Hickory for photographers
Sell Photo Books to Your Clients Without Designing Each One
Most studios leave book revenue on the table for one reason: every book sold is an evening of design work you didn't quote for. Hickory removes that cost. The gallery you already delivered becomes a storefront, the book is drafted for you, and the print ships straight to your client.
Start with a gallery you’ve already delivered. No new shoot required.
You set the price, and you keep the difference
You choose the retail price in your own storefront. The only number we set is what a copy costs you, and you see it as one figure rather than a list: a single copy of a 36-page 8.5x11 casewrap hardcover costs you $27.71 — printing, binding, standard US shipping to your client's door, and our flat $8 per copy, together. That figure is per copy and it does not move with your price, so every dollar you add to retail is a dollar you keep. It does not fall on repeat orders either: the tenth single-copy order costs exactly what the first one did.
Sell to everyone in the gallery, not just whoever booked you
The book that sells once to a couple sells six times to a family, and twenty-five times to a recital audience. Because you aren't designing each copy by hand, extra orders cost you nothing but the print. Parent copies, grandparent copies, team copies, a set for the client's head office — the same designed book, reprinted.
No inventory, no boxes in your hallway
Nothing ships to you. Your client orders in the gallery, pays there, and the book is printed and drop-shipped to their address inside two to three weeks. You never touch a parcel, front a print run, or chase an invoice.
Questions photographers ask
Do I have to run a separate storefront?
No. The shop lives inside the client gallery you already send them. They browse the photos and buy the book on the same page, on their phone.
What's the margin on a book, really?
You set retail; a single copy of a 36-page hardcover costs you $27.71 all in, which is printing, US shipping to your client and our flat $8 per copy. Price it at $89 and the difference is yours. That cost is flat per copy no matter how many sell, so the margin on the twentieth book is the margin on the first — the only thing that changes is that you didn't design the twentieth.
Can I sell to a gallery I delivered last year?
Yes, and it's the best way to test this. Upload a gallery you've already delivered — a wedding, a family session, a team day, whatever you have to hand — price it, and send the link to a client list that already loves the photos.
How long until my client has the book?
Printing and delivery run two to three weeks from the order.
Related
Try it on one gallery you’ve already delivered.
Upload a finished gallery and look at the book it drafts. That’s the whole evaluation. Books print and ship to your client in two to three weeks, under your studio’s name.