Book cover photography is an amazing way to make money, not just regular income but also as a side hustle for all types of photographers! Some wedding photographers use it as extra income through the winter months for example!I am lucky enough that it is my full time job and source of income now. Plus my work is published on a very regular basis for some of the world’s top authors! It’s awesome. I’m encouraging other photographers to do the same. Especially if you have a ton of images just sitting on old hard drives not making you any money for example!

I’m bringing out a course called Breaking Into Book Covers which will cover the extensive process of starting your book cover photography dreams but here are some basic and starting points!

5 tips for starting book cover photography:

1. Shoot in portrait format! Designers rarely have time to crop your beautiful images without compromising it so keeping it in portrait format saves everyone time!

2. Don’t over edit your images, discard heavy use of textures and crazy colours, keep it simple and plain. Designers like to edit their book covers and if not, great your image is good enough to leave alone!

3. Keep shooting! Try and do a different shoot a day if you can, keep you image numbers up!

4. Try self portraits if you are comfortable to do so (even anonymous self portraits) and if not try your hand at still life with objects in your house.

5. Check out amazon and see what books are upcoming and newly released to keep your ideas fresh and on board with current trends. Research helps massively in this process. Keep inspired!

I really look forward to seeing your work! Feel free to comment below with images or links to your book cover photos!

If you’re really struggling or finding trouble with your focus or process don’t hesitate to check out my course when it’s released where I go step by step through the process of starting your portfolio to how to really sell your first image.