Photography earnings in August 2023
August is traditionally a slow month and this was slow, until almost the last day. But I’ll explain that below.
I was embarrassed last month in launching a new book about selling your fine art photographs online, and then selling almost nothing on Fine Art America that month! I’m glad to say that this month has improved, and total fine art sales reached $295. That is a hopeful sign! My book has been well received – in fact I provided an early copy to a photographer friend of mine, and this is what she sent me a couple of nights ago:
I’ve only read 21 pages so far, and I’m stunned at how well it is written, super detailed, chocked full of information that every artist should have when trying to market their work. It’s amazing. I love the part you shared about your query on the 1959 Cadillac Eldorado… I have used Chat/GPT-3.5 many times, but the way you included “..that will be used to sell wall art prints of the image and should also include details of what sort of person would be interested in the print.” I tried this technique tonight, Steve, and I’m flabbergasted at how much better results I’m getting from the Chat/GPT engine. It’s amazing. So many good things I’ve read so far… So honored to be able to read this.
So if you are interested in selling your work as fine art prints, here is the link you need!
But back to the main story. How did I do in August, helped by those print sales? The total came to $2770.50, which surprised me a little. Each day seemed to have been a disappointment, but then on the 30th, I found a sale on Shutterstock for $101.50 for this shockingly boring picture!
I did tart this up a little with a new sky for my fine art work, and it has also sold in the past as a wall print:
I don’t know what would have caused that purchase – perhaps Rudy Guiliani was having his license revoked in California? Who knows, but I’m grateful.
Here is the earnings chart:
And the number of files needed to earn that amount:
Individual Agency Earnings Performance
It was a close run thing this month for Agency of the Month! Adobe was well down on last month’s total of $838, ending at $684 and Shutterstock came from behind to end with $630. iStock was pretty good for me (in July) with $433 and Canva was OK after a scare over low earnings and ended with $256. Then we quickly drop to $140 from Alamy and then in the sub-$100 range for the rest. I know I don’t spend much time talking about them, but regular earnings of $62 from Dreamstime, $75 from Deposit Photos adds up over time.
High priced sales
The sales for more than $10 can make or break a month and this month it added up to $371. We have covered the big spender above, and the next highest was this one for $35 from Shutterstock. In fact, that agency made up $352 of the $371 in earnings from higher priced downloads!
I had six video sales on Shutterstock for about $13 – $25 each. Two of the higher priced ones were close up of gold coins, which always seem to sell when the price of gold moves up or down, and one was of me power-washing the drive. Just shows how mundane things are worth photographing or videoing:
Fine Art Sales
As I mentioned, these came to $281 in total. One print from FAA, one from Photo4Me in the UK, two from a local gallery in town and one from TurningArt, which is more of a prints for lease type company, and then the normal lease money from that site. I have 16 of my prints on lease to companies at the moment – but before you get excited, almost all of them are of scenes from Washington DC. They seem to have a strong market there.
Well, that rounds out the month. Better than expected, and I hope the coming months will show a bit more growth.
