Dear Reader,

Whenever we talk about how to sell stock photos around here, we tend to mention iStock or other online agencies. (Here are three stock photo agencies where you can submit your photos for sale: http://www.thephotographerslife.com/3microstocks/)

What we don’t talk about is how to sell stock photos directly to magazines and publications -- without the help of an agency.

That’s the way professional photographer Efrain Padro does it. Efrain was with us last month at the Ultimate Stock Photo Workshop in Santa Fe. He’s a stock photographer... but not in the sense that we usually talk about.

Instead of sending his photos to an agency like iStock, where designers can search for the images they want, he gets magazines to send him their “want” lists. And then he gives them what they’re looking for (in exchange for a nice check, of course).

He’ll tell you more about how to get editors to send you their photo needs tomorrow.

Until then, I can’t help giving you one little spoiler...

What’s Efrain’s first secret to selling more travel photos? It’s the same thing our travel writing pros will tell you about selling more travel articles: Start locally.

See, Frommer’s paid Efrain to travel all over Puerto Rico on assignment, taking photos for their guides. But you don’t usually land a gig like that straight out of the gate. To get there, Efrain built up his portfolio with images of his town and state... then used those to pique the interest of editors in regional magazines... much like the one in the Featured Publication I sent you yesterday (here: http://tinyurl.com/yeu2nxe).

So, selling your travel photos doesn’t have to be complicated. And you don’t have to travel to get started.

Again, more details in tomorrow’s e-letter... including which hometown photos are the most saleable.

-- Bonnie

Bonnie Caton
AWAI Travel Division

P.S. One more thing... you don’t have to wait to get started, either. If you want to sell stock photos, get outside and start snapping shots of your hometown -- today. Throw your camera in the car. Take it with you on errands.... football games... family gatherings... wherever you go. You never know when you’ll see an opportunity. For more on how to sell all the photos you’ll take, listen in on the workshop recordings from the Ultimate Stock Photography Workshop, here: http://www.thephotographerslife.com/str/website.

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NOVEMBER’S PHOTO CHALLENGE THEME is: “What Are You Thankful For?” Find out more about the theme, how to enter, and what you can win, here: http://www.thephotographerslife.com/contest/

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