Jain Lemos » Photography and Publishing

Here is a September 2008 interview with me on After Capture about what it means to be a photographer’s consultant.

Part I: What She Does
Part II: How She Helps

Thanks to host Ethan G. Salwen for asking me to particpate!

Please take a look at Masterfile’s promotional magazine, Green World. Each spread in this 32-page booklet has depth and surprise. Note their seamless marketing focus on their own products while encouraging mainstream green support. This work is powerful and inspiring on many levels. They have blended the talents of editors, writers, photographers, designers, programmers and marketers into an enjoyable experience for any audience.

The bulk of my experience is producing and editing documentary books but I have also worked on plenty of single subject titles (i.e., cookbooks, gardens, tiles, wedding design, cars). In either case, the proposal’s topic must initially be perceived as having the potential to connect with an identifiable audience beyond people with an interest in your fantastic photography.

Here is an example. Your proposal is to photograph behind-the-scenes of the next Boston Marathon; from runners chomping down big carb dinners to a cancer patient undergoing chemo treatment the night before. This is a lukewarm idea, so what will make your proposal stronger?

The right combination of the three elements I mentioned yesterday. First, the linking of the concept via the proposed title and subtitle to topics of immense interest: aging and health. Then, to give your proposal additional legs, the first visual must subliminally suggest that hopes and dreams do come true.

Suddenly with these simple improvements of the idea, the proposed book is not just for people who actually run marathons or live in Boston. It has opened up to anyone with a desire to overcome a handicap, to find inspiration to change, to win, to find inner strength and conquer the impossible.

On deck: Do people ever ask for your advice about your proposed topic?

My next few posts will be dedicated to addressing what I believe is important information about photo book publishing, my professional passion. I am now channeling my frustration over what I felt was thin advice in PDN’s September Book Issue into mini help sessions. Writing proposals is a darling topic of interest and a fine place to start.

Is it a Book?

I have read hundreds of book proposals. When I was an editor at Harper Collins, we received dozens of proposals every week. The vast majority were eliminated for the sole reason they were not books. In other words, the concepts were quickly identified as feature articles, public space exhibitions, photographs of a local event only of interest to that community, conceptual images suitable for calendars or greeting cards, grand schemes beyond financial reality, tabloid fodder or egoist attempts from the photographer you barely broke even on last season who now feels a showcase of their outtakes is in high demand.

To become a photo book, your proposal must have a clear premise and a driving force bigger than the initial concept. This must be expressed right away and here is how to do it effectively.

The book’s proposed title must easily translate into a category. The determination of category is critical to booksellers; they are the ones who decide where to place your book in the store. If you aren’t sure where your book belongs, neither will those who face these decisions daily.

The logline (subtitle or short description) is where to reveal the book’s driving force. Remember the title and logline presented are proposed. As presented they may never see the light of day. Still, the more expert help you seek in getting this part right, the better your chances. Title elements should stand out so sometimes creating a professional logo or branding element is helpful. Also, be aware that subtitles are often omitted from lists and bookseller order forms, but for proposal purposes, use a subtitle to strengthen your idea. Proposals rarely look anything like the finished product but we have to imagine that they could.

Consider the latest book from A Day in the Life veteran author/publisher David Cohen: What Matters: The world’s preeminent photojournalists and thinkers depict essential issues of our time. The main title is strong. The subtitle links the title’s intrigue and **pow** announces who will be the book’s receptive audience. If your proposal only consisted of a two part title (and you aren’t David), would an influential person ask to hear and see more?

And then…the first photograph in the proposal must be brilliantly tied to the title and logline. Even though the entire book could, and oftentimes does, morph into something else, in my opinion it is these three elements (title, subtitle, first photograph) along with their independent and collectively unique energy that determines if your proposal will be considered or not.

Coming up: How turn your topic into a great photo book proposal.

What a crabby day it was yesterday with my frustration over PDN’s articles, a stock market meltdown and photographs of political candidates turned into horror shows on a magazine’s expense account. Navigate on your own, if you must, to Jill’s manipulator site to check out her latest handiwork that is spawning heated comments from every corner of the photo industry. We can bet memos are furiously circulating that explain how portrait lighting for name clients should only be from the top and left in the manner of history’s great master painters.

Everyone is brain stretching for the best headlines; any substance beyond that is immaterial. As long as you hit a news cycle, claim a million hits in one day or show up as a hot topic on the coolest photo blogs, it would seem you’ve made it in this business. Really, this is getting pathetic. Tomorrow, I’ll return to actually trying to help people as much as I can.

PDN’s “The Book Issue” arrived last week with headlines promising to bring insights into the mysterious world of photo book publishing. From Perfect Book Proposals to 7 Rules for making a book you can be proud to show and to revealing 15 of the Most Influential names in the biz, readers were eager to plunge into articles that would crack the code for landing coffeetable book mega deals.

For unpublished photographers there couldn’t have been even the remotest “Ah Ha” moment while reading Edgar Allen Beem’s seven steps piece:

1. Have excellent scans
2. Hire a designer
3. Get a sample of the paper from the printer
4. Go on press
5. Be ready to give control of the cover to the publisher
6. Don’t submit photos you don’t want published
7. Don’t get into a shouting match or “throw attitude.” (I note for this final tip, Beem allots only two sentences and it seems to be the most critical of all.)

Jessica Gordon admits in the short opening of her article on the perfect pitch that “…there’s no exact recipe” for a proposal. From there, she writes carefully about three impressive projects but none of which are surprising in terms of being published. We hear more of the same: landing a deal is less about the proposal and more about the notability of the photographer, personal connections, imagery excellence and marketplace value of the subject matter.

Next we get to the Influentials. While the cover promises this will be people—hey, maybe people we can actually talk with or find through our LinkedIn Network—unfortunately, when we reach the article, the inside headline now includes organizations along with people, and they “shaping” photography book publishing. Well, that certainly opens the topic to a few extra signatures. So our people list now mentions a cool bookstore owner in Colone, a few foreign indie publishing houses, the publisher at Aperture who used to be an editor and probably doesn’t take calls from us anymore, an award-winning London designer and so on. It is interesting that not one literary agent makes the list, that Amazon does (huh?), and “Photographers Who Self-Publish” manages to squeeze in (let’s note there are many companies in this category with ads in the issue). Actually, I think PDN writers believe Martin Parr is the most influential person because he is mentioned like fifteen times in this article!

The issue’s most helpful bit of information is found in Holly Hughes’ editor letter: “Photo book publishing is full of paradoxes.” PDN’s online story, “Marketing Moves that Sell Books” by Kelly Ebbels is leaps better because here is the heart of the entire matter.

In May, an opinion on Val Gelineau’s Blog is one we’ve heard bantering around for awhile: “Why pay $500.00 for an image when I can buy one for a few dollars?” Do editors believe that if image history isn’t that important, why pay for it? Are we at a point where we are going to just let this mindset become acceptable? Is this why PhotoShelter announced yesterday they will soon stop licensing stock photography on behalf of the shooters they serve?

A photographer friend just received her quarterly sales statement from a big agency. The amount was so much drastically lower than the previous quarter, she thought accounting had made a mistake! The agency’s response was something like this: “We had good sales in this quarter, but the average price per image has dropped by even more than 25% because Getty and the like are dropping prices plus the new microstock sales are so low. We had some big deals but these are many images at a low fees. This is not necessarily why you have a low payment, but with the stock industry in such tough times, it would be partially the reason for a decline.”

It often feels gloomy and doomy yet there are solutions. The demand for new photography is just as great if not greater than before. If you are willing to compromise a little in tough times and know how to provide clients with usage rights they find attractive, you will keep working. Meanwhile, I purchased this image from Fotolia for Blog use. The least I can do for the photographer is to provide a link to his/her/their website.

1. The most successful photographers don’t turn over their entire take to the client.
2. They also don’t publish their best frames until years later.
3. SEO is not a new corporate title acronym; it stands for Search Engine Optimization.
4. There is something called the Deep Web and most photo researches use it to find images.
5. I accept credit cards, checks or EFTs.
6. NPOs can and do absolutely pay for photography.
7. On average, 20 percent of your images will bring you 80 percent of your income.
8. The gas tank icon with a hose on the left or right does NOT always tell you which side your car’s tank is on. Darn it!

A few weeks ago, I was fortunate to receive a private showing of Verso’s Limited Edition of the Magnum Founders Platinum Portfolio at Serbin Communications in Santa Barbara. Thanks to Elizabeth Owen for showing me this rare project that is impressive in every category of fine art presentation. When she put on a fresh pair of lint-free gloves before opening the solid walnut box containing the book and platinum prints, I knew I was in for something special.

The investment at the pre-publication price was $12,500, and I believe they have six editions remaining to be sold of the original 75 that were assembled. In an atmosphere of content oversaturation and crowd sourcing, important photography presented with taste and care is holding value.

The last few days I’ve been writing about an insignificant issue: To have or have not comments on a Blog. Then I ran into technical difficulties!

There will come a time, most likely during the biggest shoot of your life, when technical problems arrive like mosquitoes on your son’s banana-smeared face. Your sim card won’t register, your notebook isn’t booting, your extension cord is too short, and that new assistant kicked the hair light you spent too much time positioning. Need I go on? Your subjects are twitchy, the magic light is over, the stylist is on her PDA writing a new invoice, and your fingers are swollen. Whatever: Something is broken.

So just how Zen will you be in a technical crisis? First, broadcast that you need to tweak something. Don’t explain, don’t complain and above all else, don’t apologize. Just make your announcement with big enthusiasm! Then quickly set up an amusement. You will have better ideas, but I am talking about simple and fast. Throw a hat in the middle of the room/street/studio. Dole out some playing cards and challenge folks to see who can flip a card right into the hat. This silly time waster will hold folks’ attention for about 8.5 minutes. If you need more time to fix your problem, divvy up the parking meter change and let the betting begin. Still not ready to shoot? No table limit.

Get up now to add a roll of quarters and a deck of cards to your Pelican Top Loader.

The tallest--and smallest--ships are proudly on display at Dana Point Harbor, Calif. Photo by Jain Lemos.

The annual Tall Ship weekend was in full swing yesterday at my nearby port of call, Dana Point. I roamed around the harbor and enjoyed the reenactment events, buccaneer costumes, booming cannons and colorful talking birds.

This also gives me a chance to mention that my good friend and owner of Nature Picture Library, Helen Gilks, recently acquired and has revamped Bluegreen Pictures where you can find all things marine! Helen and her staff are actively growing the collection. If you shoot in this category, don’t hesitate to inquire about representation. I also encourage buyers to bookmark this site for excellent coverage of ocean life and more.

I hesitate to post something about items I assume everyone already knows about. Take Google Alerts for example. Surely you all have a Google Alert for your name? Apparently not! Yesterday someone admitted to me that they compulsively conduct searches on their name. I used to do that, too. But I told him about two years ago I started using Google Alerts. He had no idea what I was talking about.

Now I am going to tell you about this cool gadget that I previously assumed most photographers either have or want to have. I certainly want one, but it’s not available for my camera model (Canon 40D) yet. I wrote to photographer Joanne Williams asking if I could mention it on my Blog (yes, it’s a Blog because I take comments). She said to go right ahead and chat it up!

Screen Shades for the LCD panels on digital Cameras.

At last! You can see the LCD panel on your digital camera even on sunny and glary days! Also protects the UV effects of the sun on the screen. $25 each (add $1.00 for shipping and handling).

Magnifier: (optional) Has the ability to add a 3X magnifier, which quickly snaps on the back of the Screen Shade for easier editing of each image. $25 each (add $1.00 for postage).

Models: Canon 5-D, 30D, MarkII 1DN, Nikon D2x, D200, D2h

Here is the ordering info page. Thanks to Kris Mortensen for her quick reply to my request to feature the LCD Screen Shade on my Blog.

I (think) I now want to turn on comments! A few months ago I was trying to decide if I should do this or not. What changed my mind? Emails from readers suggesting mine is not a Blog if it doesn’t allow comments.

What does ProBlogger say about that? I have tried to turn comments back on. I checked all the right boxes but according to the terrific Blogger Help boards, since I have customized my template, I will need to scrap my changes and start over. Ugh! Could you possibly just continue to email me direclty with your comments? Does this all mean I am not a Pro Blogger? Am I only ***Sniff*** an Amateur?

I am not sure I know the answer to this question anymore: How is professionalism measured in this business?

Have you sold any of your images for one dollar or less? Why did you do it!? To what lengths will you go to be considered a professional? If you even once received income for a photo are you calling yourself a pro? If you only have a photosharing website, have never been hired for an assignment, don’t have an agency or rep, are still paying off your first strobe kit and don’t know how to use a radio slave, why can’t you stomach calling yourself ***GULP*** an Amateur?

What if you had a sale on a microstock site or a relative paid you to take photographs of some event or their business? Does that justify the pro credential? To join some associations, you must state that your primary income is from photography and submit tearsheets. But association enrollments are down. The bar has been lowered so there are more people calling themselves professional photographers than ever before.

I am not all worked up about this. I am, however, shouting out to everyone who truly wants to be considered professional, “Please do not sell–or allow agents, assigns, associates or affiliates to sell on your behalf–any of your images for a dollar.” To lighten up this post, here is an amusing quiz you can take from PhotoPreneur to find out if you have what it takes. Question #13 might be the tipping point. Oh, they give us another moniker to consider: Hobbyist.