How to Succeed in Commercial Photography: Insights from a Leading Consultant | 
 enlarge | Author: Selina Maitreya
Publisher: Allworth Press
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $11.40
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Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 387459
Media: Paperback
Pages: 240
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 9 x 5.8 x 0.7
ISBN: 1581154917
Dewey Decimal Number: 770.232
EAN: 9781581154917
ASIN: 1581154917
Publication Date: October 16, 2007
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Product Description
After more than thirty years in photography, an industry veteran speaks out in How to Succeed in Commercial Photography. These essays provide photographers at every level with all the tools they need for a great career. Author Selina Maitreya offers proven tips for focusing on client needs; building a team from today’s marketing assistants, reps, and consultants; developing an online portfolio; self-promoting; and much more. Through up-close interviews, professional commercial photographers reveal the missteps they made in their work--and how others can avoid making the same mistakes. A special section explores how photographers can set goals, survive tough times, overcome creative blocks, and more. Anyone seeking a successful and well-balanced life as a commercial photographer needs a copy of this illuminating guide.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
 Smart Advice July 6, 2008
David A. Wagner (NY, NY)
Smart and insightful, this book describes, step by step how to achieve the kind of success most dream of but few accomplish.
Selina Maitreya has written a no nonsense book that outlines the basic requirements for achieving success in one of the most competitive businesses around. Her approach is not only to achieve business and creative success, but to achieve some spiritual enlightenment along the way. In other words, she wants you to make money and create fabulous images, but says that those things do not make us happy without a deeper understanding of ourselves creatively.
The point she makes in the end is, she can give you all the advice in the world but you have to make it happen on your own. She makes that clear with anecdotal success stories of some of her most determined clients who work through difficult times and personal tragedies, not necessarily to reach success beyond their wildest dreams, but to launch their business and begin to find clients who give them the work they dreamed of.
 Not a "How To" book March 10, 2008
R. Barbir
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I was led to this book among a few others after asking for advice about how to get in the commercial / advertising industry. Since Amazon wouldn't let me peek inside the book and I couldn't find it locally to get a closer look, I took a chance and bought it.
What a disappointment.
Within the first few pages of the book, Selina states that her book is not a "How To" book. Why then, Selina, would you slap a "HOW TO" right in the f***in' title? Perhaps to sucker in a few more sales.
This is a self-help book.
I hate self-help books.
You see, I believe that confidence and a positive outlook are acquired through specific knowledge of the industry you're in rather than the general suggestion of reconnecting with one's spirituality, something the book hammers on endlessly. Nothing inspires confidence in a photographer more than knowing exactly what to expect at a meeting with an Art Director, how to submit your book, how to price yourself competitively, how to plan a debut in the industry, etc. And besides, if reconnecting with one's spirituality is the only way to success, does that mean an atheist can never be a successful photographer? What about a Wiccan photographer? Or an agnostic photographer? The whole premise seems silly to me.
If you want a simply awesome book, buy "Advertising Photography - A Straightforward Guide to a Complex Industry" by Lou Lesko. The advice there is much more practical and very easy to read. Other books I'd suggest are "ASMP Professional Business Practices in Photography" and even "Best Business Practices for Photographers" by John Harrington, although this last one is excruciatingly tedious to read through. Still, all three of these books would be far more useful to any photographer than Selina's book.
Excellent Guide January 10, 2008
Timothy Skipper (Dothan, AL)
I am re-reading this book again. This book is more than some repeated advice, but it is a book that encourages you to succeed.
I enjoyed the chapters on vision more than any of them. So many books on the business of photography attempt to drown you with negative doubtful comments that you ready to quit before you begin.
Selina on the other hand delivers a honest look at the world of commercial photography, but filters it through a message of positive encouragement and strong faith.
Tim Skipper
Vision Photo Image
www.visionphotoimage.com
 It Couldn't Hurt January 6, 2008
Conrad J. Obregon (New York, NY USA)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
This book is aimed at professional photographers seeking assignment work from photo buyers, art directors and the like. It will be of less use to the professional shooting fine art or stock, although someone in one of the latter categories might pick up a few tips. It's also of more value to someone who's already working in the business rather then just starting out.
Maitreya, who is a marketing consultant to assignment photographers, provides a series of essays that are more inspirational then instructive. For example, she tells the assignment photographer that in today's marketplace he or she must provide the client with value and attempts to explain what value is. Perhaps it's my business background, but I always thought that assignment photographers had to provide value if they wanted business, but maybe most don't realize that, or at the very least had never considered that deeply.
The author seems to move from the practical side to the spiritual side. For example, early in the book she tells the photographer that he must have a book (the phrase photographers use to describe the portfolio submitted to customers as part of the effort to influence the client to hire them) that will show the client how hiring the photographer will yield images that enhance the client's campaign. That means showing the client work that is the essence of the photographer, even at the risk of it not being consistent with the client's vision. The author believes that, if the portfolio is essential (my words, not hers) and the photographer keeps marketing, eventually he or she will be successful. She doesn't give many specifics about preparing such a book, perhaps because she has already covered that ground in an earlier book, "Portfolios That Sell: Professional Techniques for Presenting and Marketing Your Photographs".
At the spiritual end she talks of developing faith in oneself, and using affirmations that will reinforce one's faith. Even though it sounds a bit mystical, I think that psychologists agree on the importance and usefulness of such things in marketing.
Whether the author's approach will help the assignment photographer is not clear to me. I'm not an assignment photographer, but I think some of her points make sense even in fine arts photography. Whether the author's message will make sense to the particular assignment photographer, and whether she will convince him or her to try the suggestions, will ultimately depend on the personality of the photographer. On the other hand, for the assignment photographer who is interested in improving his business, this book might provide the necessary inspiration and, even if it does not, there is little to be lost in time or money in considering the author's approach.
Well rounded in so many ways... January 3, 2008
David Larson
This book is so much more than just a "how to" guide. Selina has pointed out many areas that need to be developed if you want to be successful in this field. From Values and vision to faith and persistence there are no topics left undiscussed.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a simple guide to a very complex and confusing industry.
-David Paul Larson
www.davidpaullarson.com
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