So… You’re Thinking About Making a Photo Book?
First of all, how exciting! Whether your idea is fully formed or still living in a notebook, on a hard drive, or somewhere in the back of your mind, the fact that you’re considering making a photo book is a big step.
One thing we learned from making Where the Streets Lead is this: spending time on a book proposal is incredibly helpful. Even if you never pitch a publisher, a proposal forces you to slow down and think through what your book is really about, who it’s for, how the images work together, and what kind of experience you want to create for a viewer. It turns vague ideas into something tangible.
To help, we created a simple, photographer-friendly proposal template designed to walk you through the process without making it feel overwhelming.
Also, we’re sharing a copy of the original proposal we created for Where the Streets Lead, Street Photography Magazine’s first photo book, so you can see what a real-world example looks like. You can download it as a Word document here.
We hope both are helpful, and more importantly, we hope they move your project one step closer to becoming a real book.
And if along the way you decide self-publishing is the route for you, sign up for our course How to Self-Publish a Photo Book. We’ll guide you through the process, sharing our real life experiences along the way. You’ll learn the skills you need to edit, sequence, design, print, market and distribute a photo book.
