Photofocus

FINALLY! My new book with Skip Cohen – Going Pro: How to Make the Leap from Aspiring to Professional Photographer has started shipping.

Between us, Skip and I have had more than 10 books published. This book was easily the most important of any of those. Both Skip and I have been thinking about, planning, and working on this project for almost two years. We’ve interviewed dozens of photographers for input, gathered hundreds of salable images, built and maintained a blog featuring more than 400 free posts, recorded and published more than 50 podcasts, done a few webinars, responded to more than 1,500 audience questions and comments, held a national bootcamp workshop in New Jersey, maintained a dedicated Twitter account, vetted and recruited the best sponsors we can find and now – it all culminates in this book.

For all this hard work, Skip and I make about $1 each per book. Yep it’s true. Unless you’re famous like Stephen King, you don’t make much money writing books. We didn’t pour our hearts and souls into this project for the money. We did it for the most old-fashioned of reasons – we want to help.

For those of you who are thinking of becoming a professional photographer, or those who have recently (within the last two years) become a professional photographer, we’ve aimed this project directly at you. Additionally, professional photographers who are already out there and working, but who are just surviving rather than thriving, we also targeted this book at you.

We believe that we can help any professional or emerging professional photographer improve their business. We have both gone through a lot of hard work, pain, difficulties and challenges in life and we think we’ve learned a thing or two that will help you. We hold nothing back and share all of our secrets in the book. It’s written to help you succeed at the business of photography.

But we didn’t stop with our own experience. We went to our friends – some of the most accomplished and well-known professional photographers in the business, and we asked them for their help too. There are quotes, tips and photographs in this book from people like Vincent Laforet, Gregory Heisler, Stacy Pearsall, Kevin Kubota, Tamara Lackey, Nick Vedros, Chase Jarvis and many, many more. Even if you aren’t interested in what Skip and I have to say about this subject, you should be interested to hear what these amazing and successful photographers we’ve recruited to help us have to say. This book is as much about and by them as it is us. Our names are on the cover, but they contributed too. We are very grateful for their help on this project and through this journey.

This entire experience has already paid off for Skip and I and it goes beyond money. Our payment is in the satisfaction we get knowing we’ve helped hundreds of photographers already. We hope to help more photographers with the launch of this book. We feel like we’re rich already in the friendships and lifelong relationships we’ve both called upon and built during the authoring of this book, and we hope you’ll enjoy, respect, benefit and prosper by reading the result of all this work – by so many people.

If you are interested, you can order the book here at Going Pro: How to Make the Leap from Aspiring to Professional Photographer. It is in bookstores now and available from numerous online resellers. We’ll be making a few books available as prizes in some up-coming giveaways and trying to do everything we can to use this book to help more of you.

Thanks for supporting us and believing in us as we put this together. It’s been a long, sometimes hard road, but we’re excited to see where it leads. We hope you’ll come along for the rest of the ride.

Thanks

Scott Bourne for
Skip Cohen