Edited by Lori Appling in Bethany Beach, DE
" Great minds have purposes; others have wishes." -- Washington Irving
Today:
- How to Get Paid Several Times for A Single Piece of Work -- Written or Photo
- Take Your First Step to Paradise for Less than $20!
- What Editors Want: The Simple (Yet Often Ignored) Key to Selling Your Photographs
- This Week's Featured Travel Publication: Grist magazine
- More Opportunities and Resources for Writers
* Highly Recommended*
"Lori, this was easier than I thought. I just submitted 12 of my DC pictures to an online stock agency and five were accepted. Four of them were ones I took during the workshop and the fifth was one I took that very next weekend. Please tell Rich and B. Howard I said thanks." - Terry Allen
Join us this November 2-5, 2005 in the tropical, color-splashed Bahamas and learn from professional photographers the techniques they use to shoot pictures that sell for $400, $600 -- and even higher.
PLUS -- Learn all the ins-and-outs of researching and writing travel guidebooks -- including hands-on experience interviewing executives and writing critiques of some of the most famous resorts in The Bahamas.
For details visit: http://www.thetravelwriterslife.com/bahamas or call the Agora Travel office at (800) 926-6575 or (561) 243-6276. Seats are limited.
Dear Reader,
Our photography students are getting published left and right. I barely have enough room to swing a cat without hitting another success story. One reader, H. Elton Rouse, writes...
"As a student of the 'Turn Your Pictures into Cash: A Comprehensive Course in Taking and Selling Amazing Photographs,' I am impressed with the great job that B. Howard, the architect of the course, has done. I am learning much about the fine art of photography.
"I recently submitted a photo I took last fall to Petersen's PHOTOgraphic Magazine for a contest being sponsored by them, and am in the running as a semi-finalist in the Nature category in the International Open Amateur Photography Contest, with hopes of moving up ever further in the chain.
"In addition, my photo has been chosen to be included in a coffee-table edition book of about 250 pages, to be published in the Winter of 2005. Watch for it. Oh, the title of my photo is "Maple trees set aflame by late afternoon sun." How's that for a teaser?
"Somewhat of a perk, if you will, I will get an invitation to go to a Spring Convention and Symposium to be held at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, March 3-5, 2006.
"So I just want to say thank you AWAI for the opportunities you have given me through this course."
Hugo Daigle is another reader and contest winner. In fact, he just wrote in to say he's won a second time -- and he just started the photography course (http://www.thephotographerslife.com/ph2/website) a couple of months ago. We've been encouraging the members in our photography program to enter contests for practice (or, well, really for the prizes... but practice is always a healthy habit).
Congratulations to these guys for following through.
T. Allen wrote in this week too. He says, "Lori, this was easier than I thought. I just submitted 12 of my D.C. pictures to an online stock agency and five were accepted. Four of them were ones I took during the workshop, and the fifth was one I took that very next weekend. Please tell Rich and B. Howard I said thanks."
Terry happens to be a friend of mine, and I convinced him to take the Washington, D.C. workshop so I'd have company when I'm out and about combing the city for photographs.
And I'm not the only one who thinks it makes a good social activity. We've had mothers and daughters take our photo workshop together... best friends... husbands and wives...
But beyond being a fun activity... photography can be quite lucrative, too. And we'll show you exactly how next month in The Bahamas.
If you haven't signed up for that workshop yet, you'll be missing out. Not only are these trips a blast, but our special focus on the guidebook industry will open up a whole new profit opportunity for you -- whether you're interested in photography, travel writing, or both.
That's because often you'll find you can get paid many times over for a single piece of work -- whether it's a written piece or a photo -- and you don't have to lift a finger to gather that extra income.
Though some guidebook publishers pay a set fee for your photos and travel notes, others will pay you a royalty... a few pennies every time someone buys the book. And a few pennies per book can add up over time.
B. Howard, our guidebook expert, is a perfect example. B. Howard has now written 13 guidebooks. And he's still receiving royalty checks today for books he wrote more than 15 years ago.
In The Bahamas next month he's going to show you exactly how he does it. You'll learn everything from how to write a guidebook... to how to pitch it to a publisher... to what to look for in a contract so you're assured the most money... and lots more...
I hope you'll join us. Click here for details: http://www.thetravelwriterslife.com/bahamas
And scroll down below for one of B. Howard's biggest secrets. It's funny how you can look at the pages of a magazine for days and never realize what grabs your attention about the photographs you see there. B. Howard reveals, in this week's article, exactly what it is... and how you can do it.
As always, remember to keep me up-to-speed on your success. If you have good news to share, send me a quick note at lori@thetravelwriterslife.com.
I hope you have a great weekend,
-- Lori
Lori Appling
Director, AWAI's Travel Writer Program
P.S. Know a friend or two who'd enjoy the freedom and independence of a writer's life? They, too, can sign up to receive this free e-letter weekly at: http://www.thetravelwriterslife.com/eletter
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WHAT EDITORS WANT: RULE #1 -- PEOPLE SELL PICTURES
By freelance travel writer and photographer, B. Howard in Cleveland, TN
You know, when I first started out in photography, closing in on 20 years ago, I began just as most budding photographers begin. I shot landscapes, buildings, city scenes, mountain scapes, waterfalls, flower gardens, and beach scenes.
I was looking for the quintessential piece of art I could hang on my wall and maybe sell a copy or two. Selling photographs to magazines and newspapers was the furthest thing from my mind.
For more years that I can remember, I always wanted those scenes to be pristine and uncluttered. I didn't want people in my pictures. In fact, I would wait for what seemed like hours for people to walk out of my pictures, or for cars to drive in and out of them. And I am not - was not - unique. Every beginning photographer I've ever met goes through this "get rid of the people" phase.
For almost a year now, I have been leading -- with my good friend, Rich Wagner -- AWAI's photo workshops. We have taught budding pro photographers in Paris, Washington, D.C, and next month The Bahamas. And, just like I used to do -- almost without exception -- the attendees want to shoot their images without people in them.
That, my friends, is possibly the single biggest mistake you can make as a fledgling professional photographer.
PEOPLE SELL PICTURES! It took me almost five years to learn that lesson. By itself, it will enable you to sell more pictures than you ever thought possible.
I know, I've sold more than 3,000 photographs to more publications than I can count, and the number grows by the month. Today, more than 90% of the photographs I sell have people in them.
To illustrate the point, I'd like you to pick up a magazine -- ANY magazine -- and leaf through it. Count the number of pictures with people in them. And then count those without people in them. I guarantee: The photographs with people will outnumber those without by at least 9 to 1.
People add interest to a picture -- ANY picture. Don't wait for people to leave the scene; wait, instead, for them to enter it.
Better yet, put some people of your own into the scene and pose them a little. No, I don't mean have them stand and grin at the camera. Instead, have them looking out over the ocean, across the fields, toward the mountains. Have them sitting on the park bench holding hands, or walking hand-in-hand along a country lane. Have your wife sit on the sand facing the ocean. Take the dog along, and have one of your kids take it for a walk.
Visit the local car body repair shop and shoot men at work. Go downtown and photograph the people window-shopping. Go shoot the men fishing on the lake shore or beach. Shoot that old lady pushing her supermarket buggy full of all the important memories of her life.
All of these pictures have one thing in common: human interest. And human interest is what most photo buyers are looking for.
Here's how I used to do it: For years, I used to drag my eldest daughter, Jenny, out with me into the countryside. There's not a country lake, lakeshore, mountain trail, stunning mountain vista, or state or national park in East Tennessee that she hasn't been a part of.
It got so bad, at least as far as she was concerned, that she often tried to refuse to go. But I wouldn't have it. "Come on, Jen," I'd say. "Grab the dog and let's go." She used to kick and object, but in the end she'd always come along. Today, she laughs when I mention those expeditions out into the countryside.
But you know what? I've sold pictures with her and her backpack to Walking Magazine, to Tours & Resorts Magazine (in several different articles), and my younger daughter is featured in my Bahamas guide, and my New York stock agency has a couple dozen of those images, featuring both my kids, on file (one has sold several times). I have shot kids in their school classrooms and sold a half-dozen of them. My best-selling image is of an American Airlines engine mechanic at work at Nashville airport. That image has sold eight times to date.
Yep, people do sell pictures.
[EDITOR'S NOTE: You can meet B. Howard in person this November 2-5 in the Bahamas for our first-ever Travel Photographer's and Writer's Workshop: www.thetravelwriterslife.com/bahamas. B. Howard will be on hand to teach you everything you need to know about taking the best photographs... and then selling them to editors. And at the same time we'll learn all the ins-and-outs of researching and writing travel guidebooks -- including hands-on experience interviewing executives and writing critiques of some of the most famous resorts in the Bahamas. For details: http://www.thetravelwriterslife.com/bahamas ]
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