In a previous issue of Photo Pro, Chris Dickie looked at ways that photographers can get involved in self-publishing their work. Now for the crucial question: can you make it pay?

Words: Chris Dickie

In the previous issue of Photo Pro I described how digital technology has made self-publishing a short-run photo book possible and affordable, and described the key practical stages of getting your work into print. In this follow-up feature we will look at the publishing process itself and whether there is any money to be made. But before we move on to self-publishing, remember that now you can produce a single copy of a book for just a few pounds there is no better way to package your work for presentation to a would-be commercial publisher: it’s so much more effective than a pile of prints and a written proposal on one side of A4. So let’s start with the way the money works if someone else publishes your book.

Today in the UK is "Sport Relief" day, a country-wide event that sees hundreds of businesses and countless people get involved in something active to raise money for charity – or, if you've got your business head on, an event that needs documenting by photographers like you. If you've got a photography business, shooting at charity events could be a way to promote yourself and also do a good deed at the same time. Don't think of it as mercenary – it's two birds, one stone!

IDEAS:

Garage Studios down in Brighton have taken some portraits for a local business's Sport Relief newsletter...

Not Sport Relief, but Haiti - London-based social photographer Emily Quinton threw a free portrait session for couples on Valentine's Day this year. We wrote about her in the April issue of Photo Pro magazine, but you can read all about it on her blog

Help-Portrait, an organisation of photographers offering their time and images to less fortunate people