Very excited to announce the first showing of my work on data centers. I’ve been photographing the data centers of Northern Virginia for the past two years. This area has the largest concentration of them of anywhere in the world.

Data centers are being built next to baseball fields, behind schools and homes, and alongside historic cemeteries. I was curious about what these places actually look like, and what it felt like to be around them.  For most of the world, they are an abstraction., but data centers are a crucial part of our modern world, and our demand for computational power comes with a cost that is unequally distributed. We take for granted the near-instant response of our social media feeds and AI requests. But, our seamless experience is driven by these resource-hungry buildings that place enormous strain on the power and water needs of nearby communities. 

These photographs were made to show a part of our modern world that few people consider. Without an understanding of the cost of the conveniences we are afforded, it is difficult to make ethical decisions about the technology we use.

More information about the exhibit here: https://www.arch.virginia.edu/events/shadow-cloud

Last year, I made a series of trips to Silicon Valley, a place I’d never photographed, to try to understand what this place meant today.

For four years in college, I wrote code, I dreamed in C++, following a path that seemed destined to lead me someplace like this. But I didn’t end up in Silicon Valley, at least not as a software developer. Instead, I’ve spent days photographing these campuses, in startups, in quiet neighborhoods and at sites marked by a small plaque denoted something that happened here that *actually* changed our whole world. I read historical accounts, including the stories of the Native tribes forced from this land. And it’s not an abstraction when the man who ordered their eradication went on to found a university that transformed this verdant valley—once home to thousands of acres of fruit orchards—into buildings where men would lay the foundations of our modern world.

I made these photographs before a line of tech CEOs stood, shoulder to shoulder, in the U.S. Capitol as President Trump took his oath of office—a moment that seemed to mark a turning point for Silicon Valley. The idealism that once fueled its pioneers had long since been eclipsed by something bigger, more pragmatic and purely capitalistic. The Haunting of Verdant Valley explores this evolution, capturing the tension between what Silicon Valley aspired to be and what it has become.

This project is also a plug for the physical world (as corny as that might sound), for making actual things and putting them out into the world. I didn't know that these photos would become a book when I started it, but once I'd made my last trip and began editing them, it seemed obvious to me that they didn't just belong on another screen. A photo book gives images a home—something tangible and deliberate. All is accounted for, all is considered—the way the paper feels as you flip through the pages, the choice of fonts that are additive but not attention-seeking, the order of images, and, my personal hill to die on—a binding stitched and glued so the book can lay flat.

See more photos and order the book here: http://www.stephenvoss.com/haunting/

I recently passed the Part 107 test and am a “Certificated Remote Pilot” according to the FAA and have been exploring the visual possibilities of using a drone. Below is a short video and some photos I made while there.

For the past couple of months, I’ve been working on something new.

I’ve been doing internet things since 1995 or so, when I ran a BBS from my house. I went on to spend a lot of time in USENET groups and publish a blog from 2000-2004 or so.

At the same time, I listened to a lot of punk rock music, went to shows and become part of a community that was organically created and didn’t ask anyone’s permission to exist.

Through skateboarding, I started a skate zine, got interested in photography and now many years later, make my living doing this work, which I love.

But I’ve missed the sharing part, the creating just for the sake of creating.

I miss making something new and throwing it out into the world. I miss sitting down to write to figure out what I think about something.

So, I’m a huge fan of a number of e-mail newsletters (guessing you can see where this is going).

It’s like the original digital communication medium—intimate and casual, and easy to step in and out of whenever you have a moment.

But the newsletter I really want to read doesn’t quite exist, that intersection of photo history, technology and the personal side of creative growth.

After a few months of thinking about this, I announced it and started writing.

It’s called Light Readings and I’m seven issues in. It’s my voice, my images and I’d love for you to give it a try: https://lightreadings.substack.com/

I don’t know what other photographers think about before/during shoots, but it’s the part of my work that has changed the most since I began taking pictures. 



None of the work of interacting with subjects and making photos came naturally to me and so I found myself writing little notes to myself over the years to remind myself of certain things. 

To that end, there’s a French culinary term called “mise en place”, which means “everything in its place.” It describes that practice of preparing and organizing ingredients and your workspace to ensure there’s no distractions while cooking, allowing you to focus solely on the task at hand. 


At the heart of it, you’re trying to make sure there’s nothing extraneous to think about so you can focus on doing your job. I think this is important on a practical level, but the real power comes from the mental prep work to get into the right frame of mind for taking pictures. 

The following is a first draft of a mise en place for photo shoots (mostly applicable to the quick-paced higher-profile editorial shoots that I do a lot of). If you have things to add, I’d love to hear them.

1. Walk into the room, pause, look through it. If time, ask for a tour. Be gracious, but insistent if the space isn’t right.

2. Consider the possibilities, both safe and absurd.

3. Don’t be afraid to change everything. But, don’t give up on your first impressions too quickly, your instincts are worth something.

4. Lighting setup in place, cords taped down when needed, setups on different wireless channels to prevent lights from triggering when not in use. Mints in bag, and caffeine. If settings change, it’s written down on paper, with the channel, in chronological order. Physically walk from setup to setup to make sure there’s nothing for subject to trip over. One lens with 50mm, one with 85mm or sometimes 35mm. Test Pocketwizards, and remind self to shoot vertically holding camera rotated counter-clockwise, or wireless triggering is inconsistent.

5. Never appear to be rushing, even when time is short.

6. Decide when to lead the shoot and when to let your subject lead. Let them take you down their path if they’re willing. Take them down your own path if they’re willing.

7. Make eye contact when not behind the camera. Use your hands.

8. You owe your subject your respect and your honesty, but unless they’ve hired you directly, you don’t owe them an obligation to help them look “good.”

9. Be absolutely aware and alert. Be ready, you may be given something in return for your attention, but maybe only for a moment.

10. On that same point, a missed photo is a hell of a regret, I’ve never forgotten any of mine.

11. This may be the last time you and your subject are ever in a room together again. Consider what’s essential.

12. Never finish a shoot thinking, “I’ll just solve that problem in post-production.” @thomas_boenig

13. Post-shoot post mortem! When shoots go bad, spend a couple of minutes sketching out what went wrong (I just use my notes app). It’s cathartic to get it off your chest AND can be super helpful in noticing patterns and things to improve.

14. [Ask] what do they need from me. What do I need from them. What do I want these pictures to feel like? @bermanphotos

15. I think about if there’s something conceptual I’ve done previously with a subject that worked that I could repeat again to make a series out of. @terencepatrick

16. Arrive early. If it’s a place you’ve never been, arrive even earlier. Time can be your friend and smooth over so many issues that may arise on a shoot. @rachellanemakeup

17. Have a Plan A, Plan B, Plan C and Plan D. Know where those plans will take you and what they will look like. Leave a bit of room for improvisation, but be ready for any speed bumps including but not limited to time cut, wardrobe change, drastic weather, temperature change, equipment malfunction, the subject and their mood.
    
    Also, do your research. You never know what bridge you can build through something that is relatable. It’s a small world. @claycookphoto

18. Most points have been logistical, but I think doing some emotional check-ins is important, too. Are you nervous? Take a couple deep breaths, rein in any nervous ticks/taps you might be putting out. What is the mood of the host/handler who has let you into location? How can you assure/comfort them? Can they give you insight to how the person going to be photographed feels? Do you have ideas on conversations to have with being photographed? Questions to ask them? Stories to tell them? @logan_mb

19. When you think you’re done, you might not be done. Keep your camera ready even while packing up. Something may present itself after the shoot. @thomasrboyddotcom

20. Sometimes if I have time, I scout the location the day before. @jamesrajotte

Like last year, I spent a lot of time listening to podcasts this year, to the exclusion of music / radio / television. I love the flexibility of being able to make dinner, shop for groceries, etc. while listening to something interesting. In narrowing down my list, I decided to only share books/music/etc. that came out in 2018.

Books
I read 53 books this year, leaning heavily towards fiction. I had no clear favorite, but a few that stood above the rest. The first being Florida by Laura Groff. Her Florida is a dark, complicated place that reveals itself in fits and starts. But the real draw of this book is the language—the sentences that seem to find their own path as they’re being written, to somewhere darker and more unsettling than where they started.

I just finished The Great Believers by Rebecca Makai. The book, set in 1980s Chicago and the present day tells the story of the coming of the AIDS crisis in the small LGBTQ community in Chicago. It’s a quietly devastating book that brings you into the character’s lives as this mysterious virus shadows the joyful, complicated lives of the characters. As someone who was too young to really understand the rise of HIV in the Reagan years, this book is an affecting reminder of what was lost.

Lastly, Washington Black by Esi Edugyan begins as a slave named George Washington Black serves under a cruel master on a sugar plantation in Barbados. The story then takes a fantastical turn involving a hot air balloon and begins to feel like a Jules Verne novel. Black’s story follows no traditional path and its plot twists and deeply insightful and haunted main character forms the ballast that keeps the reader connected to the story.

While not published in 2018, a few other books this year that I loved were The Power by Naomi Alderman, Arbitrary Stupid Goal by Tamara Shopsin and Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives by David Eagleman.

Podcasts
My list from last year is more or less unchanged, but I also listen to Slate’s Political Gabfest, The Flop House, and 538 Politics.

Music
I’m listening to more podcasts than music when I exercise, which means I’m not hearing as much music as I used to. But also I’ve been thinking that Peter Sagal makes a solid case for running in silence.

That said, my favorite song of 2018 was Thingamajig by the wondrous Myra Folick.

The new Phosphorescent album is so great and my kids love singing along to this one.

Lastly, Gold by Sister Sparrow is my pick-me-up song for 2018.

Worth it, sans category
This Twitter thread of “everyday cosplay” Halloween costumes is wonderfully earnest and life-affirming.

Minding the Gap (Hulu) is one of the best documentary films I’ve seen in a long while. The filmmaker Bing Liu had been filming his friends skateboarding in Illinois for years and this film starts with these young kids doing what young kids do and tracks their turbulent path into adulthood. Liu is absolutely unflinching with his camera work even as he revisits his own painful childhood with his mother.

One of my favorite artists is Jenny ODell who goes down these crazy e-commerce wormholes that take weirder and weirder turns, like A Business With No End, and There’s No Such Thing as a Free Watch.

** PROMOTIONAL SECTION **
If you’ve made it this far, perhaps you’ll indulge me in a bit of promotion. I’m beyond thrilled to have my photo chosen for the cover of American Photography 34.

I really enjoyed talking to APA about my work.

I photographed a few potential 2020 presidential candidates like Cory Booker , Kirsten Gillibrand and Sherrod Brown. I covered Mark Zuckerberg testifying on the Hill for CNN. I loved photographing these gospel singers, this author and this inspiring woman.

I started a site called Past & Present Tense where I write about photos. You can follow it on Instagram to see when it’s updated.

In closing, I work in a business where trust and making connections with people is my stock-in-trade. I feel very fortunate to the subjects who have entrusted me to make their image as well as the wonderful photo editors who continue to support my work. Thank you.

Great write-up in this month's PDN with one of my favorite people to work with - Janet Michaud at Politico. Nice to see a bit of my Trump project mentioned as well. Working with Politico on this resulted in one of my favorite tearsheets ever.

Very pleased to have a photo from my Trump100 project picked for the 2018 PDN Photo Annual. The winning photo and a full gallery of great imagery can be seen on their site.

I read a lot more this year and tried to broaden my music + podcast listening habits. There are only so many hours in the day and I basically missed everything that happened on TV with the exception of Veep and The Crown, both of which I recommend.

Books
I read 71 books so far this year and my absolute favorite was Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. It tells the story of civilization after a virus wiped out most of the population. It felt less in the sci-fi genre than a poetic, human story of familial bonds forged anew and the best and worst our species has to offer in difficult times. 

I also loved A Month in the Country, by J.L Carr. It's the story of a WWI British veteran returning from the horrors of war to restore a mural in a church in the English countryside. It's a meditation on memory, the power of art to heal and frankly a book that made me want to spend a year in England just watching the seasons change. A quick and compelling read. 

Lastly, The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen takes us through the Vietnam War from the Vietnamese perspective, and the remarkable story of moving to America but retaining a loyalty to the narrator's home country. 

A few others that I really enjoyed - Moonglow by Michael Chabon, Walkaway by Cory Doctorow, Bel Canto by Ann Patchett and The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Podcasts

I realized this was the year I stopped listening to terrestrial radio. I love (and give to) my local NPR station, but find myself seeking out specific podcasts to stay informed and go deeper into ideas and stories I've been interested in.

Heavyweight is my favorite new-ish podcast. Hosted by Jonathan Goldstein, the episodes dive into people's pasts, confronting old memories and unresolved issues. What's remarkable about the stories is the way Goldstein lets them derail, nearly fall apart and confronts what often seem to be an endless series of dead-ends before finding a way out (or not). As a starter episode, I recommend #2, "Gregor", which involves an old CD and a musician named Moby.

On Being with Krista Tippett always seems to rewire my brain a bit, make me feel a little more present and aware. A recent episode with New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik is worth a listen. 

Lastly, the Merlin Mann trifecta of Back to Work, Do By Friday and Roderick on the Line. Merlin Mann was once a "productivity guru" and now is a guy who does podcasts. He's funny, thoughtful and, I think, capable of searingly deep insights about how we live, what choices we make and how to be happy. 

For Back to Work, a great episode that I loved is 299: Unhook from the Comparison. 

Do By Friday is more the guilty pleasure-type podcast which he does w/ folks from Cards Against Humanity and is loosely based around a series of weekly challenges.

Roderick on the Line is basically a weekly conversation between him and musician John Roderick. The range of these conversation is remarkable and again, feels a little like an instruction manual of sorts for living in the modern age. 

Music
So much great music came out this year, my favorite songs (according to iTunes) - 

That's all for now, thanks for following through.

This week's Time Magazine features two of my images of Trump's cabinet. I photographed Secretary Carson early in the summer and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt just a few weeks ago. Always nice to see the photos run large.

Yesterday, I spent a fascinating day photographing former FBI director James Comey's testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee for CNN. My photos and a brief interview can be seen here: http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2017/06/politics/comey-hearing-cnnphotos/index.html

View 100 Days of Donald Trump's Washington, at Politico Magazine

100 days ago, as I felt this deep sense of confusion and emotional tumult, I was seized with the need to at least attempt to respond in some way to what I felt here in Washington, DC, where I've lived for the past 12 years.

What followed was an eye-opening, wide-ranging trip through the halls of Congress, and the city at large, as I tried to understand how this city, both locally and federally has been affected by the new administration. I gained a deeper empathy for people on both sides of this issue and met so many passionate, talented people who are trying to have their voices be heard.

A huge thanks to Janet Michaud and Katie Ellsworth for reaching out to me midway through this project and finding a home for it at Politico.

And please pick up a copy of the magazine, which came out today and features these images over *twenty* pages. I could not have dreamed of a personal project being featured like this and I'm very grateful. You can see the full layout here (PDF).

If you like the series, I'd love for you to share it.

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]]>Stephen VossFri, 20 Jan 2017 19:46:35 +0000http://www.stephenvoss.com/blog/2017/1/20/the-morning-of51e44ae3e4b080118c0e0442:52e02522e4b003c0416b1715:58826856414fb56bc2a630aaI went down to photograph the early morning hours of the Presidential Inauguration before headed out for an assignment. It was quiet, and there were notably less people than I saw in 2009. Here's a selection of images from the morning.  

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On October 3, 2014, I drove to the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum in Washington, DC and began making photographs of bonsai trees. I had recently finished walking the border of Washington, DC had been thinking about starting a new personal project centered on these trees, which I had initially seen nearly twenty years ago.

Two years later, I published a book of these photographs based on a successful Kickstarter. The book was featured by National Geographic, Slate,  Atlas Obscura and others and I’ve been interviewed by BBC and CNN and Channel News Asia. This was my first time crowdfunding and making my own book, and I thought it might be helpful to share a few things I’ve learned along the way - about what worked and didn’t work. 

Kickstarter + Finding my first supporters
Getting comfortable promoting this project (and, in essence, promoting myself) was crucial to the success of this project. As a freelance photographer, it took me a long time to really understand the constant marketing marathon you need to run in order to be successful, but I think it made it a lot easier to embark on this project. With that said, it felt a bit terrifying to put myself out there so publicly - whether I succeeded or failed, everyone was going to know about it.

Second point is persistence. Most of the people you reach out to won't respond and most of the ones who do respond won't be interested in helping you. The success of this project was largely based on keeping at it - sending hundreds of emails and pursuing every possible lead. You never know what's going to lead to a great opportunity.

There are a lot of guides out there about running successful Kickstarter campaigns, so I'm not going to go too deep in this, but the key for me was making connections with prominent people in the bonsai community, then seeking out a wider audience through various relevant sites (as linked above).

After launching the Kickstarter, I reached out to hundreds of bonsai experts I had found and sent them a quick note with some images, explaining the project.

Here’s the email I sent:

Hi,
I’m a photographer based in Washington, DC and I’ve been photographing bonsai for the past year at the National Bonsai Museum & Penjing Museum here in DC.

I just launched a campaign this morning to make a book of the photographs on Kickstarter.

You can see it here:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/131074671/in-training-a-book-of-bonsai-photographs

I’d very much appreciate if you would share this within your bonsai community if you think it would be of interest.

You can also see the Facebook page for the project here: https://www.facebook.com/InTrainingBonsaiBook

If you find the project interesting, I’d love to have your support.

Thanks for your time and I look forward to hearing from you,

Stephen

I had some pretty good success with that, getting nice write-ups from prominent members of the worldwide bonsai community:

Harry Harrington - In Training: Photographing the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum

Michael Hagedorn - New Bonsai Book from photographer Stephen Voss

Wayne Schoech - A Post Dated Love Letter

This felt like the foundation of my supporters and once that was done, I began casting a wider net, sending notes to every photography-related site I could find as well as design blogs. This was no small task - I sent out 200+ individual, personalized e-mails, posted on some relevant forums and Facebook groups, and followed up with everyone once the book was out.

In terms of what actually led to people supporting the project, here's a little breakdown from my Kickstarter dashboard.

In the end, I has 222 supporters from 10 countries (more on that later) who pledged $20,398 to support the book. After Kickstarter took its cut, I had $18,290 to go towards printing costs for the book. I felt especially proud that over half of the supporters were new to Kickstarter, meaning they went through the registration process and signup in order to support the project. 

Working with a designer
Hiring a designer to work on this project was the best decision I made. In Polygraph, I found a partner who embraced this project wholeheartedly. First-time bookmakers, I can't emphasize the value in this enough. Polygraph saw beyond just the images to create this beautiful piece of art that you could hold in your hands. At the same time, they dealt with the printer directly - managing color issues, paper choices, CMYK conversions, etc.

Book Printers
Colleagues of mine had worked with Edition One books and I’d always been impressed by the end results, so they were my first choice for this project. I also found their online price estimator invaluable in figuring out how much money I needed to raise to pay for the book. Based on their estimates, 500 copies of the book would come out to $46.80 per book. This felt high, but I knew I’d be working with a company that made beautiful books and it seemed worth it.

My colleagues at Polygraph had been in contact with Edition One over the course of the book design to ensure that everything they were designing into the book would be possible (multiple paper stocks, foil embossing, screen printing on the cover, etc.). At the same time, the book absolutely needed to be in my hands by May 13, 2016, when I’d have my book launch party and exhibition at the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum.

In the middle of March, with the design nearing completion, I received a note from Polygraph saying that Edition One’s initial 4-6 week timeline on making the book would be closer to 8+ weeks. Factoring in shipping, it no longer seemed likely that we’d be able to meet our publishing deadline with them.

At this point, Polygraph made some heroic efforts to line up a new printer and, after a tense few days, we settled on Asia Pacific Offset based in Hong Kong, but, helpfully, with an office in Washington, DC. They were excellent from the beginning, and my jaw dropped when they sent over their estimate for printing. Our initial estimate of around $46.80 per book (for a print run of 500), was now significantly less than half that per book if I printed 2000 copies. I wasn’t surprised that dealing directly with an overseas printer resulted in a less expensive book, but I was positively stunned that I’d be able to print 2000 copies for the cost originally estimated for 500 copies.

Incidentally, they still had to rush shipping and as you can see below, I ended up paying an additional $2100 to have 200 copies air-shipped to me for the book launch. They ended up arriving on May 12, 2016, one day before the book launch.

As an aside - printing 2000 copies of the book with Edition One would’ve worked out to approximately $21.30 per book, plus shipping.

Promotion + Selling

Bonsaibook.net
I created a stand-alone web site just for the book, apart from my regular photography site that also had a store where people could buy the books and prints directly.

Cost: $144/year (through Squarespace)
Verdict: Sold approximately 60 books through the web site so far.

Events
Getting out in front of people to talk about the book was one of the most valuable things I did and continue to do. After my book launch party in May, the photos were exhibited at the Japanese Information and Culture Center in Washington, DC for nearly two months. We held an exhibit opening reception where I gave a talk about the bonsai and Jack Sustic (curator of the museum) actually brought some trees to show and did a bonsai demonstration. 

How did I get the photo exhibit at JICC? I sent the email below and promptly forgot about it.

Hi, 
I'm a photographer based in DC and am working on a book about one of Japan's great cultural exports to the United States: bonsai trees.

I've been photographing the bonsai collection at the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum here in DC for the past year. This is one of the finest collection of bonsai trees outside of Japan and this museum started in 1975 when the Nippon Bonsai Association gave 53 trees. There is a Japanese Pavilion that is being constructed right now that will permanently house the trees.

Right now, I am raising funds to publish this book and you can see the campaign here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/131074671/in-training-a-book-of-bonsai-photographs

I'd love to do something in collaboration with the Japan Information and Culture Center as I think these photos celebrate Japanese culture as well as the strong relationship between the US and Japan. 

I'd also very much appreciate if you could share this link with your Twitter and Facebook followers.

Thanks for your time,
Stephen

A month later they reached out to me to request a meeting and, at that meeting, agreed to hold an exhibition of the work, to begin approximately seven months later. This was one of at least twenty organizations I reached out to, and the only one that responded.

After the reception, I scheduled a number of Artist Talks on weekdays at lunchtime. The exhibition space is in a very busy part of downtown DC and each Monday for the month of August, I would invite people to come in to see the work and talk about it. Each Artist Talk brought in between ten and twenty-five people and the events were a lot of fun. Talking about the book and photos in this more intimate setting allowed for a more conversational presentation and it was gratifying to receive so much positive feedback from people who attended.

Cost: approx. $2000 for exhibition prints + promotional postcards
Verdict: Great experience and notable increase in book sales.

Facebook Advertising
I’ve never run a Facebook ad in my life and am generally pretty disdainful of most kinds of advertising. With that said, I was looking to maximize exposure of the book and thought I’d give it a try. The biggest thing Facebook has going for it is the ability to precisely target your ads (in terms of geography, demographics, interests, etc.), so, for instance, I could run an ad aimed at women who live in Japan, 18-50 years old, who are interested in bonsai, Japanese gardening and/or fine art photography books. Facebook’s massive audience meant that there was a sizable audience to serve ads to even as your ads became more precisely targeted. 

I was able to track click-throughs on the ad that directly resulted both in backing the Kickstarter project and, later, in actual book sales that far exceeded the amount I spent on the ad campaign.

Cost: (approximately) $750 (for both Kickstarter campaign and selling the book)
Verdict: Definitely worth it.

Twitter Advertising
Twitter also lets you precisely target your audience, but with an audience that is about 1/5 of Facebook in terms of MAUs (Monthly Active Users), there simply aren't enough users to serve ads to. It took almost a month to go through my $75 ad budget on Twitter and it resulted in zero sales. 

Cost: $75
Verdict: Not worth it.

Distribution
Baker & Taylor and Ingram are two of the largest book distributors in the world and are challenging for independent photo book publishers to get distributed by them. It's vital to be carried by a larger distributor as it will make it easier for independent bookstores to carry your book. Having to do paperwork/payment for someone selling a single book is not cost-effective and will make it difficult for any bookstore to want to carry your book. By having your book with one of these distributors, they can buy it right alongside the new Dan Brown novel.

These folks will do it for you: http://www.bookch.com/

Cost: $300

Verdict: As of today, 10/28/16, 21 books sold.

Amazon Vine
For a flat fee of $1500, Amazon will distribute and review as many of your books as you’d like. This was the most expensive single promotion I did for the book and I have very mixed feelings about it. On one hand, having more reviews is good and some of the Vine reviews were some of the most insightful and interesting of any that were left. Still, I'm sure I'm not the only one who tends to gloss over reviews marked as "Vine Customer Review of Free Product". See the Amazon reviews for my book here. 

Cost: $1500 (!)
Verdict: Received mostly positive reviews, but I’m undecided as to whether these “bought” reviews carry much weight.

Selling through Amazon
I knew early on that I wanted to sell the book through Amazon to reach the widest possible audience. I also knew I wanted Amazon to handle fulfillment, which would allow the books to be listed as Amazon Prime, which removes a lot of the friction of buying online. The flip side is the percentage Amazon takes out. For a $65 book, I make $29.25 per copy (minus my costs for actually printing the book and shipping it to the Amazon warehouse). 

Cost: 55% purchase discount by Amazon, plus a $99 annual fee, plus shipping book to Amazon (breaks down to about $2/book), pricing outlined here.
Verdict: 35 books sold to date, a minor success at best

Kirkus Review
There is no shortage of "author services" out there that are happy to take your money to ostensibly promote or review your book and feature it on their web site. The vast majority of these services seem like a waste of money at best and, sometimes, an outright scam. 

Kirkus is the largest of the book review services and their reviews are automatically picked up by Amazon, Barnes & Noble and others on the book's listing page, so these reviews tend to carry a bit more weight.

For an indie book publisher, you need to submit the book through "Kirkus Indie", which overwhelmingly caters to ebook writers or print-on-demand books. I wasn't sure that my book was a good fit, but decided to give it a try anyway. After paying the fee and submitting the book, I received the review about six weeks later.

The following month, I received notice that my book was selected as a Featured Review, of which less than 10% of books submitted are chosen. This meant the review would be included in the print publication sent to librarians, publishers, etc.

Cost: $425
Verdict: TBD - no measurable sales from this and I'm undecided as to whether this resulted in actual sales.

As I row over the plain Of the sea and gaze Into the distance, the waves Merge with the bright sky. - Fujiware No Tadamichi Cedar Elm, in training since 1981. This is an out-take from my book of bonsai photos entitled In Training. This project was two years in the making and the book is now available for order. See the link in my profile. Visit the link in my profile to order the book and prints. #bonsai #japan #bonsaitrees #盆栽 #盆景 #분재 #tree #trees #nature #weetrees #acreativedc #washingtondc #washingtonian #exposeddc #igdc #dcphotography #dcfocused #dcist #dctography

A photo posted by Stephen Voss (@stephenvoss) on Aug 1, 2016 at 6:12am PDT

Instagram postings
Over a three month period, I posted a new out-take from the bonsai book every couple of days on my Instagram account. I accompanied each with a bit of Japanese poetry that I thought complemented the image. I can’t recommend the Later app enough for queuing up your Instagram posts. While Instagram doesn’t allow you to actually delay posting, you can use Later to write out each post in its entirety and schedule the time and date it should be posted. On that day, you’ll get an alert on your phone and with a few simple taps, you can post the image, text and appropriate tags. This seemed like the best way to keep a steady stream of new content related to the book out there.

Cost: $9/month
Verdict: Great service and makes it much easier to plan your IG postings (which I posted to Twitter as well).

Bonsai Videos on Facebook
After reading so much about the value of video on Facebook, I decided to create some videos of some of my favorite trees and promote them on my Facebook page for the book. Here’s one example (https://www.facebook.com/InTrainingBonsaiBook/videos/598500716978730/). The videos got a ton of views/shares, but it was hard to quantify their effect or if they translated into actual sales.

Cost: approx. $75 for licensed music
Verdict: Great response, no idea if it meant any sales.

Independent bookstores + design shops
I knew early on that selling to bookstores would be an uphill battle given the cost and size of the book. I compiled a list of indie bookstores (starting here, then also using IndieBound). I sent a personalized note to each bookstore, about 80 in total. Here's an example I sent to the great Pegasus Books in Berkeley, CA:

Hi Pegasus Books,
I had the pleasure of visiting your book store the last time I was passing through Berkeley and wanted to share my new book with you.

For the past two years, I've been photographing bonsai trees and have just self-published a book entitled In Training (2000 copies, ISBN: 9780692585160) of these photos. Attached is the book cover and a few inside photos.

The book retails for $65 USD and is available from Ingram and Baker & Taylor.

The book has already done well at bookshops here in DC, appeal to those interested in gardening, Japanese culture and fine art photography. California has more bonsai practitioners than anywhere else in the country, so I think this book would be especially appealing to your audience.

Thanks for your time, and let me know if you think this would be a good fit at Pegasus.

best,
Stephen

Cost: $0.
Verdict: Labor-intensive and less than 10% of book stores even replied to the email, but a few bookstores (and one design shop) did agree to carry the book and ordered it through the distributor.

Blurbs
I sent copies of the book to a number of people prominent in the bonsai community and received a number of really nice write-ups of the book. I used one on the opening page of my book site.

Cost: Book cost + shipping
Verdict: Very valuable and tangible book sales after people in bonsai community read the reviews.

Other Random Thoughts

Postage
International postage is very expensive and I had Kickstarter supporters from all over the world. As an example, it cost $47.03 to send the book to France. It felt ridiculous to charge that much for international shipping, so I ended up charging a bit less, thereby making less profit on each book.

ISBN + Barcodes
It's important to get an ISBN (which you can apply for before the book is published) and, while you're at it, a barcode as well which is a requirement for selling at Amazon. If you can get this printed on the back of the book, that's great.

In my case, the book cover is made of linen, so I had to order bar code stickers (from this company) that had a special, removable adhesive so the sticker wouldn't damage the book if removed.

Thanks, everyone, for reading. I'd love any feedback and would be happy to answer any other questions you might have. And please feel free to share if you find this useful.

Lastly, if you liked any of the images you saw from the book, you can buy it today.

-Stephen

From Audi to Red Bull, and National Geographic to Fallout 4, Defacto Sound has been designing incredible sounds for high profile clients around the world. Recently, they were in the process of revamping their web site and wanted to create some new headshots that reflected the level of their work and clientele. I spent a fun morning with the team, talking shop and capturing photographs of their incredibly talented team.

Very happy to share this image of David Brock, which the American Photography annual chose as one of their favorite 203 out of 8,909 images. Brock is a fascinating guy - once a Republican and now one of Hillary Clinton's most ardent supporters.

Big thanks to Paul Moakley @ TIME for this shoot.