Can I sell my prints? Can I sell my digital files?
Not only can you...
YES!! You must give them value!
Being a student means that you need to consult with your parents, but all digital content and all the photographs you take belong to you. As a part of our Digital Photography program, I make prints to enter into contests for you, but the digital files belong to you.
"You must handle digital files with respect and care. You must give them value. You must not treat them as a throw-away product." ~ Bryan Caporicci
Where can I sell my prints?
Selling prints can be done online or in person. If someone sees your artwork and wants to purchase it, I'll let you know and then you and your parents can negotiate a good price.
Check out Corey's Blog on how she made 50,000 selling her artwork on Facebook... 
How do I price my prints?
Calculating the cost for a digital file
Let’s
say that for a single digital file, your labour input (time spent) is:
· 5 minutes retouching the image
· 1 minute uploading the file for your client to
download
· 1 minute to email your client the link to
download
And
your material cost for a single digital file is nothing.
So your
total cost for this digital file is 7 minutes of labour, which if you’re paying
yourself $60,000/year, means that the cost is $3.50. Multiplying this cost by a
mark-up factor of 2.85 gives you a price of $9.98.
Based on the cost-of-goods
model, you should be charging $10 for a digital file.
Calculating the cost for an 8×10 print
But
let’s quickly consider the alternative – an 8×10 print of that same image. The
labour input is:
· 5 minutes to retouch the image
· 1 minute to order the image from your lab
· 1 minute to unpack the print from your lab
· 2 minutes to package the print
· 5 minutes to meet with your client when they
pick it up
And
your material cost is:
· $2.50 for the print from your lab
· $5.00 for shipping from your lab
· $3.75 for the presentation and packaging
Therefore,
based on the numbers above, with the same $60,000/year salary, your
cost-of-goods is $7.00 in labor and $11.25 in material. Added together and
multiplied by the same mark-up factor of 2.85 gives you a price of $52.
Based on the cost-of-goods
model, you should be charging $52 for an 8×10 print.
Do you
think this makes sense … charging $10 for the digital file, and $50 for the
print? I don’t think so.
Obviously
your client will choose the digital file in this case, because you’ve
made the digital option more attractive. And so this is why the
cost-of-goods model doesn’t work for digital files. You need to find another
way to price them so that you are making the printed option look more
attractive instead.
I still
wouldn’t recommend guess-pricing though, which is when you just pick a number
out of thin air. I still believe there should be a calculated, repeatable,
systematic approach to pricing your digital files.
