revjim.net

When it comes to personal matters, the advice you, my dear readers, give is all over the board. But, I'm able to collect it and it allows me to consider opinions and thoughts I never have before. For that, I'm grateful. However, when it comes to matters of my photography and my business, quite frankly, you suck.

* You told me I wasn't charging enough for my prints, so I started charging more and my sales went down.
* It was suggested that I should make my prints as cheap as possible, which I did, this increased the number of sales but my total income was less than it was when I was charging a more moderate amount.
* By suggestion and as an exercise in testing price point I had a "name your own price" sale, which actually ended up costing *ME* $75, despite several of you making very generous offers, because I miscalculated my costs and accepted a few too many low offers.
* I was told that if I offered matting and framing more people would buy my work because it would be ready to hang. So, I spent nearly $500 buying supplies to mat anf frame prints. To date, aside from the "name your own price" sale, I've *never* had an order for anything other than an unmatted, unframed print.
* I was told that I should accept donations, so I built a page to do so. Since that time, I've had exactly $0 in donations.
* I was led to believe that a book of my work would be in high demand and that the price point I had settled on would be quite fair, and that a discounted pre-sale would be even fairer. Yet, even after begging, I only have 9 pre-sale orders despite having over 50 people respond saying they would purchase at the price I was targeting. And, to make matters worse, 6 of those 9 people aren't people who repsonded to the initial inquiry.
* The "Five-A-Week":http://revjim.net/five-a-week/ program was *my own idea* (that I stole from "Jonathan Coulton":http://jonathancoulton.com/ which *I discussed with absolutely no one*. I currently have 4 subscribers and consider it my most profitable endeavor yet despite the fact that PayPal takes 33% of the subscription rate.

I have people ask me on a regular basis how I'm making the book, who I'm using to print the book, where I get my prints made, what kind of software I use to sell my prints, what my profit margins are, how I ship my prints, where I buy matting and framing supplies, and what techniques I use to produce my photographs. It seems that everyone really likes what I'm doing and how I'm doing it, yet no one is willing to support that.

So, from now on I'm not asking for your advice. I don't care if you think my prices are too high and I don't care if you think they are too low. I don't care if you like the quality of my prints. I don't care if you like my product offering. I don't care if you don't understand my art or my vision. I don't care if you think I'm going to fail as an artist, a photographer, or a human being.

While I'm implementing this change in thought and direction, there's another big thing that needs to change. From now on, unless you're a *friend* — a real honest to goodness *friend* who has done something for me in the past, will continue to act as a friend to me, and would offer similar amounts of time, money, effort, support, and loyalty as you are asking me to offer you — I have no desire to do favors for you. I have no desire to help you sell prints. I have no desire to give information on how I'm making my book. I have no desire to photograph you, your dog, your wedding, or your children. I have no desire to give you personal feedback on your work, or to recommend equipment to you. If you aren't offering me something in return (money, ideas, a larger project, true friendship) then I have no desire to do anything for you.

To my *real* friends, my "patrons":http://flickr.com/photos/revjim/tags/forsale/, my supportive fans, my "good models":http://flickr.com/photos/revjim/tags/girl/, and my "Five-A-Week":http://revjim.net/five-a-week subscribers: you are important to me. Your thoughts and ideas and suggestions matter because you've proven that you put your time, effort, loyalty, support, and money where your mouth is. To the rest of you: well… I hope you enjoy my work. If not there are lots of other photographers on the internet. I'm sure you'll find something somewhere else to your liking.

My art is mine. I do it for me. I'll share with you if you share with me. I'll consider you if you consider me in return. It is, after all, my art, my life, and my peace of mind. I'm taking me back.