Books and Articles Read
Selling Art Without Galleries, Daniel Grant
Pricing Photography: The Complete Guide to Assignment and Stock Prices, Michael Heron and David MacTavish
"Selling Photography Prints", Dan Heller
"How to Set Your Prices as a Professional Photographer", Bryan Caporicci
"How to Price Your Photography - Q&A with Alicia Caine", MCP Actions (Live Chat)
Pricing Photography: The Complete Guide to Assignment and Stock Prices, Michael Heron and David MacTavish
"Selling Photography Prints", Dan Heller
"How to Set Your Prices as a Professional Photographer", Bryan Caporicci
"How to Price Your Photography - Q&A with Alicia Caine", MCP Actions (Live Chat)
Notes
- Make sure not to just pull prices “out of the air”; they will be hard to replicate, and lead to inconsistent pricing in your work.
- Make sure your prices are realistic, profitable, and appropriate.
- Your prices should give you a way to measure and establish pricing for similar products at a later date.
- Always have logic behind pricing.
- The factors that influence your pricing are
- Quality
- Perceived value of work
- Confidence as a photographer
- Competitors’ prices
- Cost of goods
- You should also make sure that the market you are selling supports your prices; pricing can vary between areas, states, and countries.
- Make sure your cost-of-goods price includes everything; price of the print, time you put into photographing, time you put into editing, any frames or shipping charges, inspection of prints, etc.
- A home-based photography studio should typically mark up their prices operating on a 35% cost-of-goods model (cost-of-goods should be 35% of total revenue, and the remaining 65% is assumed to be consumed by fixed costs and profit). This means that you should multiply your cost-of-goods by 2.85 to cover the actual cost of creating the work (materials + labor), and then to leave room for overhead expenses and profit.
- For most pieces, the model to follow for determining a price is
- Calculate per-minute wage, which is annual salary divided by 50 working weeks divided by 40 hours per week divided by 60 minutes per hour.
- Determine labor costs – this includes the time that went into photographing/editing—and multiply by per-minute wage found above.
- Determine material costs – this includes printing, shipping, framing, packaging, etc.
- Add labor costs and material costs.
- Multiply total costs by markup of 2.85.
- Evaluate your price and adjust as necessary due to any of the three variable factors listed above (perceived value of work, confidence as a photographer, and competitors’ prices).
- Lower prices do not always bring in sales.
- Determine what is more feasible; selling more prints at a lower price per print, or less prints at a higher price per print.
- Another set of guidelines for determining prices is as follows
- Understand your work
- Identify your target audience/buyer
- Determine where they buy
- Establish their decision-making process
- Price accordingly
- There are typically three categories of art buyers: collectors, aficionados, and consumers. Another type that can be a part of any category is the spontaneous buyer.
- Determine which type of buyer is right for you.
- Determine your sale venue; this can vary from public spaces to corporate offices, art fairs, cafes, and pop up shows.
- Try to offer customers a variety to hit every price point; framed prints, unframed prints, postcards, large scale prints, small scale prints.
- Determine what the best way to present your work is.
- Buyers are usually wary of the “cheapest” item in a group of comparable items (this goes for any type of product, not just art work).
- The unsophisticated art customer is unlikely to spend over $50.00 for a photographic print.
- Art collectors are typically insistent on the artist’s signature and print number on each work; most other people prefer prints unsigned and unnumbered.
- Typically, the only reason to number prints is to indicate that you will only make a certain number of prints in that particular size. The reason to limit the number of prints is to enhance the value for art collectors.
- Try to make your frame and matting choices somewhat consistent throughout your work; if someone buys multiple prints from you and wants to display them together, this will ensure that the group looks balanced and put together. It also allows the photos to be used in any room, as opposed to ornate or specific mats/frames that may only work with the color of one or two rooms.
- It is sometimes more beneficial to print and frame upon request, instead of having an inventory of prints in sizes that people may or may not buy.
- Shipping tubes are typically the best way to ship prints.
- Find your audience - not all art appeals to everyone.
- Personality is sometimes what sells the work; interact with potential buyers whenever possible.