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Getting Published
Ive dabbled with Photograhy most of my life. Mostly as a hobby. Im okay with the technical stuff but the publishing side of it is a complete mystery to me. How does one even get started? How do you make contacts. Im located in a rural, economic challanged, post-steel mill area. How do I get in contact with someone to get a few things published. I think some of my work is as good as those I see in print. Henry Mar 11 06 01:28 am Link What are you hoping to get published? Erotic? What? They aren't going to find you... you have to find them. What do you think you're qualified to shoot for? This isn't a slam - you gave only limited info. Mar 11 06 03:02 am Link Best bet, pick up a copy of "Photographers Market". It's a compilation of various publishers of photos, ranging from greeting cards to magazines and provides notes from the publishers as to procedures, what they are looking for, how to submit and pay rates, along with articles explaining the industry. The info is accurate and has helped me greatly in the past. It's about the best 'how to' introduction to the industry that I've seen. Mar 11 06 10:52 am Link "Published." Seems to be a magic word. If you shoot advertising you're published all the time, but it's nothing you'd show to friends to impress them. I think what you want is to be "featured" in a publication. That is cool! There are a zillion magazines out there, most desperate for content and under a deadline. The hard part is figuring where you fit in and making the connection. And there at least two approaches. The first is to survey local stuff, including freebies, "scene" mags, underground stuff. You are, as I am, too old to place your stuff based on how cool you are personally. Old guys aren't gonna impress the 19-23 yr-old editors of the local mags, so that's got to be done by email, etc. Find out what they use, go shoot a bunch, email small ones and see if they bite. If you want to use existing work, then you'll have to really dig to find the right local rag. The second way is to do reasearch on all the niche mags in the world. Find out if they accept submissions and how they want them, then do it exactly as they say. Be realistic - Vogue is not a candidate. If they want original art, make sure you deliver the slides with a delivery document. You can follow up with an email or phone call as the mags' mastheads usually give contact info. Or enough to get you close to the right person. Be prepared for rejection. Once you've been published, the second time is easy. And don't expect to make money this way. The way you make money is advertising. -Don Mar 11 06 11:05 am Link You should also read the article in LensWork from 3 issues ago. Brooks Jensen dissected the book publishing industry and makes a compelling case that it is not worth your time to try to get published via a mainstream publisher. Even if your name is Irving Penn, it turns out. I found his analysis to be very depressing but also very accurate in terms of my experience with publishing in other fields. One of the key points Jensen makes is that with publish on demand the cachet of "being published" is also almost completely gone. If you want your name on a book with a cover and a bunch of photos and an ISBN it's a matter of $100 or so, depending on how nice you want it to look. I did a book of images using Sony Imagestation (www.imagestation.com) and it looked very nice (I did a fake flyleaf and everything) - but at between $30 and $100 per book for production costs you are not making money unless you really think your photography will bring in $200 per book... Ouch. Because of publish on demand a lot of the staples that would buy "one of everything" have stopped that practice. So you won't sell a copy to The Library of Congress of the International Center for Photography's Bookstore anymore, like you used to. A friend of mine did a photography book and had 500 copies produced at a cost of about $15,000. Except for the copy on his coffee-table and a few that he gave to friends they are all still in boxes in his garage. I'm not trying to dissuade you, but you need to make a very clear-headed assessment of your goals and the financial committment you are willing to make, before you proceed. mjr. Mar 11 06 11:08 am Link The "white wronkled sheet background" look isn't really hot with the commercial market right now, dude. I ain't tryin' to bust on ya but before you aim to get published you oughtta figure out what market you're going for. GWC! Mar 11 06 11:15 am Link Good morning GWC. Nice to see you dragged yourself outta your own wronkled sheets to join us. -D Mar 11 06 11:20 am Link Henry Tjernlund wrote: Henry, Mar 11 06 11:29 am Link how do you get into advertising? Mar 11 06 09:38 pm Link Thanks for the comments. People are right. I am not sure what I want to do. I might not want to limit myself to any one venue. In fact, I know I dont. And, "yes" that adds burden to the effort. I actually have been "published." But not sure if they are worth noting, or even a good idea to mention. I have several image published in Harmony's "Bondage Life" magazines before they went out of print. Unless I want to do porn (which I dont want to do commercial porn). Fine art erotica is fine, if I ever manage to accomplish that. Also a picture I took was used on the cover of a local newspaper Sunday insert magazine. And I had an architectual shot used in a magazine (no by line though.) One other thing that seems to throw a wrench into the works is that I dont want to outright sell my images. Letting them be used exclusively for a certain period of time, fine, but not outright sell and loose them forever. Henry Mar 12 06 07:34 am Link Henry Tjernlund wrote: just like anything else. It requires a hunger. You want to get out there. You have to put yourself out there. Mar 12 06 07:40 am Link 00siris wrote: Well, I do have a passion for my work. But I also can feel myself holding back on some of it as I am well aware that some people (and our government) have issues with the subject material. Its frustrating. Some of my best work has never been seen outside of those involved. Mar 13 06 02:15 am Link Henry Tjernlund wrote: I publish lots of bondage and fetish images. The following applies to getting published in general. Mar 13 06 08:19 am Link :::We now return to our regularly scheduled program::: Out of curiousity, do the established, yet, local magazines tend to pay out consistantly? I've run into a lot of publishing-credit-without-pay promises. Mar 23 06 09:22 pm Link |
