Given the high price of a good film scanner, it seems important to have a
workable plan for selling one's images, to recover some of those costs,
before making the investment. I would be interested to know about some of
the list members experiences in selling their photos. I take mostly
nature and scenic photos and have been doing so since I was an
undergraduate. I have accumulated hundreds of slides on these topics.
I've been considering three different sorts of ways of selling my work.
Please send your comments about them, as well as suggestions for other
ways that I might not have though of.
1. Selling via a website
Create a website including screen resolution displays of some of my best
photos with a numbering system. Buyers would sent a check and printout
order form via snail mail. When I recieved the request I would print out
the photo, matte it, and mail it to them. This scheme has the advantage
of presumably involving only limited time committment after initial
production of the website. How likely is something like this to produce
enough orders to pay back the price of the scanner, printer and other
equipment over the first year or two? How does one go about attracting
enough visitors to ones site to produce adequate sales?
2. Street fairs
I'm not sure what selling photography at a street fair would involve. Is
there usually a site fee for the booth? Does the merchant need to provide
the walls on which the photos are displayed? How does one estimate in
advance how many copies of ones photos to print? How much work does all
this generally involve? Is a source of electrical power generally
available to booths at street fairs? If so, it might be possible to bring
a laptop and photo quality printer along, and print out pictures as
needed. Has anybody out there tried doing this?
3. Stock photography
This is the option I know least about. I have heard that stock
photography companies will buy the right to use photos (either in digital
form or as slides) for a variety of purposes, and that some companies like
to buy electronic images to use on the web etc. If anybody knows more
about this could you please send information or contacts?
__________________________________________________________________
Dr. Paul Patton
Beckman Institute Rm 3027 405 N. Mathews St.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Urbana, Illinois 61801
work phone: (217)-265-0795 fax: (217)-244-5180
home phone: (217)-344-7863
homepage:
"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the
source of all true art and science."
-Albert Einstein
__________________________________________________________________
