Photography book v Tablet app?
Written by duckrabbitIts an interesting question.
As mentioned before on duckrabbit a lot of photographers invest an awful lot of money in getting books published. The cost is not that much different from having the book published in an extended format as an tablet app (iPad). This raises all sorts of questions. Which would be the best investment?
This takes us back to audiences. Photography books tend to have very small print runs. They are hard to sell. You could argue that a photographer who has, for example, a large on-line audience would do better from producing an app. But the problem is if their audience is used to both seeing their work and having a conversation with the photographer on-line, through the web, why would they pay extra for an app?
You can start to see the problem photographers face in trying not to lose money by publishing. The internet is incredible for reaching audiences but has seriously reduced the value of the single image.
Of course just because we can see an image on the internet doesn’t mean we won’t pay for it. Infact unless we can see it, how will we know that we want it? It’s the same with music.
Sometime soon, someone very clever, will catch a wave and create a desire in lots and lots of people to have prints on their walls without spending huge sums of money. Think about it. On the whole a photo costs a lot less to produce than a piece of music, so why aren’t prints downloadable on a very large scale for the same price as an MP3?
As for photo books v apps. Both are probably to an extent marketing projects and right now, in terms of profile, an app will bring you the most bang for your book. On the other hand, until the awards catch up, it won’t bring you any prizes.
Author — duckrabbit
duckrabbit is a production company formed by radio producer/journalist Benjamin Chesterton and photographer David White. We specialize in digital storytelling.
Discussion (6 Comments)
I like the idea of downloadable print files. Someone please set up an online store: the iPhoto Store!
I’m working on an app as my next book right now. Steep learning curve. I don’t have an iPad but use the brilliant iPod touch instead.
Photoshelter makes it easy to sell downloads and perhaps we should consider selling our images that way much as music is currently marketed.
Paul, I LOVE the iPod touch. I think its an awesome device, but small hand helds won’t do your brilliant pictures justice.
Actually, one of the things we’re looking at setting up with Sombra Projects is just that – prints available at various price points, including the idea of downloadable files to print yourself. We’re looking at what’s the best way to make it work….
More to come on this Tom, but I think it needs a large scale operation. As Bruno suggests an iTunes for photography. The reason this hasn’t happened is because the high earners are protecting themselves, and the rest of the photography world is buying their argument.
An itunes type store would be interesting. I wonder if that would work. I’d like to hear more thoughts from people on that. I was thinking along the lines of how the music industry ‘solved’ the ‘problem’ of digital music sharing/buying. Something like this… http://ghosts.nin.com/main/order_options