For most photographers, seeing their photo on the cover of a book should be a highlight of their career. Its the cover that does the selling so when a publisher decides that their image is powerful enough to attract attention and pull in buyers, its a sure sign that theyve take a great photo. Theyll be able to see their picture on the shelf every time they walk into a bookstore, enjoy the feeling that customers are placing it on their own bookshelves and the remuneration should be nice too. It doesnt always work out that way though. Now that images are available on microstock sites, photos are appearing on book covers without photographers being aware of the sale, without being credited for the picture and without receiving pay that would even cover the price of a latte in Starbucks.

Weldon Owens Snapshot Picture Library series, for example, are 64-page childrens books made up of around 70 pictures and 800 words of descriptive text. Altogether, the series covers 26 topics including tractors, trucks, birds and puppies. The photo credits on the back cover of the Sea Creatures title list are typical; they describe the sources as Dreamstime, iStockPhoto and Shutterstock.

The Price Was Pathetic.

The books lead image, showing a sea turtle, came from Shutterstock and was taken by Rich Carey, an underwater photographer based in Dahab, Egypt. Rich had no idea that the photo was being used as a book cover until we contacted him. He took the picture last October and since then, its been downloaded fourteen times, all of them as part of a clients subscription package. His total remuneration for the image, the amount he earned for all of those fourteen sales, was $3.82.

Irealise this is a bit pathetic compared with what I would have received if the image had been bought through a traditional stock agency, Rich commented, butif it had been offered only [on], say, Alamy or Getty, it would probably never have been found and bought.

Rich isnt wrong about the fees being a bit pathetic. FotoLibra, a picture library, charges $314 to use this image of a turtle on a North American book cover. PhotoShelter, which uses fotoQuote software to estimate standard market prices, demands $840 for this turtle to appear on a book with a print run of up to 10,000 copies.

But Rich also isnt wrong about the chances of selling the image through a traditional stock company. He does have pictures on Alamy, and a search for turtle will produce one of his photos. A buyer who sets the results page to show 120 pictures can find it on page 22, by which time he will have seen 2,520 other pictures of flippers and shells. Its no surprise then that while Shutterstock has given Rich a total of 5,800 downloads since he joined last August, and an income of a few hundred dollars every month on top of the fees he usually charges for commissions, teaching and guiding, Alamy has given him just one sale.

It would be great if I could sell on traditional stock agencies and get a good payout and credit every time one of my photos was used on a book cover, says Rich. Unfortunately, it is near impossible for a beginner photographer to first get represented by one of those agencies, and second to have their images shown someplace where buyers will actually get to find them, so in that situation I turned to microstock.

Microstock Creates New Markets

You could argue then that microstock is doing exactly what its supposed to be doing: enabling new photographers to get their foot in the door and begin earning from their images, even if the amounts they receive for each sale are small. You could even say that microstocks low prices are creating entirely new markets for those images. According to fotoQuote, a full page image used in a book with a print run of up to 10,000 copies costs $420. With 67 such images and three cover photos, Weldon Owen could have found itself spending up to $30,000 on photos for each of the titles in its Snapshot Picture Library series. Although its likely that the company would have been able to negotiate lower fees, its certainly possible that those expenses would have made the series unviable. The publisher wouldnt reveal sales figures, but the books arent bestsellers.

That isnt true though of C.J. Sansoms Dissolution, the first in a series of historical thrillers featuring medieval lawyer Matthew Shardlake. The books have been commissioned by the BBC and will star Kenneth Branagh. One version of the cover however uses an image of an old book shot by Vladimir Stretonovic, and was bought from Shutterstock. Other books in the series use similar pictures even though, with a high-selling title, publishers Macmillan would have been able to choose from a broader range of suppliers.

For publishers then, microstock sites are providing a chance to create book series with low print runs and, when suitable, low-cost covers even for successful titles. But microstock isnt replacing traditional image sourcing entirely. Not all covers are sourced from microstock sites and even Weldon Owen is now developing a new photo-based series that will license images directly from photographers. Executive Editor Elizabeth Dougherty says that she is looking for photographers with collections in areas ranging from celebrity bridal gowns to bicycles to sunsets. To apply, photographers can send a letter of introduction and a link to site that displays their work to elizabethd@weldonowen.com. And the fees for non-exclusive worldwide rights?

are fair, she told us, but on the lower side for promotional books. We try to make up for that by buying in bulk and establishing ongoing relationships with photographers and as important being nice and fun to work with.

With the right pictures, you might even find yourself with the cover.

Photography: olivetti

Nature has to be among the most popular of subjects for photography enthusiasts. Unlike a model, a tree on a hill doesnt complain about the cold, a sunset will arrive exactly when you expect it to and you often need to do little more than point and shoot to capture all the beauty you can see. You dont even have to go looking for it. A photogenic scene can strike you on the way home on the daily commute or during a stroll on a Sunday afternoon. Thats why the keenest photographers carry a camera with them wherever they go. It takes something special to create pictures as exceptional as Ansel Adamss but a personal gallery of breathtaking nature photographs is something available to any photography enthusiast even as theyre still learning the ropes. The troubles begin when you want to sell them.

Because nature is such a popular topic and one relatively easy to do reasonably well, the supply of images is always huge while the demand is always minimal. Microstock companies, for example, consistently state that the subjects most required by buyers are business images. A search for nature on iStockPhoto however, turns up over 870,000 results; a search for business produces fewer than 330,000 photos.

But that doesnt mean theres no demand at all. Photographs that offer something unique will always find it easier to attract buyers. Even posting an exceptional image on Flickr can attract the attention of photo editors as Steve Jurvetson famously discovered when he uploaded a picture of an eagle chomping on a mouses head. The photo was printed in Maxim.

Caf Owners Love Art

A more reliable sales channel for nature photographers is the art marketwhich also happens to be one of the toughest markets to crack. Gallery owners who rely on regular sales to pay the bills will be particularly choosy but there are other ways in. Cafes and restaurants are increasingly willing to display photos on their walls, are frequently undersubscribed and often pass the entire sales price to the photographer without taking a commission. Gallery owners will take half. One owner of a caf franchise which was displaying images of underwater photography told us that his business provides wall space because we love art. Requests come from the photographers themselvesthe caf doesnt seek exhibitorsbut they only come occasionally and usually from young photographers. Although not as prestigious as a gallery opening, the exhibitions are usually interesting enough to pick up some local media attentionand sales with no expenses other than the cost of printing and framing.

Art fairs are another good outlet, attended by buyers on the lookout for attractive images to hang on their walls. Places are usually limited and expenses can be high though. Youll need an exhibition tent to display your photos and a broad enough selection in a range of different prices to suit customers with different budgets. Results vary but its not unusual to walk away with four-figure profits and, if the fair is juried and your images good enough, a line on your resume interesting enough to attract the attention of a gallery owner in the future. Many gallery owners consider exhibiting at a juried art fair a sign that the photographer is ready for a more formal exhibition space.

Pick a Natural Niche

One way to generate lots of sales at an art fair is to make sure that your images match the theme of the fair. The Napa Wine and Crafts Fair, for example, is mainly attended by locals, and uses the local wine industry as its theme. According to Craig Smith, a spokesman for the event, all things wine and wine-related do well. Artists who exhibit at the juried show make an average of $1,500 to $2,000 in sales, he says.

That niching works well outside exhibition spaces too, whether those spaces are in cafes or at fairs. One of the most satisfying sales outlets for nature photographers is books but these tend to sell best when youre pitching not just the quality of the photographers but the subjects they portray. John Fielder self-published a calendar showing Colorado landscapes in 1981, a venture that led him to create his own small publishing company. Altogether, he produced 39 books in 28 years, all but six them about his state. He also focused on environmental themes, relying on the publicity he would receive from conservation groups to help him promote the books. With environmentalism now a fashionable topic, it shouldnt be too hard for a nature photographer to pick a theme that supports a position and wins press coverage.

Other photographers find that focusing on one animalsuch as horsesthat they know best allows them to specialize in a particular way of shooting, become known within their market, build up the connections that enable them to find subjects and win commissions and indulge their love of photography with their passion for their subject.

Taking portraits for stable owners might not be quite as romantic as standing in a meadow shooting wild stallions, but in practice, equine photographers may well find themselves doing both. As Rachel Waller, a professional equine photographer, told us:

I have been knee deep in mud, asleep with hay in my hair, made peace and now embrace the dust, been smack dab in the middle of wild stallions fighting on the range, and stood in a field with a herd passing me at a thunderous speed (I can still feel the wind in my hair from that one!), up all night waiting on a foal birth to photograph and if I didnt love horses, I wouldnt have experienced any of that or captured some of the most amazing moments in my life.

For nature photographers, those amazing moments are always the best reason to pull out their cameras. If its hard to make a living out of photographer with even popular subjects such as weddings and portraits, its a real struggle to turn a love of the wild into work that can pay the mortgage. If youre looking to supplement your income by doing something you love though, then what you see can bring you a little extra cash.

Photography is indeed a hard money-making profession. With the horizons of Internet now open to selling your best photographs to online buyers, it has given tremendous boost to young photographers to take the lead and use Internet as a potential money-making platform. However, considering the competition, there is no space for an amateur photographer to thrive in this online photography selling business. So, if you are confident on your proficient photography skills, here is a lowdown on the sites where you can sell your photographs.

First and foremost, look for stock photography sites. These are popular sites who invite young talents to stock their best art pieces and photographs with them. Now these photographs are viewed by potential visitors belonging to varied walks of life like, web designing, interior designing, editing, advertising et al. If they are impressed by the photograph, they download it for free. The main advantage of these sites that entice a lot of art lovers is the free download option which enables them to search and save the best piece of art for them. However, the site seeks around 50 %-70% of commission as compensation against every download.

Some of the most visited stock photography sites include, iStockphoto, Stockexpert, Fotolia, Crestock and Dreamstime. iStockphoto is one of the most popular pick by many photographers owing to its great reputation ever since its existence in 2001. It boasts a higher traffic due a vast stock of fascinating photographs and pictures of experienced photographers. This means that stocking your photograph on this site would ensure it being exposed and viewed by a wide belt of targeted audience like web designers, advertisers etc.

Stockexpert is yet another sought-after site visited for its reputable stock of photographs. The site is popular owing to its considerably low-priced photographs open for sale for both the stockexchange team as well as the wide-spread online consumers. The rest of the sites have the same underlining function, however, their terms and modes of payment to the artists may vary. All these sites just offer you a free sign-up form to access its membership and apart from free downloading options, some facilitate the option of reviewing photographs by online visitors.

Other than the above mentioned sites, there are some other sites that offer entertaining modes to market your photographs. Sites like Cafepess, Phototrade give you the opportunity of embedding your pictures on mugs, T-shirts and other accessible items to sell your photographs in unique and attractive modes. You may also come across sites that seek membership payment from you and in return access viable marketing tools to attract hits from targeted visitors across the globe. Shutterpoint is one such paid site that demands a requisite member fees ranging $19 to $49, depending on the kind of membership availed.

However, one most imperative point to remember before you take this plunge is that stock photography would not lead to instant success. Also, you have to match the level of art theses sites have maintained so as to seek their membership. Your art has to be indisputable, there is no room for casual family clicked photographs in this arena.