Photobook design and sales for customers
Most of my photography work is in events that have ranged from one day to two weeks. One my projects is two sessions of youth summer day camp with the local sheriff's office. Last year was my first year taking photos for it and I hadn't figured it all out. On the graduation day, the campers meet the sheriff and have their photo taken with him. I tried bringing my printer on the last day to print the photos fro them to take home. I highly doubt I'll do that again. The printer wasn't as fast as I had expected and I had to print sixty photos.
This year I've thought about taking the photos, ordering them on Shutterfly (I could get them for free with my Coke Rewards points instead of buying ink), and mailing them instead. I will make another slideshow that will be projected from my laptop to a wall mounted television. I also had a portfolio book printed from Shutterfly. I designed it myself since I used to be an art student.
I'm interested in designing a small book for each session which will be available to purchase a day or so after the camp so that I have time to design it. On graduation day, I could have some books with photos from previous camps so parents would have an idea what would be in said book. Is there a website that I could design a book and sell it online without it coming to me to send out? I'd consider ordering some and sending them out as people request them but if parents say they'd be interested and change their minds, I don't want to have any laying around. The ideal system would be one in which I give the parents a link, they go to a site where they can buy a book that's been slightly marked up so I can make a small profit, and the site transfers my profit to PayPal or whatever. I've been at events where the photographer has a link to purchase prints but I don't know if there are any with books available. When I volunteer for an organization I've been with long before I was taking photos, I would donate all the profits. I have no doubt that someone would by a book since their major event brings in about 4,000 people from across the state.
How does this plan sound? Any websites yall recommend?
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