everyone if you're looking to get your
work published or sold to different
publications I've got some advice for
you today so stick around so this video
is going to be part of the business of
photography playlist which has lots of
different tips in it but this is a
question I get asked a lot how do you
get your work out there how do you sell
it how do you get it published
now I actually just recently shared on
social media Instagram and Facebook a
post of a shot of a billboard and I said
something along the lines of that acute
asks a nice smile and you know a blue
sky will sell a shot even if it's full
of technical flaws I'll put links in the
captions there you can see the exact
post there and I think a lot of people
thought that I was either having a go at
the photographer or at the publishing
industry but it wasn't actually my
intention I was trying to point out a
reality of how I see the industry so I
thought I'd clarify that and just run
through some tips for those of you who
are looking to sell or publish now
whether you're looking to just see your
name up in lights or you want to
actually sell your work and pay your
mortgage the way you go about it is
broadly similar and the first step I
think is the same for both of them that
is you need to think about that it needs
to be sellable in the sense that it
needs to attract eyeballs
so then readers come to whatever
publication it is so the publication can
sell advertising space I guess
intrinsically we all kind of know that
magazines and publications are pretty
much run that way but you need to really
keep that in your mind and keep in mind
who is the audience of that magazine and
don't expect to sell fine art stuff to
zoo Weekly don't expect to sell vice
versa so if you want to sue and I would
encourage it and hopefully the critiques
that I do can help with that a little
bit you know fine arts technically
brilliant photographs that have been
carefully shot meticulously edited and
you know well presented then you want to
be posting that to you know high-end art
magazines and journals and that kind of
thing but keep in mind that it's
unlikely to sell for a lot whereas if
you just get a point-and-shoot camera
and get a
AB shot of some really hot a list
celebrity having a coffee looking
terrible in the morning that'll probably
sell to a tabloid for even more so it's
a bit unfortunate but it's just the way
it is so you really need to think about
so the technical stuff is one thing and
if you're going for a certain kind of
market that's really important but the
general public don't notice level
horizons oversaturation slightly miss
focus a lot of those different things
always are a bit of high ISO image
degradation going on in the same way
that photographers do so what may jump
out at you really clearly may not at all
to other people so that's one thing to
keep in mind and then when it comes to
sellable is it amazing is it
breathtaking is it one of those
landscapes that it just looks like you
could walk into the page there's so much
detail or is it a really topical event
that not many other people got images of
or is it that hot a list celebrity who
just everyone is talking about right now
that you can sell you know if you've got
a shot of the Royal baby you'll sell it
to every publication around the world
you know whether it was a great shot or
not so there's a few things to think
about there and really think about the
demographics of the audience that you're
trying to pursue no point shooting cars
and import models and then trying to
send it to Better Homes and Gardens or
something like that it's just not going
to work now in terms of pricing your
work now you check out the other videos
in this play this where I talk about
general things about getting started and
how to price your work but in my opinion
when it comes to selling images to
publication it's harder to be really
fixed in your rate so I might say that
if a company wants to print my photo at
this size I'm going to charge a thousand
dollars for example but it's kind of
unreasonable to have a hard and fast
rule because if you're going to a small
niche magazine with a distribution of a
couple of thousand in a certain city or
it's going to go on to the cover of Time
magazine and around the world of course
you would expect a different payday from
those two events so I try to be a little
bit flexible with it but once we're in
the ballpark
you know they negotiate but if they're
just completely off the page or they're
just offering it for credit or that kind
of thing
no pay then I stick to my guns and I
won't let it be published especially if
I know it's good work if it was you know
some special current event or it was
something charity relator or whatever
whatever there are times of course where
I would let things go cheap or for free
but generally I won't be low-balled on
those sort of things just recently I was
selling to publication and they were
offering I posted this on social media
to what I thought was ridiculous and
unreasonable priced and they wanted to
be exclusive and yada yada yada I walked
away said thank you important thing
don't burn your bridges cuz you may get
even hotter images next week that they
do want to buy for a huge amount of
money and if you just told them to sod
off then that's not going to happen but
so I walked away talked to a couple of
other magazines and then sold them for
three times the price to a different
publication with less restrictions on
them so don't burn your bridges now
reality is if it is something that
anyone can get a shot of like say this
some big event goes on in your city and
everyone gets shots of the blimp or the
statue or whatever is the big spectacle
then you probably can't expect to be
charging a lot for that because there
will be a hundred other photographers
who also took the shot who are happy to
have their shot published just to get
their name in the paper and you know the
quality coming off people's camera
phones and stuff now is often high
enough to actually go into the paper so
you're going to be up against those
people but if you're going to go out and
shoot specifically for a publication or
go and do a great shoot and then go to
market it and sell it to particular
publications then you really want to
keep in mind is it sellable and am i
hitting their target market am i
reasonable with my price and what is it
worth to me so I hope that all helps
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if there's any other pieces of info that
you would like covered in this business
of photography playlist please far away
and let me know what's your approach to
approaching publishers and negotiating
prices and that kind of thing have you
found certain things that helped tell us
your local situation how it works in
your country
it would be great to have a little
discussion going in the comments below
thanks and I'll see you soon