One of the best ways of getting your pictures published is to write an article to go with the pictures. Create a feature article out of your pictures and this will go down a storm with the publication you are trying to sell to. All magazines are always looking for good articles and if you happen to have a great set of pictures and copy to go with them then your chances of getting published are multiplied several times.

It gets better as well, If you submit the article, pictures and copy to a features desk at a publication, then you will be able to ask a lot more money for the package than just the images alone. If your story is more news orientated, then submit pictures to the picture desk and copy to the news desk, ad a tag line with each submission explaining that the news desk has words and picture desk has images, this way both news and pictures know that this is a complete item.

This way you can also bill the news desk for your copy as well. Don't worry if you have no experience at writing copy, make sure that you include all your contact details as if the news desk don't like your copy, they will get a reporter to contact you and maybe just re-write your copy a little. Remember the main point here is that it will dramatically increase your chances of getting your images published.

Don't forget to ask for a byline, a credit under the images, keep mentioning this, but don't aggravate the picture desk staff . The main reason for getting a byline is that this will provide credibility to you as a new photographer for others, it will also act as a shop window to other publications. If your images are good enough , other publications will track you down and ask to buy your images, this is very powerful and should not be under-estimated.

If you are not confident about producing copy to go with a story, and I fully understand that it can be difficult, as there are many publications , with different writing styles, then find yourself a co-operative freelance journalist and strike up a partnership with them, they will earn from the news or features desk and you from the picture desk. This can be very useful as sometimes they will contact you for the same reasons, they will have a story that needs a picture and maybe cant get enough interest from a picture desk for the publication to send someone specifically to shoot the pictures.

I used to work with one particular guy all the time, now a good friend. All I will say, is be careful about reporters, they can be a slippery bunch and can sometimes come up with some very unlikely ideas for stories. They are not always reliable, after all they can conduct an interview over the phone, the photographer on the other hand, has to be there to shoot the images, its not uncommon for them to bleed the photographer for info and then fill in the blanks over the phone, don’t put up with this, a good reporter will go with you.

This important information for photographers trying to sell images to publications is expanded on in more detail in a book , written by Billy Bonds and is available online at the website listed below.

Copyright Billy Bonds, This article may be freely distributed in full