If you’re looking for a silver bullet, this is one book to recommend. I just finished reading it after a few weeks. It’s my first physical book to read in 2020. It was an easy read. The words were not complicated and they flowed well.

The introduction to the book really pulled me in. Much like you, I have listed my photography on Fine Art America (SmugMug or PhotoShelter in your case) for three years, social media for five years, and as single images in blog posts with good captions on my blog, but despite all the likes and words of encouragement, no one has bought one print. I was convinced by his introduction that he really knew my story.

I had three areas where I read and learned much. I knew some of these points already from my years of experience in web design and three years in search engine optimization as a result of the former. I had to set the book down in those moments and apply these new techniques to my website.

It had already taken me a year to grow interested in following some of your blogs where you wrote your stories visually and the rest of the year to commit myself into storytelling my own.

One of the main ideas that I always tried to share with my clients was the importance of having a blog that was regularly updated. But so often I hear that they don’t want to have one or that they cannot write well. And so often these are people who know how to speak well and can convey their thoughts to me, much more than I can. Because of this past experience, I laughed out loud when this book said a blog was one of the key factors in getting leads and increasing sales. I have been writing for a long time even if it wasn’t perfect. Practice makes perfect is the well-known quote but perfect practice makes for growing your writing confidence and skills. A bad typist doesn’t get better and faster by avoiding the keyboard, they press forward with every finger.

This book is also a good resource to keep close by. There’s points that I already know and use that are covered in this book that I won’t share. Here are the points that I learned from this book and plan to implement soon.

• Share your artist story even if it’s plain
• Write your story about each photo, photos need words not just good captions to captivate the emotions of your readers
• Share your best photos and their stories with your email subscribers weekly, emails with text not fancy layouts

Selling Fine Art Photography by Nigel Merrick is available for purchase as a paperback or Kindle on Amazon.