It’s no good shooting a straightforward record of the subject. There needs to be some kind of emotional component arising from the way the picture is taken. The flowers need to be carefully arranged, beautifully composed, atmospherically lit and skilfully photographed to stand any chance of success. That doesn’t necessarily mean fancy studio lighting, but it does mean you can’t just knock the images out quickly. You need to spend time getting things right.
FLOWER POWER
Pictures of this kind can be used to illustrate cards for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day or birthdays.
Before having a go yourself, look at what is already available. You’ll find that there is a lot of fine stuff out there, so think carefully about how you can match the quality and, ideally, come up with something equally good, but different.
The worst thing you can do is to shoot pictures that you think would look good on greetings cards and then submit them to publishers. There is no surer way of getting rejected. Companies already in the market know their business. They know exactly what sells and what doesn’t, and they choose their subject material accordingly. It’s not enough for an image to be attractive; it must work as a birthday, Easter, Father’s Day or general-purpose card.
Keep abreast of what is being published, because the range of subjects and treatments continually changes. Right now, quirky, arty images are popular. These are sometimes just stylish, creative treatments of everyday scenes and situations – often in black and white. You will also see atmospheric landscapes, humorous shots of children, and ‘male’ subjects, such as cars and still lifes featuring sports equipment, wine and the like.
MONO FINE ART
There’s currently a trend towards ‘fine art’ monochrome images.
Considering how demanding they are in terms of quality and content, greetings card publishers don’t pay especially well. Fees can be as low as £75 ($130) and are rarely higher than £200 ($350). A small minority of companies operate on a royalty basis. This can give a regular, though usually modest, income into the future.
Given that most companies typically add just a small number of new photographic cards to their range each year – and occasionally bring out a complete new series – this is not a sector to focus on if you want to get rich quickly. Even if you have some really good material, you are unlikely to make more than a handful of sales each year.
Of course, every sale is welcome, but the return on time and effort is generally not as good as in other markets. That said, the payment is normally for non-exclusive, non-competitive rights. That means that you’re free to sell the same picture elsewhere, though not for use on a greetings card during the period for which the agreement is in force. Sometimes this will be limited to a period of time – three years is common – and sometimes will be ‘for all time’.
If you have an appealing feline image, for example, that you manage to sell to a greetings card company, you could, therefore, submit it directly to the publisher of a magazine for cat owners or place it with a picture library. But take care: if you do also market your pictures through libraries, it is essential that you let them know when you have already sold a shot for greetings card use. This is because most publishers of cards also source their material from libraries – and you could easily end up with a black mark against your name if the same image were to be published by two rival companies.
For many years, greetings card manu-facturers were among the most demanding when it came to quality. Quite why that might be, when a card typically measures just 13 x 18cm (5 x 7in), I’ve never really understood. At one time, many publishers insisted upon roll-film 6 x 7cm or even large-format 5 x 4in transparencies, and wouldn’t give 35mm originals a second glance. Happily, some of the companies who have entered the market recently are more relaxed about formats, and will consider all sizes of slides, including 35mm, and high-resolution digital files (normally 20MB+). Even so, pictures have to be of fine quality to succeed.
Most greetings card publishers are happy to receive submissions at any time, with no ‘closed’ season when they won’t consider new material.
THE RIGHT LIGHT
Classic country scenes captured when the light is right will always be welcome in the calendar and poster market.
CALENDARS & POSTERS
Many people buy a calendar each year: it’s useful to have one in the workplace or around the home so you can check dates and record commitments. Some calendars are simple affairs that just have numbers on them. But most also have pictures to brighten up the room – one for every month of the year. You need only to go into any gift shop or stationery store from August onwards to know that calendars are big business, with millions sold each year. You will see hundreds of different designs featuring every subject under the sun: cats, film stars, country cottages, tranquil scenes, wildfire, artistic black and white... Could you supply some of those images? If you are a competent photographer, almost certainly. Every year, the publishers need a complete new set of pictures, and most are happy to consider submissions from potential new contributors.
The calendar market is an extremely competitive field – and one where quality counts. Because the pictures are printed relatively large, and will be viewed for an extended period, they need to be technically perfect and have really strong impact. In the days of film, 35mm was rarely countenanced, and only medium-format and sheet film were acceptable. These days, most publishers demand high quality digital images, and will reject anything that falls short of their requirements.
Don’t bother submitting material if it is not up to the standard you see already being used. Picture buyers only have to find 12 images for each calendar and are heavily over-subscribed in most subject areas, with many thousands of pictures to choose from.
As with most areas of publishing, there is a cycle in calendar production that you need to fit in with if you are to have any chance of making a sale. This varies from one company to another, but most seem to focus on picture selection in the first few months of the year. That is generally the best time to make a submission. If you are in doubt, email the company or make a brief phone call to check for the optimum time. Don’t ask whether they are interested in seeing images from potential new contributors. The answer will always be yes – they don’t want to miss out on the possibility of losing a talented photographer to the opposition just to save a couple of minutes looking at their pictures.
QUALITY COUNTS
Quality is paramount when it comes to posters, in particular, as they’ll be displayed for long periods of time.
The general market for calendars is dominated by a handful of companies, and you’ll find these listed in the various handbooks. There are also a number of smaller