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So you want to write? - part 3 of 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Published 01/11/2007

I have learned that it is far easier to write a speech about good advertising than it is to write a good ad'

Learning Opportunities

We spoke to the Bureau of Freelance Photographers, who obviously have expertise in the area covered by this feature. Here is an excerpt from their correspondence course material. See also www.thebfp.com

"Lesson Eleven - The Illustrated Article It is a proven fact that you will increase your picture sales if your photographs are used to illustrate written articles. Indeed, we know one writer/photographer who had an article titled "How to Sell Bad Pictures" published in a photo magazine. The article dealt with the sort of pictures that would never have sold in their own right but, because they were used as illustrations to various articles, have sold as part of several packages, mostly as features to women's magazines. So even those 'bad' pictures made two different sets of sales for the writer!

The first reaction of many photographers faced with the prospect of writing an article is one of dismay: "I'm a photographer; not a writer. I wouldn't know where to start."

If that's the way you feel now, then we are here to tell you that you don't have to go on feeling that way. But it's probably better to feel that way at the start than to fall into the trap of thinking that, because you can write a simple letter to a relative, you can write an article for a magazine. Article writing is an art. It isn't as easy as it might at first seem. Because of that, there is undoubtedly a lack of good writer/photographers around.

Any editor will tell you that they can lay their hands on a dozen writers who can't take pictures and an equal number of photographers who can't write. The man or woman who can do both - and do it well - is a rarity. That's why it is in your interest to become one of those people. As a photographer, you are half-way there. And, despite the somewhat discouraging sentiments behind what we have just said, the fact is that article writing can be learnt, in exactly the same way as you once learnt to use a camera and to take better pictures.

Once I learnt - and because of the comparative rarity of others in the field - you can soon make a name for yourself among certain selected markets and boost your freelance income to heights that you never previously thought possible.

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1st Published 01/11/2007
last update 09/12/2022 14:59:09

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