seascape/landscape photographs

[steve yates]

Is there a market for them as an ebook?

As I am a professional photographer, I am trying to work out a long term project through a dedicated website selling ebooks and would like to hear your input.

This is a book I did, for me, with a view to eventually marketing it; (I know I would have to edit it tighter, some pics are in it purely for me)

https://issuu.com/derwentphotography/docs/fromthesea

It is on this platform just so I can share it with you guys by the way.


My copy is a hardback a4 book, on a beautiful uncoated paper, but it just is not possible to resell at any sensible price point. My cost price for a one off was £80. Of course there are volume discounts, but it's too much of an investment with too little return to bother with.

So my thought was ebooks. A one off cost to produce/format and then unlimited downloads at no or very low cost.

I will have a personal website, which will sell prints etc, and that side of it I have a pretty good handle on. The ebook thing I don't.

Few things strike me, kindle is the massive market, but kindles are bw and not designed for showing off photography, does anyone buy kindle books of photographic collections? Tablets show the images beautifully, but then we are looking at direct sales/downloads from my website, which is never going to match the likes of amazons kindle store for global exposure. I have some ideas on how I can sell via target social media ads etc, but really, kindle is where I would like to place them.

I'm also aware that this sort of stuff is a very limited market, but I actually shoot a lot of fine art nude in landscape, and that I am sure will have a much much bigger potential audience I reckoned though that if I can experiment with sailing pics first, and manage to shift anything there, the nudes will be a doddle in comparison.

So if you would, can you let me know...

a) assuming it is in an easily viewed format; is a book like this sellable in digital format to you?
b) what sort of price point would tempt you
c) at what pricepoint would you say, nope, too much.
d) is there too many images?
e) if there were only say 20-30 images, what sort of price-point would you think suitable.
f) do you read ebooks on a tablet or a kindle?

Thanks.

 

[pvb]

Stunning photos, Steve! But sadly I think t'interweb is groaning under the weight of countless thousands of similarly stunning photos, all available free. Don't think I'd be in the market for a book.

 

[VicS]

No interest there for me.

Lumps of rock and patches of sea all much the same !


Try a greater proportion of pictures with an interesting subject. People, boats, wild life, places and collections of 12 might make a saleable calendar. Our (now retired) local sub post master made quite a business producing a local calendar for several years. Did the whole thing from taking the photos to printing and binding the results himself.......... mind you he did have the shop to sell it from too and was careful not to have any unsold ones left on his hands.

 

[Giblets]

Steve, might be worth asking a similar type of question on Talk Photography. https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/
They seem to be a pretty knowledgeable bunch over there although some are a little over opinionated IMHO.

 

[Yngmar]

We've got many of our cruising photos listed on EyeEm and Getty images. Haven't sold a single one yet. Don't think there's money in this unless perhaps you are a genius at marketing it somehow.

You can look at them: Hers and mine.

Buying a book full of them? Eh no, we've got plenty of our own

 

[FairweatherDave]

Really nice photos Steve, I hope plenty of people see them.
From your perspective however I'm not the type who would actually buy any photo or book of photos. Funnily enough I was listening to something on the radio about the fact people no longer buy albums (pop music) but pay for access to listen eg Spotify
I enjoy grazing and looking at photos but would not ever purchase. The only time is if I am in a gallery of some sort where you can get the full impact.........plus I'd have to be in the mood to justify a purchase. Pretty unlikely
But great photos.
BTW I have the book The Magic of Skye by WA Poucher, inherited from my Dad. Your piks reminded me a bit of that. Hope I get up there one day.

 

[steve yates]

Thanks folks, and for the pm's. pretty much as I thought, that the market, (if any) for something like this would be photographers , not sailors, generally. And even then?

I have bookshelves groaning under books of photography (not ON photography), and I love them, and look at them often. But I have no digital purchases of that sort, even though almost all my reading is now done via kindle.

Yngmar, fwiw, I ave a friend who does well from stock, but it's only through commitment and focus on specific markets. Just uploading your regular snaps to an angency will never work; he storyboards all his shoots, flies to the southern states 3 times a year to get good light, hires models and then shoots through his ideas. His composition is scrupulously bright clear and clean, nothing in the image that is not relevant. He is shooting specifically for that, and as a result, is getting a regular income, but it takes specialised attention.

Vic, thanks, I've done a calendar before for ms, of nudes and it sold out £16,000's worth in 3 weeks, so I know it can work... but I am looking for a future dripfeed income, that comes in more or less unattended. I have a studio in keswick, which I have run as a gallery, but I am looking for an entirely new approach, which that rules out premises/packing/postage etc, hence looking at platforms with some kind of automated digital delivery.

 

[Quandary]

Pity that some people just see them as 'lumps of rock' even on a screen there is a quality there, particularly the atmosphere and the capture of real weather. It is art, how do you market it, kindle? other digital imaging, I can not see how the value would transfer. I am a philistine but there are images there that resonate with me and I would frame and put on the wall to reflect and transmit an image I have of myself. But that is the obvious way to sell them and I presume you already market them that way from your gallery?
You are seeking a way to automate the sale and create a steady income stream, I am a media dinosaur so can not help you with that but I am certain a lot of the craft and book shops out here could move prints, framed and ready to take back home, not Tob. or Duart Castle but the cloud gathering in front of Suilven or wherever, you would be competing with painters most of whom can't paint.

 

[dragonvc]

Great pictures I would be interested buying off an internet platform,nice reminders of west coast cruise 2016,good use of cloud reflections etc which are so ephemeral and just part of the moment.

 

[BrianH]

I have a studio in keswick, which I have run as a gallery, but I am looking for an entirely new approach, which that rules out premises/packing/postage etc, hence looking at platforms with some kind of automated digital delivery.

I got to know Bill Shaw when I lived in (and sailed out of) Whitby through the 1960/70s and he made a great success of his shop/studio there. He had bought the entire works of the Victorian photographer Frank Meadow Sutcliffe who had worked in the area, even calling the shop The Sutcliffe Gallery.

He expanded into on-line sales and made a success of it, which his son, Mike, continues to this day - see here. The harbour photographs are wonderful historical records of the craft from that epoch, especially of the Yorkshire Coble that has evolved into the engined version of today.

.

 

[oldharry]

I got to know Bill Shaw when I lived in (and sailed out of) Whitby through the 1960/70s and he made a great success of his shop/studio there. He had bought the entire works of the Victorian photographer Frank Meadow Sutcliffe who had worked in the area, even calling the shop The Sutcliffe Gallery.

He expanded into on-line sales and made a success of it, which his son, Mike, continues to this day - see here. The harbour photographs are wonderful historical records of the craft from that epoch, especially of the Yorkshire Coble that has evolved into the engined version of today.

.

I think Barnacle hits the nail on the head. Because nearly everyone nowadays carries a camera in their mobiles, we are sated with pics, and unless there is something uunusual or special, we don't want any more. Bill Shaw and many like him lived at a time when mass picture taking was in its infancy. Your pics are good, but the subject has insufficient interest for people to fork out their cash. I already have 800+ pics of my trip to Scotland, and although perhaps 1 or 2 are approaching your standard, they all have memories attached, so to me are special.

Bill Shaw was fortunate to acquire a set of unique historic interest photos and to build on that. You need something specific in your art to make it stand out in an already swamped market, to make it viable. IMO anyway.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

I'd echo those who say that images alone won't sell these days, and certainly not at the art print prices you mention. However, I did say "alone". I'd be interested if there was a story associated with each photo; the bare-bones captions don't come close to providing enough interest, and yet each photo has lots in it that would benefit from expansion. For example, there's lots of history and geology associated with the Cuillins, and most of Scotland has stories of one kind or another. What about the back-story of the wonderful yachts you show in some images? A few facts and figures about the wild-life? Stories of Selkies come to mind!

We used an art printing house to produce our maps (they happened to be one of the few places with a big enough press!), so I do know that the costs you mention are realistic. But the other approach you could take is to accept that the photos ALONE won't sell, and to use a cheaper reproduction with more text.

PS, the Kindle format can be in colour, and the Android based Kindles (Kindle Fire etc.) and the Kindle app on Tablets can all display colour. Of course the e-Ink based Kindles don't display colour.

 

[Seajet]

AntarcticPilot,

I think you have a good idea there.

As Steve must know, the pro photo galleries which pay photographers a little if their pics are used, won't accept landscapes or sunsets...

 

[ShinyShoe]

Nice pictures.

But you'd need to do something more special to get me to part with my cash...

I'd echo those who say that images alone won't sell these days, and certainly not at the art print prices you mention.

Although he didn't mention a price did he? He mentioned the price of a print copy.

BUT here is my thoughts:

- People don't like to pay for digital. It just feels "wrong" in their minds. People pay for things they can hold (books, DVDs etc), they pay for services (NetFlix etc). But the "download it" world is not so great. I may be wrong - but i suspect most Kindle readers are using a subscription service. If they aren't they are using it more like a library anyway. Do people buy digital books to keep? Or to read on the beach / train etc. Move on to the next. It is the portability that is good not the technology.

However, I did say "alone". I'd be interested if there was a story associated with each photo; the bare-bones captions don't come close to providing enough interest, and yet each photo has lots in it that would benefit from expansion. For example, there's lots of history and geology associated with the Cuillins, and most of Scotland has stories of one kind or another. What about the back-story of the wonderful yachts you show in some images? A few facts and figures about the wild-life? Stories of Selkies come to mind!

Yes that was my immediate thoughts. Its pictures. I flicked through in about 5 minutes. Nice enough but I can pay £7.80 to watch a 2 hour movie at the Cinema, even with popcorn and drinks etc - £15 / 2hrs entertainment gets me to 12.5p a minute, so you are well under £1 for some photos to flick through. Its not beach holiday stuff. Its not commuter stuff.

My personal like is maps. So add a map / chart. Add some text. Provide context. Add an old and new photo of the same place. Old chart, new chart. Then keep it local. So there is a collection. FInd local retailers (book shop, tourist shops etc) who will take the local version... but I'm still thinking print. Provide means that if I see the most amazing picture in a book I can get it as a 52" print for the living room wall...

You could do similar with Calendars. 12 pictures of Skye. 12 pictures of East Coast Sailing. But next year you need a different 12 to sell to the same audience...

I'm not familiar with the market for the other genre... but assuming we are in the "art" rather than anything else world - again is that something people want digitally? Even in 'art' it isn't what you would be studying on the 7:15 Peterbrough to Kings Cross is it? But perhaps there is less of a story? But even then I'd imagine more words than the demo. Who is the model? Where? For the Photo Freaks - how was it taken Camera, Lens, Lighting etc...

Actually... do you know what I would part with cash for... possibly digitally...

A book with say 10 local pictures. With the EXACT location they were taken, Grid Ref/Lat Long. Shown on a map / chart let. Show direction taken. The exact details of how. The camera, the lens, the lighting. The how long you sat waiting to get the perfect shot. The composition. The original "rough" picture. What post processing was done, showing how (not every step in photoshop as in click X, click Y, but horizon straightened by 3%, lighten X, sharpen Y. Ideally with a thumbnail of each step.

Make the 10 the same genre (coastal sea) but different - a lighthouse, a modern racing yacht, a classic, industrial, harbour, cliffs, wildlife - bird, wild life - sea, beach / people, landscape.

How much would I pay... ...tight Scotsman here! £1.49 per scene... so £14.99?

Presumably a market in your other Genre too...