your activities. Simply keep calling other contacts so that you
can reach your quota of sales visits.
Karen Frank, a senior photo editor, explains, “We always
try to find time to see photographers or portfolios.
However, if a photographer calls when we are on deadline
there is no way we can see them. It’s truly just a matter of
timing.”
In order not to personalize, it might be helpful for you to
think of your business as a separate entity. Yes, yourtalent is
the product you sell, and yes, yourpersonality and profession-
alism are factors in the development of your product, but
your business, the entity you create, is what you promote, and
the value of that service (your vision) is what clients are
buying.
Perhaps the last part of the self-promotion definition is
where you should focus your attention: “effected by oneself.” It
is here where your personality and your efforts will most affect
your business.
Be kind, upbeat, and proactive in your manner and positive
in your attitude.Lie: I Don’t Need a Print
Portfolio; I Have a Web SiteNot so! Buyers use Web sites to source out talent and often
to get an initial peek at a talent’s body of work. When assign-
ments are handed out, it is a portfolio not a Web site that has
usually done the job. While some buyers go straight to Web sites
(architectural firms, some small agencies and designers, and
selected editorial buyers who have specific geographic needs),
most buyers still report that they call in between fifteen to fifty
books for each assignment. If you create a Web site and have no
book to back it up, you will be on the losing end when a
prospect goes to your site and wants to call in your book. “With
all of the money that our clients spend on branding their
corporate image, none of them are going to buy photography
off a Web site,” states New York–based freelance art buyer
Beverly Adler.CHAPTER20 / TRUTH, LIES, ANDSELF-PROMOTIONChapter 20.qxd 6/25/07 7:22 AM Page 127