There's no question, if you're thinking of selling your photographs, this book is a great place to start. I think that the staff of Writer's Digest books does an excellent job of keeping this book up to date and expanding it each year. I've had a copy of this book in my office for more than 25 years and I can't imagine trying to sell photos or make new contacts without it. It's a great reference book for immediate research and also a great book to sit and browse through when you're procrastinating from doing real work too (which is also when I write Amazon reviews...which is why I've been writing so many lately!).

I bought my first copy of this book when I first started selling photographs (come to think of it, it might have been more than 25 years ago...hard to believe!) and I saw a listing for a company that sold limited edition plates and bought photos to use as references for the artists who created those plates. I contacted the company and sold them one photograph for $3,000. I think I paid $20 for the book back then--so that was some incredible return on my investment.

The sheer number of magazines, book publishers, ad agencies, paper product publishers, etc., that you'll find in this book simply can't be found elsewhere. And to get all of this research for such a small price is an amazing bargain. You could spend all weekend at the bookstore & newsstand scribbling down the names of editors and publishers (which is not a bad idea, I do it all the time), or you could spend the time studying the thousands of markets listed here and writing query letters. Yes, it's still worth studying at the store--you get to see actual copies of the books and magazines--but this book will save you literally years of tough research.

As a photographer and writer and the author of numerous how-to books (including my most recent book, The Joy of Digital Photography), I've earned my living from selling photos for many years now, as I said. But I don't think I would have made half the contacts I made if it hadn't been for this handy reference--which has improved greatly in recent years. When you combine the info in this book with the ability to do up-to-date follow-up searches on the web, it really is a mighty source of information.

I will provide one warning though, and that's about stock agencies. There's a lot of talk (most of it hype) these days about selling your photos through stock agencies (and many of them are listed in this book), but the whole agency thing really biased toward making the agencies a lot of money at the expense of photographers. You don't need a stock agency. What you need are contacts with the people who buy photography. Why give away half or more of your profits to an agency that will force you into competing with the other photographers in their files? You CAN sell your photos directly and you should. Sure, you might miss that big Miller beer ad account (you might as well just buy a lottery ticket if that is your goal anyway), but what you will create by marketing your photos on your own is a network of ready buyers looking to buy good photos without a big name. You do NOT have to be famous to sell quality photographs--you just need the photographs. In 25 years of selling photos, no one has ever asked if I was famous or not.

You won't earn a living selling photographs just by reading this book (at least I don't think you will--but you might, who knows), but this book WILL put you on the right road. If you know someone who is just starting to sell their pictures or is thinking of photography as a career, this book would make an excellent gift that they will never stop thanking you for. And if you're thinking of doing this yourself as a part or full-time business, this is the first investment you should make. You should also look up the books of Dan Heller who has written several must-have books on the business of running a photo business.

Don't sell yourself short--regardless of what the nay-sayers around you say, you can get your photos published. If your sales samples are professional-looking and well prepared and if your markets are well researched, you will be treated with respect by buyers.

Jeff Wignall
Author, The Joy of Digital Photography (Lark Books)
jeffwignall.com