Pixiq

In Part I, I told you all the reasons why most people won’t make it as professional nature photographers. But let’s say you are one of those outdoor-loving photographers who really does have the skill and the eye, the work ethic and the sense of adventure, and—not least—the business acumen to be a full-time professional. Say you are determined to make your living getting paid for doing the photography you love. Let’s look at the possible sources of that income.

Magazines

We'll start with photographing (and writing) for magazines. Publication of paper editions probably will decline as digital editions on Kindles, iPads and other e-book readers become more readily available. But there’s still a need for content; in fact, the digital editions may use far more content than the paper issues, because they can incorporate more media, including video clips.  Unfortunately, I have found that digital publishers generally pay less for content than the hard-copy publishers. For photographers and writers this is a downside that may be partially offset by the huge appetite for digital content. In other words, there may be additional venues for publication of your work, but you’ll probably get paid less for it and thus have to produce more to stay even.

Concentrate on content that tells a compelling story or teaches an important lesson. Before you submit a piece, look at the publication to see if your idea fits with their general themes, and whether anything similar has been published there already. Most magazines have their tried and true regulars, so breaking in requires something really new and of high quality. If your submission is relevant, original, and interesting—and you have the credentials to back up your assertions—an editor might acknowledge your submission and move it toward production. You can be proud and the check will be real. But these days, understand that your favorite piece may disappear into the Internet vortex and drown in a deep well of similar work. 

Books

 Who needs another photography book? I just searched the subject on BarnesAndNoble.com, and found 141,337 photography books for sale. According to Amazon.com, in the last thirty days, 314 new books and electronic editions on photography have hit the market. There are (at this second) 114 on the subject of High Dynamic Range (HDR); it’s a relatively new technique, but the bandwagon has already left the building on this one. Nature photography is particularly well represented on the bookshelves. Is every book worth buying? When I look for a book (and I often do) on some new technique or software program Kathy or I would like to work on, we find book after book worthy of . . . the trash can. I’m not saying there aren’t great books on photography out there, and I like to think I’ve written some of them. I’m saying that they’re needles in haystacks.

Still, if new photography books and/or electronic editions are issued at a rate of 4,000 or so a year, there must be publishers who want to issue them, stores that want to sell them, and readers who want to buy them, right? To find a publisher interested in your concept you will need to have several chapters already completed, a full outline of the content and a set of images that will knock the proverbial socks off the editor at the publishing company. If they say yes to your project, they’re betting a boatload of resources on you: editors, designers, printing, binding, distribution, advertising, and so on. So publishers, too, are more ready to undertake a book project with an author who’s already published successful work and has a following. I’ve done it this way several times over the years. The good part is the publisher finances the undertaking and takes the risk. The bad part is that you give up control of your project to others who are balancing your artistic vision with their own preferences, politics, company policies, and profits.

Did I say that paper magazines are in decline? Well, hard books are going in the same direction, so think e-books. The latest report from the Association of American Publishers, released last week, is that e-books are the number one format in publishing, with sales increasing in direct proportion to the decline of hard-book sales. A number of my colleagues have published their own e-books. One of the best how-to photography-book writers of all time, John Shaw, was an early adapter and tells me that sales are good, overhead is low, and updates are easy, so the books can remain current as techniques, hardware, and software advance. For obvious reasons, e-books are more readily self-published, because you don’t need the paper, the printer, and the warehouse to store the printed volumes. You might think you don’t need the editor and the designer, either, but in fact, most people do.

Self Publishing

 Think you might publish your own hard copy nature photography book? I have self-published three major titles and can tell you that it's great to have complete control! But you’d better also have access to (and funds to pay) a great editor and designer, and a printing broker who prints in Asia. A serious self-publishing venture with the goal of producing 10,000 or so full-sized books requires about $100,000 in capital. When you’ve got the books in a warehouse, then you can think about how to get them to your potential buyers. The major book chains won't consider you unless you come bundled in from a broker, who takes a cut, but you can contact small bookstores, one at a time, to pitch your book. You can advertise on your web site, get your friends and colleagues to talk about it, and set up a little shipping department.  Try to get the local newspaper to talk about it. Pay for ads in photography magazines. Send out flyers to anyone who’s ever contacted you about anything in the past. All that said, I have been successful in the past marketing some of my self-published books, because I do a lot of seminars around the country, where I sell the books direct at retail. Do you make direct contact with hundreds of avid photographers in city after city every month? Of course not! You’re out there catching the sunrise and the sunset, not hanging out in darkened auditoriums!

 Cynicism aside, there is a tremendous sense of achievement when you’ve brought an idea for a book to beautiful fruition. When I think about my successful book projects, I usually remember my photo-essay Golden Poppies of California, which was absolutely beautiful and personally fulfilling, as I authored it entirely myself, I collaborated on the design with two great graphic artists, and the printing and binding were exquisitely accomplished in the United States at my insistence. I could take full credit for the finished product, which was the culmination of fifteen years of photographing the California state flower. The book won some nice awards, and I even got a congratulatory letter from the California “Governator.” Although it is exquisite, it hasn’t made money: not a “how-to” book, and priced high due to the U.S. production, and with limited demand outside of California. Still, I’m very proud of that book and the principles I applied to its production. It’s brought enormous pleasure to a lot of people, and it stands as an eloquent reminder that profit is not the only measure of success. www.GeorgeLepp.com) and will be available in the near future as an e-book." />In Part III, Taking Stock, coming up next, we’ll get back to the basics of making a living at photography, just by selling your images, one at a time.