Zave Smith Photography wrote:
By the very nature of the broadness of your question you have a huge learning curve ahead of you.  I would suggest you start by reading this wonderful book by a friend of mine:  http://www.amazon.com/How-Succeed-Comme … hotography

Thanks Zave, book purchased!  I'd say my learning curve is probably huge, that's an accurate assessment.  Although I'm hoping my experience as a commercial model will at least simplify things a little.   My wife has an MBA and works for a major corp. in marketing, I'm probably a little crazy for thinking we should work together, but it's an idea we are toying with.  Thanks again Z, I'm off to shoot now.

JC Stuart Photo wrote:
So I am curious about how to go about submitting work to various publications or companies for advertising their products.  I realize that's a very broad question, but if you could humor me that would be awesome , like what experience you have had.

Very little of publication and especially advertising photography is "submitted". Most of the photography is shot to order after the photographer is hired. There is a huge difference.

The magazines that accept submitted work are mostly the news, art and industry based ones.

JC Stuart Photo wrote:

Thanks Zave, book purchased!  I'd say my learning curve is probably huge, that's an accurate assessment.  Although I'm hoping my experience as a commercial model will at least simplify things a little.   My wife has an MBA and works for a major corp. in marketing, I'm probably a little crazy for thinking we should work together, but it's an idea we are toying with.  Thanks again Z, I'm off to shoot now.

Well as I still work on the marketing side myself (I don't shoot as much as I would like anymore) I can tell you the biggest obstacle will be confidence in you.  Not your artistic ability but your ability to manage a major shoot and produce to a story board.  Might I suggest on your website you include behind th scenes of any large shoot you end up producing, include things like the story board or mood board when possible.  Show them you can be a project manager as much as a artist.

Leonard Gee Photography wrote:
Very little of publication and especially advertising photography is "submitted". Most of the photography is shot to order after the photographer is hired. There is a huge difference.

This is very important.  While you need samples of your work to get work, the harder problem is deciding who to market to.  When you do, it is about salesmanship, and more importantly, developing a product/service that you can sell to them.

I had a marketing meeting yesterday where we sat down to discuss packaging of our services.  People tend to want to sell everything to everyone.  Certainly, as a full service studio, I want that.  To market though, you need to be more targeted.

We spent quite a bit of time defining specific products and then identifying the target audience where we wanted to present it.  Services were combined together as packaged products.  Pricing was established.  We highlighted benefits and features while developing a selling strategy for them.

Next week, we'll develop collaterals to go with them and then market to the target audience we defined.  A large part of being a successful photographer is to be a successful businessman.  Selling photography is not a lot different than selling turtles.  The product isn't the same, but all the theories are.

GPS Studio Services wrote:
Selling photography is not a lot different than selling turtles.

That is one statement I'll be pondering for a while.