The Photographer's Survival Guide: How to Build and Grow a Successful Business

by Amanda Sosa Stone, Suzanne Sease

Practical, real-world advice for commercial photographersAt last, a down-to-earth, no-nonsense guide that provides guidance and tools for all levels of photographers–from those just starting out to those who want to move to the next level. Turn to this book for ready-to-use guidance on navigating the ins and outs of the industry, • Establishing a recognizable style that is all your own • Creating a website and portfolio, including costs, selecting images, and working with a designer• Building, buying, and using contact lists and databases; creating e-mail blasts and printed promotions; and person-to-person meetings with buyers• Estimating, bidding, and negotiating your fee • Doing the prep work, the actual shoot, post-production, and billing • Understanding the stock photography businessThe book considers those uncomfortable "What do I do?" moments and presents tips from industry

Genres: Photography, Business

208 pages, Paperback

First published April 14, 2009

Reviews

[Alicia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Someone really loved creating this book. This isn't just another 'how to' book. It's a Bible, and...it's funny. Maybe it's just me, but the writers are hilarious, often dryly so. That made this so much more fun to read. And it has amazing pictures. Of course, they are the first thing I noticed.* It is "The Photographer's Survival Guide" after all, but they were much, much better (read: more interesting/amusing) than anticipated and presented in an incredibly appealing format. It has content too! From the creative aspects to the business aspects, this book is packed with information on growing your business and selling your work as well as yourself. It's especially helpful in the area of marketing - great advice and lots of options.


*That's a lie. The pictures were actually the second thing I noticed. The first thing I noticed was the little yellow circle in the upper right hand corner that reads "Includes Bonus CD" which is all the further I got before flipping immediately to the back to verify that, yes, there was indeed a CD (cool!), at which point I was quite impressed. That feeling only increased when I actually started reading the book.

[Paul Deveaux · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was written in 2009 and the contents are a bit dated. The way that the authors chose to present the concepts is through tons of examples with websites and URLs. There is also next to nothing in the book about social media despite the fact that the book is 90% marketing. There are two short paragraphs that mention blogging but nothing about Facebook, Instragram, or Twitter. Very detailed but easily dated by the specific references. This book is designed for commercial photographers that need some help with their marketing efforts. If you are trying to go the wedding/portrait/consumer route this book is not for you.
The authors also don't cover accounting or cost management in depth. All in all this is a good book but falls short of being a complete survival guide. There are lots of photographs and diagrams and not a whole lot of text. You could easily get this same information from the blog posts at Agency Access, Wonderful Machine, and A Photo Editor. The information on marketing and the plain language discussion of rights and licensing is very well done. The CD of forms is also a great resource.

[Alessandro Rizzolli · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is good, but in my opinion it's targeted towards photographers who are already in the business rather than to those who want to start their business as photographers.
Moreover, I think it can be mostly interesting for those who wants to work as commercial photographers, since fine art photography and exhibitions are named only as ways to "put your name out there".
Summarizing, it's more a book about "how to effectively market yourself as a photographer" than a book about "how to start a photography career". There's no doubt it contains valuable suggestions, but they don't sound so valuable to me for photographers at early stages of their careers.