Self publishing today isn’t what it used to be…… it’s miles better!
What are the marketing benefits of publishing a book? Do I really have to answer that question?!?!?
You might not be hailed as the next Anne Geddes overnight and it’s unlikely that you’ll sell many copies but that’s not what this marketing campaign is really about.
Let’s use a portrait studio as an example.
Every quarter you could have a book published which captures the season.
- “Spring Location Portraits”
- “Winter family portraits”
- “Autumn Wedding”
- “Summer Weddings”
What to do with those books
The easiest thing to do is have them laid out in the reception area of your studio (if you have one).
Someone might come in for a baby portrait in Spring and know someone who is having a Winter Wedding
What’s the worst outcome (other than gathering dust)?
Why not send out free copies of the book to your past clients that have been featured in the book?
Better still, why not offer the book for sale to your clients and give the profits to a local charity. I’m sure people would be more than happy to order a book if they knew that the profits were doing some good. The best part is that they’ll be walking around with your portfolio!
Where to publish your book
We’re seeing more and more publishing companies doing what the likes of Blurb and LuLu do very well, but those two are a good place to start.
Maybe you are the next Anne Geddes and your Blurb book can be used as a proof to send to a publishing house.
This is a technique that many would be published authors use as it’s certainly more cost effective and printing several manuscripts.
This is the sixteenth in our series looking at different marketing campaigns for photographers.
Also in this series:
- Win a Car!
- Gift Vouchers
- The Facebook Group Tag
- #archiveday
- Refer a Friend
- The Exhibition
- The Humble Keyring
- Getting Press
- Baby Passport Pictures
- The Wedding venue blog page
- The Wedding Venue Video
- 45 mins of daily social media marketing
- The Behind the Scenes video
- Get Your Social Media 5 A Day
- Blog Everything–
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Michael has been working as a photographer for the last ten years. In that time he has shot over 100,000 peoples’ portraits and worked in four different continents. In 2001 Michael graduated with a degree in photography from Manchester Metropolitan University.
I haven’t published a book, but I did publish my first eBook to help me promote my Facebook page. It’s doing really well. I can’t wait to write another one.