Hide Your Talents
What's your objective in contacting a photobuyer? "To show off the variety and depth of my photographs, with the purpose to make more sales,” you might answer. If you were a service
Ad agencies, yes, want to see variety and versatility. Photobuyers at publishing houses, however (the ones we deal with here at the PhotoDaily and PhotoLetter), want to know if you can supply pictures in the subject area they need. Spreading out a variety of subjects to prove your talent wastes their time and earns you black marks for unprofessionalism. If you instead do your homework and identify a particular market's focus areas, and then present good pictures that fit their subject area needs, they'll buy them. Period. Ninety-nine percent of the magazines published today (this excludes the general newsstand magazines) are published for a specialized audience, and for specialized advertisers.
Most newcomers to photomarketing tend to think of photobuyers as a mass of people on the other side of a fence. The photographer figures if he can send out enough photographs to enough photobuyers, like dropping leaflets from an airplane, enough of his pictures will score. In today's economy, and today's specialized world, that kind of marketing doesn't work anymore.
Publishing houses themselves have become highly specialized. It's more cost-effective to concentrate on focussed subject matter. Publishing companies look for writers, for example, who are knowledgeable in the theme of their particular publishing venture, be it hunting, cars, archaeology, medicine, early childhood learning, and so on. The publisher feels uneasy giving a writing assignment to an author who is not totally familiar with their subject matter. An author, then, stands to gain more by hiding his/her versatility. Cultivating the look of a specialist results in finding a home quickly for writing talents. (The writer can devote Sundays to engaging in versatility, or in writing his or her Great Novel.)
Similarly, the photographer, too, should "hide" the scope of his/her talents, and specialize if he/she wants to move forward. Pick an area that you know a lot about, one that interests you, or even one that attracts you and that you'd like to learn about (and then busy yourself learning about it). Your interest and knowledge of the subject will shine through in your photographs. Editors will recognize your expertise, whether it be in sailing, tennis, or aviation. Don't consider photobuyers as "them" out there on the other side of the fence. Instead, see them as individuals, each looking for photographers who can fill their highly specialized needs.
There are more than 15,000 editorial markets in the USA alone, which buy photos for publication. If you did some homework and discovered ten who want pictures in subject areas you like to photograph, each with a $1,000- a -month budget for photography (which is not an unusual figure), you
As publisher of a series of photo-marketing letters, I find myself in between photographer and photobuyer. I've noticed that photobuyers work well with specialists. The photographer who becomes successful at marketing pictures is almost always the photographer who analyzes the market and goes after those markets that will be receptive to his particular work. If the photographer is versatile, he hides that versatility, if it means it would diminish his usefulness to a specific photobuyer in a specialized area.
In Minneapolis, Methodist Hospital advertises that it has 344 physicians on its roster, and 57 specialists. Depending on our ailment, most of us would opt to visit a specialist.
Photobuyers look at photographers the same way. No one can believe a doctor can be "all things to all patients." Likewise, a photobuyer cannot believe you can photograph aircraft as well as rodeos.
Versatility is a virtue, but in today's economy, it's something to relegate to Sunday photography, where you're not so concerned about immediate marketing prospects.
Rohn Engh is director of PhotoSource International and publisher of PhotoStockNotes.
 Tommy Thompson |
 Kerry Kolb |
 Jon Saban |
 Jake Nelson |