Are Reps/Agents Necessary for Book Deals?

[wildman]

<p>Hi All: <br>

I am what you might call a "fine art" street photographer. I call my work "Urban Dada" (see my portfolio page on Photo.net under "Urban Dada", "Photography, Street" or "Wild Man".)<br>

I recently self-published (via createspace) a book of my photos on Amazon.com, but the number of sales has been, to say the least, dismal. <br>

I want to get a respected publisher to pick up my book and re-publish it under their label, so people will take my work seriously. (I sure hope this is not a newbie's pipe dream).<br>

I am confused about how to proceed. Should I: <br>

A. Cold-contact (email) publishers with a PDF of my whole book?<br>

B. Cold-contact reps (street photography/journalism/conceptual photo) in order to then have THEM represent me to a publisher?<br>

C. Hawk copies of my book to museum stores hoping to generate interest?<br>

D. Fill up lots of photo blogs with examples of my work?<br>

E. All of the above? (Which I have started to do).<br>

I think my style is unique and different from just photos of 'street art' like Banksy. <br>

My question then is: When it comes to courting publishers, which comes first: the rep? An online blog following? A 'Body of Work'? (I have been taking Urban Dada photos since 1985).<br>

I am not interested in being commissioned to shoot stuff by a client. I just want to promulgate and show my work. <br>

What has been your experience? Am I naive?</p><div></div>

[lex_jenkins]

<p>A few quick observations:</p>

<blockquote>

<p>"D. Fill up lots of photo blogs with examples of my work?"</p>

</blockquote>

<p>If you're talking about comments on other people's blogs, this would probably verge on spam. However there are other tricks.<br /> <br /> Social networking is crucial. Most photographers I know of who are successfully promoting books are active on Facebook and Google+. Some use Twitter as well. I see links on your website to Behance, Tumblr, Pinterest, etc., but nothing for Facebook and G+. If you're on Facebook and G+, those links need to be obvious and those social networking pages need to be public, not restricted to family/friends. If you'd rather not use your personal Facebook page for public access, set up another account just to promote your professional work and publications. For a few examples check the social networking pages for folks like Roger Ballen, Peter Turnley, David Alan Harvey (Burn Magazine), Suzanne Heintz (her "Life Once Removed" project went viral due to effective social media use), and Mike Spinak (who has successfully self published a book on hummingbirds on Amazon).<br /> <br /> Your photo.net bio and your own website mention the book but don't provide hotlinks directly to the Amazon page on which the book is featured. This needs to be done as well. Some mobile apps are limited in copy/paste capabilities, and some folks won't even bother to copy/paste URLs because it's so clumsy on mobile devices. Hotlinks are essential.<br /> <br /> Your photo.net bio should be shorter, with paragraph breaks, and the link to your publications should be more prominent and hotlinked.<br /> <br /> Regarding the explanation of your concept of Urban Dada, sometimes it's better to get a fresh set of eyes on the theme. Ask a friend whose writing you respect to suggest some edits and a concise introductory statement.</p>

[craig_shearman1]

<p>Lots is changing in the world of publishing, but the tradition in the book world has always been that self publishing is the kiss of death unless you have a very targeted niche market. At the perception level, there are so many people who pay to have their book printed (photo or text or both) just to say they've done a book that you can get lumped in with all the "vanity press" types. From a more practical point of view, bookstores (especially chains) prefer to do one-stop-shopping with wholesalers who can provide them with thousands of books from scores of publishers. It's not worth their time to work with an individual on a single title that might sell a handful of copies.<br /><br />Yes, you can submit material over the transom to publishers. But it goes into the pile and won't get looked at until editors have looked at submissions that come in from agents, reps and authors they already know and do business with. You might get lucky approaching a publisher on your own, but you have much better chances with a rep. Even approaching a rep requires that you find one who deals with the kind of material you're doing. And if you have a contact with the rep rather than just calling cold, that improves your chances of getting them to look at your work.<br /><br />The exception is when you have a book aimed at a very narrow audience where there's a mechanism to reach that audience. I used to run a small railroad video business on the side and used classified ads in train magazines to drive traffic to my website. Guys like Thom Hogan do e-books about how to use specific models of cameras and spread the word through various photo websites. There are magazines, websites, clubs, etc. for just about everything under the sun where you could sell books or videos targeted at their interest. If there's a Dada following out there, that could be an approach worth pursuing.</p>

[will_daniel1]

<p>Hi John,</p>

<p>I have four books published without an agent -- two under contract and two self-published at CreateSpace. My advice is if you're not going to use an agent but want a contract, create the best book proposal you can, and send it to specific publishers (tailored to individual publishers). It should be very visual, since you are publishing visual books, it should be expertly written and brief (no more than about six pages), and since you are doing a visual proposal you should have excellent design skills or hire that job out. If the proposal isn't noticed, you're not going to get a contract.</p>

<p>The publisher might want to see a query letter before you send a formal proposal. Use Google or the publisher's website to learn what information goes in the query letter and what goes in the proposal. The stronger your proposal and presentation skills, the better your chance of getting a contract. An agent will represent you only if he or she determines that a lot of books can be sold. </p>

<p>Please see my website at <a href="http://www.willdaniel.com">www.willdaniel.com</a> for more information about my books. Best of luck to you.</p>

[danmarchant]

<p><em><br /></em>1. Your book. It seems you have come up with an interesting and focused topic and then done everything you could to hide it from people.</p>

<blockquote>

<p><em>I recently self-published (via createspace) a book of my photos on Amazon.com, but the number of sales has been, to say the least, dismal.</em></p>

</blockquote>

<p>Your book didn't sell because your marketing was non existent (or just unsuccessful). I Googled the book/artist and didn't find a single photography/book related website or blog that mentioned/reviewed it. Either you didn't send out any press releases or else you did and absolutely everyone decided not to publish it. People wont buy something if they don't know it exists. Just listing it on Amazon won't get people to buy it..... especially when the listing doesn't say anything about the book. Your Amazon listing currently says.... <em><br /></em></p>

<blockquote>

<p><em>New interior has been uploaded and is UrbanDadaR12_F.pdf and new cover is UrbanDadaR5_F.pdf</em></p>

</blockquote>

<p>Even your own website doesn't have any meaningful coverage of your own book (or your photography). It is all hidden away behind obscure links amongst a mass of non-photography related material. Photography isn't even mentioned anywhere on your sites front page.<br>

<br />I also couldn't find any photo/creative communities (flickr, 500px etc etc) featuring your photographic work. It is as if you woke up one day and just decided to publish a book, then set out to hide all traces of its existence. It is by far the most post-anarcho-neodadastentialist anti-marketing campaign I have ever seen. :)</p>

<p>2. Publishers - Given the choice they are generally going to prefer to publish works by people that someone has heard of. Yes, they may publish works by unheard of authors/artists but, if they do, the numbers are strictly limited. The majority of publishing slots will go to works/authors for which there is an established market/fan base. So, if you submit your book now you are going to be competing with all the other unheard of first time authors/artists (of which there are many) for one of only a tiny handful of publishing slots.<br>

You are going to have a much greater chance of getting published if you invest some time into marketing yourself and your work. Submit shots to photography magazines, send press releases about your work, build a proper photo focused website, get onto Facebook and Google+ etc etc.</p>

[wildman]

<p>I love the label "post-anarcho-neodadastentialist"! <strong>That's me!</strong> (you forgot nihilistic!);-)<br>

Thank you ALL for the above wisdom and insights! Sometimes it is hard to see myself as others do - and this really helps!<br>

I will make my pages on JPG, 1x, 500px, Fotocommunity, Behance, Facebook, Pintrest, Tumblr etc etc more hot-linkable (though often on forums there is no "link" tool.) <br>

I also have some of my Urban Dada stuff on my own website, www.wildmanillustrations.com.<br>

My book is at <br>

<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Urban-Dada-John-William-Tidwell/dp/1502715880/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1420314911&sr=1-1&keywords=Urban+Dada">Urban Dada on Amazon</a><br>

I am indeed new to all this and yes, I did decide to just publish a book of my photos, by jingo! I am a science writer by profession.<br>

MANY thanks to you all for your candid and detailed comments! I promise to visit all your pages and make comments too - if I have something profound to contribute that is.<br>

Best<br>

J</p>

 

[wildman]

<p>One Mo Thing:<br>

Do you have suggestions for blogs, websites or book that provide a good primer on how to market your work effectively via social media, Internet etc? I really am quite new to all this and am ashamed to say that I am not as skilled at social media (I'm 53) as I probably should be. Any and all suggestions will be much appreciated! <br>

P.S. - I get the idea of putting my photos on blogs publicly, but get paranoid about hotlinking and theft. My art website is protected against dragging and dropping but other places are not. <br>

I have considered Flickr or Instagram, but hear stories about those sites laying claim to any and all photos posted on them, for use in any way they wish. Is this just urban legend? After the iCloud hack last year I have gotten rather skittish about posting a lot of my stuff online - though I am sure the NSA (hi fellas) have a nice thick dossier on me already.<br>

Paranoid much?<br>

Many thanks!<br>

J</p>

[tim_mulholland]

<p>John - </p>

<p>I've recently been through a similar experience - and I'm horrible at marketing. :) I created a Facebook page for my book and that has been helpful - <a href="https://www.facebook.com/NZ.Photographers.Paradise?ref=bookmarks">New Zealand</a></p>

<p>I know that my suggestion will be quite different from what others have suggested and so take it with a grain of salt. I had wanted to publish a photo book for many years, but I heard too many horror stories from photographers who had done so - the thousands of dollars that they'd spent actually printing the book and then how many copies they still had in their inventory. One friend is (the last that I knew) carting around copies of all three of his books in boxes in the back of his car, so that he has them available when someone is interested. I just couldn't justify, in my mind, on my budget and not being known the actual physical publishing of a book.<br>

So, I created a fixed-layout ePub using Adobe InDesign. In my calculus, this allowed me to create my book *and* "publish" it with minimal publishing fees. Learning InDesign sufficiently for my needs wasn't that difficult. In fact, when I prepared the book in April/May/June, 2014, the biggest difficulty was translating the InDesign file into the actual ePub. The most recent version of InDesign (2014) should make this conversion much easier. I spent about a month deconstructing my ePub, fixing it, and then reconstructing it before I got it to the final version.<br>

Now, the book is available on iTunes/iBooks, and Apple is "doing" the marketing, if you will. I also do my own marketing to help push sales along. I also look at my effort as a learning opportunity and an experiment; I have a dream of creating another book in a similar fashion.<br>

The following link should get you to my book on iTunes: <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/new-zealand/id889656551?mt=11">New Zealand - A Traveler's & Photographer's Paradise</a><br>

Again, my approach may not be what you had in mind, but it's an alternative that may have some appeal to you.</p>

<p>Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions - Tim@TimMulholland.com<br>

Good luck,<br>

Tim!</p>

<p> </p>

[danmarchant]

<p>John check out http://www.colbybrownphotography.com/social-media-for-photographers/ It is the first in a series of articles that discuss social media use and the different platforms available. Don't waste your time going onto every platform. Pic the ones that best suit your work/target audience.</p>

[wildman]

<p>Hi Tim and Dan!</p>

<p>Thanks very much for the comments!<br>

<br /> Tim: My wife is a graphic designer, so she designed the book on InDesign, and we put it together on Amazon's Createspace site. Then they created the page on Amazon for it. But the ISBN they gave me for free is theirs not mine. I want to republish a new edition of the book on better paper, so I am thinking of doing that via Blurb and buying my own ISBN. That way I can do what I want without being beholden to anyone. <br /> Yesterday I got several books on Online marketing for Social Media and signed up for two MOOC courses, one on Coursera and the other on EdX, both for free as I will be auditing them. I figure understanding online marketing, crowdsourcing and use of social media will be useful skills into the future, and I don't have to worry about not being hired because I am white, male and over 50. I think it could be key to making a living on the Internet.<br>

<br /> Dan: I will definitely look at your suggested site, and am currently trying to learn how to build a fan base' for my work online and apply search engine optimization to get better coverage.<br>

<br /> Both of you:<br /> I have a writing website and an illustration website. I had thought it might be OK to use my illustration website (www.wildmanillustration.com) to promote my photography. But perhaps I should create a site JUST for Urban Dada as a 'go-to' hub for all promos and marketing for it. NameCheap.com is good for a domain name, but Square Space is expensive. I also use 'Other Peoples' pixels'.com. Is there a better, cheaper way to build a photo website that won't put me in the poorhouse?<br /> This is a brave new world for me, but I like being the 'decider'...<br /> THANKS SO MUCH!</p>

<p>J</p>

[wildman]

<p>Hi again:<br>

I have recently published my book via CreateSpace/Amazon. They gave me a free ISBN number. Then I decided to republish a second edition on Blurb because they have better quality paper. It will need a new ISBN.<br>

My quandry is this: I have read on several publishing blogs that if the publisher (Amazon) owns the ISBN, and they decide to terminate my contract with them for the book, they can also lay claim to the book's design/layout (done by my wife) and images in said book (MINE!). !?!?<br>

Many bloggers say don't worry about owning an ISBN, but what about for PHOTO books?!<br>

What has your experience been on this?</p><div></div>