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| Starting Your Career as a Freelance Photographer | 
 enlarge | Author: Tad Crawford
Publisher: Allworth Press
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $7.11
You Save: $12.84 (64%)
Buy New/Used from $5.19
Avg. Customer Rating:  (6 reviews)
Sales Rank: 160775
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 6 x 0.7
ISBN: 1581152809
Dewey Decimal Number: 770.232
EAN: 9781581152807
ASIN: 1581152809
Publication Date: August 1, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
This start-up kit offers counsel to budding freelance photographers wanting to earn money with their photography. This book provides the reader with marketing, business, and legal know-how, from first portfolio and first client, to running a profitable, healthy business. In-depth information about favourable locations, the various markets and sub-markets of photography, photographer-client interaction, marketing methods and payment strategies helps the reader to make informed strategic decisions. On the administrative side, this book explains how to keep track of business records, tend to health and safety issues and manage tax and insurance matters effectively. It also gives the answers to such questions as: School or apprenticeship? How much of my earnings can I spend on new equipment? Who can help me with the paperwork? Which market is best for me? This book also contains insights on the role of professional organizations and advisors, sample contracts and release forms. Photographers seeking to make the leap into freelance photography and those who have just started on this road should benefit from the authoritative advice offered by this book.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 Good General Advice June 24, 2008
This is definitely a "starter" book. It has lots of good overall advice and was full of things to keep in mind when starting a business. I really wanted a book that was a little more detailed and had more information (and examples) about sample business plans or marketing strategies. Although I found the information on copyrights and calculated overhead very useful, I didn't find the rest of the book as informative as I hoped.
 A Must Have! October 17, 2007
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is a MUST HAVE for getting you off the ground in your photography career!
Informative. September 18, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I am not a freeelance photographer, but wanted to learn what it takes to be one. I will definately keep my day job!
Starting Out August 18, 2005
30 out of 30 found this review helpful
When I first encountered this book and glanced through its index, after noting that it had been published by the American Society of Media Photographers and Allworth Press, I expected it to be a version of "ASMP Professional Business Practices in Photography"...light. The latter book was designed to help professional photographers with the business aspects of their careers (but I found it omitted reference to many important business questions). I was wrong.
This book purports to be aimed at people who are interested in becoming professional freelance photographers and it starts out simply in the first part with a broad overview, including comparisons of the advantages of attending a photography school and apprenticing to a professional photographer and selecting equipment. It was simple stuff to be sure but I'm told many people entering the career need this type of information.
But when Part II came, there was more meat. It was a first for me to encounter a photography business book that actually talked about where the new professional was going to get his startup cash: family, friends, a working wife, or even (highly unlikely) a bank loan. The short chapter on location and leases even referred to things like zoning and subletting. There was even a section that talked about the collection of sales taxes and resale certificates for tax exemption. The chapter on insurance covered a topic you never hear even experienced photographers talk about although you know they all need it.
Part IV on negotiating contracts and prices even had a pricing model that looked at the costs of creating photographs and suggested that if the photographer could not set his prices high enough to cover his costs (including his own draw) he should not enter the business.
Part V called "Photography and the Law" discussed copyright, privacy and hiring an attorney. It even had a section on income taxes with suggestions on how to keep the books, which combined with an earlier reference to the software Quicken, talked about an issue that the new photographer usually doesn't even think about facing.
You may have noted that I haven't discussed Part III on marketing, which I found the weakest part of the book. It was disjointed and not comprehensive, although most photographers would probably benefit from reading the short but well written chapter called "The Web Site as Marketing Tool." If you want to understand what's involved in marketing I would suggest Scott Bourne's little book "88 Secrets to Selling & Publishing Your Photography."
This is not to suggest that this is the only business text a freelance photographer will ever need. Far from it. With the exception of the chapters on copyright and privacy and releases (which I think covered the fields very well) every one of the issues raised by the book will require more extensive study. But the book will highlight areas of the business of photography of which the beginning freelancer would never think until a major problem exploded in his face. Presumably, that's a good enough reason for him or her to read the book.
Lots of good information but a very dry book. April 20, 2005
7 out of 14 found this review helpful
This book contains a lot of infomation on how to get started on photography from a business perspective- However a lot of the chapters are taken from other books. Also it is very dry reading- kinda like reading a text book, its stuff you should know but you probably take a few naps before you actually finish the book.
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