Hickory for photographers
IPS Without the Living-Room Visit — Sell Books From the Gallery Link
In-person sales works for a reason: nobody buys an album from a price list, they buy it from a finished thing they can see. The cost is the evening — the drive, the projector, the design work you did on spec beforehand. Hickory keeps the mechanism and drops the evening. Your client opens their gallery and the finished book is already there.
Start with an event you’ve already delivered. No new shoot required.
Why the designed draft is the sales tool
A gallery of 600 files asks the client to imagine a book. A drafted book, with their cover on it, asks them to buy one. Hickory generates that draft automatically from the gallery, so every client sees a finished product without you speculatively designing for clients who never order.
Everyone in the room can order, not just the client in front of you
An IPS session reaches one household. A gallery link reaches the whole family and, for a team or recital, all twenty-five of them. They order on their own phones, on their own schedule, and each order is drop-shipped to its own address.
You still set every price
Nothing here caps what you charge. You set retail in your storefront; our print cost is the only fixed number — $20.50 landed on a 36-page hardcover, one copy, US shipping included, and flat per copy however many sell. The pricing psychology of IPS still works, you just aren't driving to it.
Questions photographers ask
Won't I sell less without the in-person pitch?
Per client, possibly. Across a client list, usually not — because every client gets the pitch instead of the handful who agree to a session, and each of those clients can order more than one copy.
Can I still do IPS and use this?
Yes — nothing here replaces a session you want to run. Open the drafted book on a laptop during the session and the client can check out on the spot from the same gallery link, then order again later from their phone.
What does it cost to run?
Opening a studio is free — set one up, upload a gallery, and look at the book it drafts before you pay us anything. You set the retail price your client sees, and you keep what's left after print cost: a 36-page hardcover lands at $20.50 for a single copy with US shipping included. We have not set a studio subscription price yet, so we are not going to post one. The pricing page has the full cost breakdown and a form to be told first when the number is decided.
Related
Try it on one event you’ve already shot.
Upload a finished gallery and look at the book it drafts. That’s the whole evaluation. Books print and ship to your client in 7–14 days, under your studio’s name.