submission-guidelines/) Then you start building those relationships that Paradise mentions (you can’t avoid it).

Another avenue is stock photography. Basically, you provide your images to an agency (library) and they try to sell / license the photos to their extensive list of clients and keep a (substantial) percentage of each sale.

It is getting tougher and tougher to make a decent living in any aspect of photography, especially if you are specializing in something that has limited market appeal like aquarium photography. Part of what is making it so hard to make a living is MicroStock.

MicroStock might me an option for you if you are not too serious about making money and just want to get you images out there. MicroStock operates similarly to Stock Photography but is geared more to hobbyist photographers. They license photos at very, very low rates (usually on a royalty free basis) and pay the Photographers a small portion of those very low rates. You will NOT make very much money with MicroStock but if you are just wanting to mess around with your images and be a part of another photography community (all of the micro stock agent sites have helpful forums and informational resources).

Good luck!!