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I thought I'd write this to help others who may take the same course of marketing their photographs that I chose.
About 2 months ago, I was invited to display about 20-27 pieces of my work in a local Coffee House/Gallery which would be sold off the wall. The proprietor of the Coffee House/Gallery would receive 10% of the gross. I would have the entire month of May for my "show". Knowing I had more than enough marketable photographs, I accepted.
Lesson 1: I had no experience doing this and 2 months was not long enough to "come up to speed". (I guess I'm a slow learner). (I still haven't set up my "books" for this).
Lesson 2: Even though I had planned on doing my own printing, matting and framing, I was unprepared for the cost of making enough photographs for sale. (I still don't know how many is enough as my stuff is still 1 plus weeks from display). Mistakes and rethinking how I wanted them were the biggest costs. This leads to lesson 3.
Lesson 3: Make your choices before starting and stick to them if the end result is acceptable. Yes, there may be a better way and the next time you'll know how to do it better.
Lesson 4: If you do your own matting, find a standard size to mat, (I settled on half sheets of Super B - 9.5x13 and 6.5x19 with a 16x20-finished product). Then make sure your photographs are all the same size. This will save a lot of time matting.
Lesson 5: I chose black metal frames as they're kind of "neutral" and cheap. (I ended up buying 30 16x20's and 10 10x22's and associated hardware for about $360). They also scratch easy. I noticed this morning that a number of them have scratch marks on them. (Careless handling from someone used to wood). I'm hoping some matte black spray paint I have will fix them. This is already costing too much.
Lesson 6: I'm sure there are further lessons to be learned but I either don't remember them or they haven't struck me yet.
What started out as a great adventure and dreams of riches has turned into a mountain of work, primarily due to lack of planning. I hope this helps someone out there make better choices than I did.
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