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Publish Your Photogrpahy Book

Is there a book in you? If you’re a photographer, the answer is probably a resounding “Yes!”

Whether you’re dreaming of producing one of those coffee table books with a hefty price tag or if your desires run to creating a client-wowing portfolio that doesn’t look like all those other portfolios, you’re in luck. Thanks to the proliferation of print-on-demand companies like Blurb, Fastback, Creative Books, and Shutterfly, getting your photo book into the hands of readers is easier than ever.

Note that I used the word “readers.” That was deliberate. The reality of the photography book publishing world is that it’s difficult to find buyers. Photography books are like poetry books in that the supply far exceeds the demand.

However, there are a few photographers whose books are collected like fine paintings. Expect to find their books on some very high-priced coffee tables. But these people are the exception, not the rule.

Promotional Your Photo Book

So, with the odds against it being a money-making venture, why would you want to publish a book of your photography? Because a photo book is like a giant business card. That’s how photographer Lisa Robinson uses her book Snowbound (Kehrer Verlag, 2007). Snowbound showcases images that she made while traveling on back roads in rural New York State.

I met Lisa Robinson at a Tucson, Arizona seminar presented by Mary Virginia Swanson, co-author of Publish Your Photography Book (Princeton Architectural Press, 2011). The book’s other author, Darius Himes, did not attend.

Lisa Robinson’s work is profiled in one of Publish Your Photography Book‘s seven case studies. It doesn’t take but a minute or two of hearing Robinson to understand that producing a photo book is not enough. You have to be very devoted to promoting it.

In Robinson’s world of fine art photography, “devotion to promotion” means that you’re constantly sending your book to people who organize exhibitions for galleries. That’s where the “book as a giant business card” concept enters the picture.

And it’s not enough to just put that giant business card out there. You have to follow up with the gallery people. Repeatedly. After all, there are a lot of other people who want to get their work on gallery walls.

You also need to become very good at getting up in front of an audience and talking about your work. I can say from firsthand experience that Robinson is a very polished public speaker. She very ably shared the stage with Mary Virginia Swanson, and that in itself is quite an accomplishment.

Challenges of Publishing

While this isn’t as much of a how-to book as Dan Poynter’s venerable Self-Publishing Manual, there’s a lot of useful information in Publish Your Photography Book. Starting with the all-important question: Why do you want to publish?

Tip: Think carefully before answering this question. Publishing is a lot of work.

Publish Your Photography Book goes on to cover the differences between having a book produced by a commercial publisher versus doing it yourself. It goes without saying that the competition to having a book published commercially is fierce. Always has been. Always will be.

If you should be so fortunate as to be offered a publishing contract, keep in mind that this is a book with Mary Virginia Swanson’s name on it. Hence, a very detailed section on publishing contracts. Swanson’s not an attorney – she’s a photography licensing and marketing consultant. And she’s very insistent on the point that artists shouldn’t sign anything they don’t understand.

If you’d rather shun the commercial publishing route and travel the do-it-yourself road, be prepared for quite the learning experience. Because you’re not just in charge of producing the book. You’re also in charge of promoting it. Publish Your Photography Book has you covered on both fronts.

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I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a skeptical person when it comes to the value of most forms of social networking. While there always seems to be stories of a friend of a friend who is landing clients with Facebook, I’ve yet to see most social networks as little more than a way to connect with your peers or a way to waste a huge amount of time.

Part of my problem is that I have never really invested in creating a strong social presence or spent the time on learning how connection points like Facebook can be run to deliver value to potential clients. So before I write off Facebook completely I figured I should learn a little more about it. For this reason I was looking forward to Rockable Presses’ most recent book Successful Facebook Marketing.

Who is this book for?

If Facebook was ever going to come out with a user guide, this book would probably be it. Author Skellie goes through all the steps from creating and setting up your account to promotion and advertising. So if you are just looking at getting started with Facebook, or would like to take it beyond just a rambling collection of posts about what you had for breakfast, then Successful Facebook Marketing is a good place to start.

Facebook is being used more and more as the primary front for large-scale social media campaigns and promotions. But why is it so effective?

What’s inside?

As mentioned, Successful Facebook Marketing takes you from knowing almost next to nothing about Facebook to helping you drum up either some exposure or even some clients. With over 600 million Facebook accounts it’s pretty darn easy to get lost in the mix, or spend money on advertising campaigns that get a whole bunch of views but nothing in the way of conversions. Skellie details her experience from running several of Envato’s major Facebook accounts and shows how she manages to stand out from the crowd.

Creating your Facebook Page

Creating a Facebook page is super simple. Creating a useful Facebook page, however, takes a significantly greater amount of time.

Skellie helps you go beyond just the basic page creation by looking at things like your profile and the content you’re putting up there.

Areas like using your photo bar are discussed, as well as the importance of making sure your page is visually appealing.

Even if your business is non-visual (for example, maybe you’re a freelance writer), I would still strongly suggest filling out your photo bar with five good photos.

The entire process is made simple with step-by-step instructions on what to do, as well as why it’s important.

Promoting your page

Unless you’re the type of person that likes talking to themselves in an empty room, you’re probably going to want a few people to hang out on your Facebook page.

With over 600 million users, chances are you’ll find at least someone out there who likes what you’re doing. But our goal as freelancers is to promote ourselves on a larger scale and hopefully find some clients through the process, so a strategy of just sitting back and waiting for people to come just doesn’t cut it.

Skellie puts her experience into action on how to get the ‘likes’ flowing by promoting yourself both on your website and other social networks like Twitter. From adding Like buttons to Activities Feeds, you’ll get detailed instructions on how to make it all happen.

It’s no surprise Facebook recommends this as one of the first things you should do, since adding a Like Box to your website will hugely increase the amount of traffic your Facebook Page gets.

Publishing unique content

I don’t care how awesome you think you are, if you don’t post anything of value on your Facebook page, no one is going to waste their time with you. Being interesting and unique are both required qualities if you expect to have any type of return from your Facebook efforts.

Skellie recommends focusing on content that has a high chance of being either Liked or Shared amongst your fans. Of course, that’s easier said than done.

It requires more effort, but the rewards are worth it. By posting updates unique to Facebook you’ll help your fans to feel like they’re part of an exclusive group, bringing them closer to your brand, product or website.

After defining your goals in traffic and interaction, Skellie will take you through how to post content that dives traffic, encourages action and deepens relationships. All great stuff if you want to take your page beyond just what you had for breakfast.

Advertising on Facebook

I have some clients who love advertising on Facebook because it brings in tons of ad views. But when I ask those same clients how many of those views turned into buys, they often look at me with a blank expression. The truth of the matter is, a lot people are wasting their ad dollars on Facebook because they don’t know the first thing about running a successful Facebook ad campaign.

Fortunately, Skellie takes a close up look at the Facebook advertising platform. She address some of the pitfalls, as well as the range of options that are available.

With a captive audience of millions, it’s no surprise that Facebook runs a highly successful advertising platform.

Along with instruction on how to run your first ad, Successful Facebook Marketing will also help you configure your ads to target the right audience. That is, of course, if your target audience uses Facebook in the first place.

Conclusion

Whether you currently see the value of social networks like Facebook or not, the reality is that a whole bunch of people use it. Learning to draw the right type of people to you and connect with them are key ingredients to getting your name out there and picking up some new clients.

Successful Facebook Marketing is a great introduction to the world of Facebook. It’s well worth checking out if social networking is going to be a part of your freelance marketing efforts.

The book is available from Rockable Press for $24 for the eBook and $29.99 for the paperback.

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I realize this may sound a bit absurd, but I don’t know Guy Kawasaki from Adam. In fact, I think I know Adam a whole lot better. So when the girl who was looking after our house mentioned that a book had arrived for me, and it was written by some “Apple dude”, my curiosity was piqued.

I’m happy to say that Enchantment by Guy Kawasaki is worth a read. Even if it was written by some Apple dude.

Upon looking at the cover and reading the tag line about “the art of changing hearts, minds, and actions”, I figured I was in for a book on personal empowerment that would end with me running naked through the forest. That hasn’t happened. Yet.

“Enchantment” is really about achieving likability, be that with the products or services we produce, or the relationships we have with our clients, or people we work with. And while the concept sounds simple at its core, it’s amazing how many people and businesses stink at being likable or trustworthy.

Enchanting people really takes a step away from selling to people and focuses your attention on making people happy. And lo and behold, happy people are easier to sell to.

When you enchant people, your goal is not to make money from them or get them to do what you want, but to fill them with great delight.

Enchantment takes you from the initial steps of why it’s important to get close to your clients to how to launch a service and enchant others with it. The book ends with some timely suggestions on when enchantment goes bad and how to avoid people who do not have your best intentions at heart.

If someone presses you for a quick decision, remember the phrase “Dopeler effect.”…The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

What I liked about the book

Guy is a pretty enchanting person. His writing is relaxed and enjoyable, and he doesn’t get bogged down in deep discussions around philosophy or life changing realizations. While he fully believes that an enchanting person is a better person, he doesn’t gloss over the fact that it requires work. Being enchanting is not something you can fake, and it’s never about getting your way solely for your own benefit.

The book is filled with personal experiences and examples that show enchantment in action. Guy describes these personal stories like a scoop of ice cream on top of apple pie. And while I prefer whipped cream and pumpkin pie, I do agree that the personal examples add a lot of value to the book.

Along with that, I think the book has value to freelancers in that it can teach us how to understand what clients are thinking before a purchase, and then how to address those concerns. Learning to be a likable freelancer will certainly not hurt your career.

The first step to enchantment is to get people to like you. To accomplish this, you’ll need to accept others and find something to like in them.

For those who are bosses or working with others, the book also has some good suggestions on how bosses can enchant their employees and vice versa.

What I didn’t like about the book

Typically this is the section that most authors stop reading a review. Strangely enough, I think Guy appreciates constructive criticism almost as much as praise. In fact, Guy encourages you to look for devil’s advocates to tear down ideas before you move ahead with them. So here we go, Guy. Let’s make with the constructive criticism.

Maybe it’s no secret, but I think Guy has a pretty big man crush on Steve Jobs. It’s true that Steve Jobs is a very enchanting person, and Guy has spent a great deal of time working with Apple, but his Macintosh fixation got a little bit much. While it’s important to write what you know, it felt like Guy had a hidden agenda pushing you towards Apple products. For most freelancers it’s a moot point, but for more sensitive Windows users it may get a bit much.

The book actually ends with a discussion of how the book’s cover came about with Guy expressing some surprisingly strong opinions on crowdsourcing. And while Guy seems like a really understanding person, he doesn’t seem to grasp why a No-Spec design community was a bit miffed in how he went about getting his book’s cover designed. It’s rather interesting how he had no problem going to the crowd to get his concept and then going to a couple of experts to get the concept turned into a reality.

While I’m not overly rabid on the No-Spec debate, I felt like the extra chapter was more for Guy to rant than to be enchanting.

Enchantment is available from Amazon or several other retailers found on Guy Kawasaki’s website.

View full post on FreelanceSwitch

The plugin sends an HTML email to clients X days after they wrote a product review via VirtueMart. It is actually working for you 24/7 even when you are asleep…

This plugin works perfectly together with the free “VM Order Follow-Up”.

Current version is 1.0.1 released on May 8, 2010

More features:

* Support Dynamic AwoCoupons Plugin
* New “product link” tag.
* Test mode – Improved functionality.
* Add a CC email address.
* Add a BCC email address.
* Set “Max” emails per day.
* Add product image.
* Choose review status. Send followup email only if review is “published”, “un-published” or “Both”.
* Choose your email subject (and add dynamic tags to the subject as well).
* Use your default Joomla! email account.
* Use any other SMTP email account to send follow-up emails.

Now with Dynamic Awo Coupons Plugin support (Extra plugin sold separately), you can offer a gift coupon to your customers for their next purchase right inside the email. A real sales booster!

To create the email template, just use any ordinary Joomla! article. Moreover, you can use special dynamic tags within the HTML email:

* [PRODUCT_ID]
* [FIRST_NAME]
* [LAST_NAME]
* [TODAY_DATE]
* [REVIEW_DATE]
* [SITE_NAME]
* [SITE_URL]
* [PRODUCT_SKU]
* [PRODUCT_S_DESC]
* [PRODUCT_DESC]
* [PRODUCT_THUMB_IMAGE]
* [PRODUCT_FULL_IMAGE]
* [PRODUCT_URL]
* [PRODUCT_LINK]
* [PRODUCT_IN_STOCK]
* [PRODUCT_NAME]

One of the best ways to use this plugin is side-by-side with the (Free) Order Followup plugin:

Send an order followup 14 days after the order was shipped and ask the customer to write a short review about that product. (Yes! there is a special tag for “product link” in the order followup plugin).

Once the customer writes a review, followup this customer with an automatic mail offering a special offer for her next purchase.

Of couorse, don’t forget to motivate the customer and offer her a coupon for this action. You will be amazed how your customer react to this followup.

Be sure to write a personal, clear and short email.

View full post on Joomla! Extensions Directory – New Extensions

It seems to be the natural evolution of the freelancer that sooner or later we all try our hand at photography. While we may never classify ourselves as anything more than a photo hobbyist, we all strive to improve our photography skills.

The new Rockable Press book How to Take Great Photos with Whatever Camera you Got is here to help!

What’s the book about?

If you find yourself scratching your head when it comes to your DSLR camera, or you’re looking to upgrade from a point-and-shoot, this book will be a good starting point.

While the book doesn’t go into a ton of detail, it does serve as a great introduction to how the basic settings of your camera work and how to use some of its features to take better photographs.

The book will also take you through how different lenses work and how changing shutter and aperture settings will affect the final results.

The good news is author Peter Tallone doesn’t get bogged down in technical terms or details that tend to confuse and annoy the beginner photographer. You can tell Peter teaches beginner photography lessons because he keeps everything straightforward and easy to understand.

What’s inside?

The book begins with the oft heard phrase that “it’s not the hammer, it’s the carpenter,” meaning that it doesn’t matter how much you paid for your camera, your best results will always come from knowing what makes a good photograph and knowing how to capture it.

The photographer is the biggest difference on how an image looks. More megapixels or better lenses cannot compensate for talent. A lesser camera in the hands of someone who has the eye and the vision will far exceed the results of someone with the best and most expensive camera but who cannot understand what makes an image.

The book continues with instruction on how to stop taking snapshots and how to start taking photographs.

Peter explains that snapshots are typically what happens when we hold a camera up to our face and take a picture without thought to composition, lighting or focus. They’re pretty much your standard holiday snap that we’ve probably taken thousands of times.

A snapshot is a capture of a time and place, a remembrance, and that is all most people want from them…But, they are not photographs or photographic images or art (though what is art is disputable).

So how do we go from taking snapshots to taking photographs?

Again, it has less to do with your equipment and more to do with learning to identify what makes a good photograph.

Peter takes you through steps on how to develop your photographer’s vision. Teaching you to look for good compositions and how to use light and exposure to capture a stunning image.

Now, while experience is by far the best teacher, it helps to know what things to look for before taking a picture. Is there enough light? What background will look the best and how in focus do I want it?

The book will teach you a few quick ways to differentiate between good and bad light and introduce you to the rule of thirds. Again, this is great stuff for a beginner and not meant for someone who is already familiar with the basics

Peter next goes into some detail about exposure and depth of field. If you’ve been wondering how professional photographers get that buttery-smooth background in their photos, then this chapter is for you.

Different types of photography use different DOF (depth of field). Typically, portrait photography will use a shallow depth of field to isolate the subject person and keep the focus on them rather than a distracting background.

Get out of the Green Box

No doubt you’ve seen this little green box setting on your camera. When your camera is set to it, it basically turns your expensive DSLR into a point-and-shoot, letting the camera make all the decisions for you.

It’s a great setting when you’re shooting from the hip or need to capture a quick shot, but as beginners we may tend to stay within the green box comfort zone. Peter is here to give you a nudge.

Once you want to move farther with photography and learn to use your camera’s settings to become proficient and artistic with the different options that are available, you need to leave the comfort of your big green box.

Peter goes on to show you what the other settings on your camera do, and in which cases you would want to use them. The next chapter gives a quick rundown of different lenses with examples on how they affect a photograph.

Conclusion

This book is a nice starting point for people looking to know more about photography and DSLR’s in particular. It doesn’t get into the meatier bits of the trade, but it serves well as an overall introduction to photography.

If you’re just new to the craft, or are thinking about picking up photography as a hobby, this quick read will wet your appetite for the world of taking amazing photographs.

The eBook is available from Rockable Press for $9.00.

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Disclaimer: I bought all product mentioned in this video and am not affiliated with any company mentioned .

From expert advice by members of the freelance community to hard cold numbers on what’s happening on the freelance scene from around the globe, Freelance Confidential tells all.

FreelanceSwitch editor Amanda Hackwith uncovers the facts and myths about freelancing and reveals some of the numbers and tips that keep freelancers on the top of their game.

The book is available from Rockable Press in eBook format for $24 and paperback for $34.99 from Amazon.

What’s the book about?

It’s been just over three years since FreelanceSwitch surveyed thousands of freelancers to see where they were at in their career and how their future was looking. With the release of 2010’s global freelance survey, we can now see how that future turned out for over 3,200 freelancers from around the world.

Freelance Confidential collects together all the data from the global freelance survey and serves it up in easy to digest portions. It’s now super simple to look at current and future trends in areas like pricing, marketing, and feelings from the freelance community without slogging through reams of data. It’s all very yummy.

But wait there’s more!

Before I start sounding like a cheesy infomercial, I should tell you that one of the stand out features of the survey results this time, is that they also come with expert advice from freelancers you know and trust.

But numbers will only take us so far! To get the whole picture on freelancing, we need to put faces to the numbers. Ten of the most prolific and successful freelance experts in our community sat down with us to share their experiences and advice they would give to fellow freelancers.

Who are the experts?

Now, before I say any more, I should tell you that I’m one of the experts that was interviewed in Freelance Confidential. Now you may think that it’s entirely self serving and egotistical of me to be recommending this book. But you couldn’t be more wrong (not about the egotistical stuff, you were bang on about that).

The advice and comments are from a good cross section of experts in the freelance community and it is these comments that take this book beyond just a dry look at the numbers. You are sure to learn much from the advice from these freelancers who are in similar situations or coping with the same decisions you face every day. Certainly more than you will from the survey results alone. It’s really what makes this book an interesting read.

To cap everything of, near the end of the book, Amanda has an interview with FreelanceSwitch and Envato founder Collis Ta’eed about his thoughts on the way freelancing is heading and the qualities he looks for when deciding to hire new freelancers.

You’ll hear from the likes of Ed Gandia, founder of International Freelancers Day and Freelance Academy, James Chartrand from Men With Pens, Collis Ta’eed, founder of FreelanceSwitch and co-founder of Envato, and many more.

What else is inside?

This is ultimately a book about the numbers of freelancing, so you’ll find plenty of charts and graphs of the survey results. Alongside most of the graphs you will also see a comparison of the 2007 survey results. It gives us a nice look at how things have changed for the good and what areas have started to slip.

The charts and graphs are extremely well laid out and very easy to understand.

Some of the stand out charts include how pricing changes with experience and the average income by profession. If you’re more interested in where freelancers find work or how happy they are in their career choice, there are also graphs and comments about that as well.

Conclusion

Freelance Confidential is an easy to read collection of advice and data. It’s a nice mix that will maintain your interest throughout the book.

Frequently asked questions like “How much to charge?” and “Where do you find clients?” are also considered by looking at the numbers. Overall, the book answers the important, and sometimes sensitive questions that we’ve all asked as freelancers.

The book is available from Rockable Press in eBook format for $24 and paperback for $34.99 from Amazon.

If you buy the eBook or the print version you get the PDF, ePub and MOBI (Kindle) versions as well.

View full post on FreelanceSwitch

In my away-from-the computer life, I’m an avid bicyclist. Talk about a gadget-centric activity. It seems as though there’s always another nifty, lightweight bike to buy. Or, if you already have a bike or two, there’s some must-have accessory that you just can’t live without.

Which means that an affordable form of transportation – or recreation – can get pretty expensive. Same goes for photography. If it isn’t a new camera to buy, it’s one of those gizmos that will improve your shooting.

Enter Steve Johnson. An Englishman who now lives near Chicago. Johnson is the creator of the popular Minimalist Photography 101 blog. It’s the sort of place that frugal creatives will feel very comfortable visiting because Johnson’s into getting the highest level of results at the lowest cost. He’s just written an eBook that presents his minimalist photographic philosophy in a very readable format.

Johnson defines the following five groups as his audience:

• Those who want to move on from the simple snapshot.
• Those who have started to move on, but feel overwhelmed by the potential expense and learning curve.
• More experienced photographers who may feel that they are in a rut.
• Visual artists who are thinking of the camera as a potential creative tool rather than just a recording device.
• Just about anyone who is interested in the creative process.

What’s his goal? To keep the money that the photography industry wants in its coffers in yours. Nothing like a minimalist approach to spending money. As an example, if you’ve ever shot photos in low light, you’ve probably struggled with the challenge of getting a sharp image. And you’ve wondered if, maybe one of those expensive f/1.4 lenses might be the solution to your problem. Steve Johnson to the rescue:

Paying attention to breathing and posture makes a big difference when shooting photos in low light, yet it is an area that never seems to get enough attention. A gun owner at any level will learn about these aspects yet photography treats them as optional. Maybe it is because there is no profit to be made – much more lucrative to have someone dump $300 on a new lens than to have them spend a few minutes learning how to stand and how to breathe.

Take that, photography industry! Oh, I might add that some of this eBook’s most interesting low-light shots were done with a point and shoot camera.

For those of you who are starting to feel that your point and shoot has become, ahem, inadequate, Johnson offers some very helpful advice on upgrading from a first camera to a second and third. Warning: Big spending ahead.

About that second camera purchase, he has this to say: “Don’t be rushed into this stage and don’t get a grown up camera because you think it is the right thing to do. The point and shoot is capable of taking extremely good photographs under most conditions.”

Speaking as someone who recently went through the camera upgrade process, I heartily concur with Johnson’s advice, especially the “don’t be rushed” part. When it’s time, you’ll know.

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Mark Brown from Editors Keys reviews the new 2010 Apple MacBook Air 11.6 Inch model in HD. The full video review, not only shows the pros and cons of the new MacBook, but Mark also carries out a full speed test. MacBook Air Vs the Apple iMac 3.33ghz For more information on Editors Keys visit: www.editorskeys.com To view the microphone used for the voice over (SL150) visit www.editorskeys.com