Can They Find You?

Demographers tell us that in a mobile society, we can expect most people to have a new address every five years.

If you have moved recently, it's important to personally let your buyers and clients know of your new address (and/or if you have a new email address). Don't rely on the U.S. Postal Service to do the job for you.

In our day and age, technology offers ways we can make sure to stay on tap for our buyers, even during the transition of a move. Your email address and 800# can remain the same, independent of any changes in your mailing address. You won't lose touch with your photobuyers if you have one or the other or both.

I recently experienced another way that photobuyers can find photographers.

Nancy Ritz, photo coordinator at Prentice Hall, the book publishing company, wrote to me saying she was returning one of my photos (an original B&W 8X10) that her company had used way back in one of their textbooks. She pointed out that they've filed a digitized copy of the photo, and the number stamped on the back of the print is the database designation from the Corporate Digital Archive (CDA) of their parent company, Simon & Schuster. She said in her letter, "You are listed as the photographer, copyright holder, and source. When another buyer at Simon & Schuster should come across the photo, the information is already in our computers relating you to that photograph."

It's nice to know computers, databases, and mergers of large publishing houses can have a beneficial reward for independent photographers. My digitized photo will probably remain in their CDA a long time.

And it's nice to know that photo, taken in 1978 (29 years ago), is in an archive that might benefit not only me but my grandchildren, and possibly their grandchildren.

Rohn Engh, veteran stock photographer and best-selling author of Sell & ReSell Your Photos and sellphotos.com, has helped scores of photographers launch their careers. For access to great information on making money from pictures you like to take, and to receive this free report: 8 Steps to Becoming a Published Photographer, visit http://www.sellphotos.com

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