Yes, being a photographer is about your creativity and blah blah blah. We all chime on about how important it is to keep your creative integrity, creating for your soul and all that jazz. I’m not debating this, I’m not condoning this. BUT a big ass BUT. If you’re struggling financially, it sucks. It drains the life out of you and you feel like you’re barely keeping your fire alive. This only applies to those who don’t have another job or have many tiny jobs and barely any headspace.

Money is important for photographers, our job alone is a costly business. Hell my new camera cost over £4K and then over £2K each for the lenses. Let’s not forget batteries, hard drives, memory cards, computers, bags and everything else. It’s SO much money just to have a decent set up nowadays. To break even can take YEARS.

So, in my 12 years of experience. After YEARS of just barely keeping my fire alive I did an online course and read a few books on money, not photography. It changed my entire outlook on my business and money in general. I shook things up and shook through the process, terrified of these new territories.

Passive income was a click bait term I’d seen about. It sounded so dreamy, easy and so scammy. I avoided them like the plague. In that generation that believes brutal hard work will get you 50% of the way and the rest is luck (This isn’t true by the way just my mindset and many others who are thirty something). But after reading these books on money and doing online courses, listening to free talks and everything else I could access I realise passive income isn’t a dirty word.

To put it simply. Passive income is income that runs quietly in the background whilst you get on with other projects. Money that is made without constant effort. My book covers are now passive income, I get a royalty statement every month even though I haven’t actively taken book cover photos for over a year now. My main income is unit stills photography. I spent 2 years actively building my book cover library so it would eventually be my passive income. I know it’ll eventually dribble down but in the mean time it’s giving me one hell of a buffer whilst I establish my new career.

Of course I’ll speak from my experience. My book cover income which is now passive not active, is still roughly £1500 per month. That’s an entire single person income that I receive without any effort now (It took two years of active effort to get to that stage). I could still increase this if I wanted, I could still spend my days taking images for book covers but I don’t. My days off are actual days off and admin days where I focus on unit stills work instead. The unit stills days are punishing but worth every second and I love it but it means I definitely need down days of recovery.

Passive income for photographers is ace because your work is being used, your efforts are being paid for and they are running in the background. In my case my work is very broad and used for a range of books, I get paid very well compared to most generic stock agencies ; most stock sites pay a maximum of 20% royalties but book covers pay 50% royalties. My work is published on books across the world and I love reading so this is always a personal little rush of excitement. Book covers also pay better because they might buy worldwide rights which is a sizeable chunk OR they can buy extra territories if the book does well so a single image can create a fair amount of income over the months/years.

When I have months where I’ve earned a decent monthly income from my unit stills photography, I put my passive income into savings/overpaying my mortgage/paying off my credit card. But if I have a low month my passive income really helps buffer my income.

Of course, my own book cover course is also passive income, nowhere near what my book cover sales do but I love seeing a sale go through and knowing that a fellow photographer has started their journey to passive income.