How to Sell Photos to Calendar Publishers

Calendar publishers are often looking for new images for their annual calendars.

Calendar publishers are always looking for new and interesting pictures to fill their products with. If you are a photographer, professional or amateur, with a hard drive full of breathtaking images you may want to consider contacting one or more calendar publishers to see if they might be interested in purchasing some of your work.

Things You'll Need

• Archive of photos
• computer with Internet connection
• on-line gallery or personal website to display photos on

Instructions

1. Prepare your images for viewing. First and foremost, your pictures need to be pretty good. There are literally millions of images available on the Internet through stock photography sites as well as personal sites. You will better your chances if your pictures are both very strong technically, and if you have images of a unique activity, sport, craft, hobby or perhaps a remote part of the world that is not heavily photographed. A calendar publisher may be interested if you have something special to offer. Complete all basic exposure, contrast and dust removal steps for your images.

2. Upload your images to an on-line gallery. Whether you have a gallery with Flickr or more elaborate personal website, create one gallery on your page where you can direct the calendar publisher to. You want to make it as easy as possible for the publisher to view your images. Re-directing them to multiple galleries on your site will be a waste of their time, and will likely cause them to leave before looking at all your images. If they like what they see, they will either look around your site, or contact you and ask you to send additional images.

3. Email or call the calendar publishers. Digital images and on-line galleries are two very significant advancements for photographers, and being able to get their work in-front of buyers. While ultimately the strength of your work will be the determining factor in whether they buy your pictures or not, be sure to include a little bit of information about yourself in your email. If a buyer can make a personal connection with you, or something in your background, it may cause them to remember you for future projects. To contact publishers, first complete an Internet search for calendar publishers. From the results prepare a contact list, make sure you email each one individually. It will take a little longer, however it is a better step to building a relationship than a bulk email, which may get re-routed by SPAM software.

4. Follow up on your initial email. A polite follow-up email, two to three weeks after your initial email is also a good idea. Keep it short, simple and professional. It will demonstrate to the publisher that you are committed to your work.

References

• Photographers Resource: Selling Pictures to Calendar Publishers
• Writer to Writer: Selling to Greeting Card and Calendar companies
• Photo Net: Marketing Travel Photography, Four Essential Steps

Resources

• Sederquist: Publishing Your Photos