Hickory for photographers
Hickory vs ShootProof — Sales Tooling, or the Product Being Sold
ShootProof is a business-operations suite for photographers — galleries, contracts, invoicing, a print store, price sheets. It is broader than us and we're not going to pretend otherwise. What it doesn't do is make the album, which is the thing most studios actually stall on.
Start with an event you’ve already delivered. No new shoot required.
ShootProof is wider; Hickory is deeper on one thing
If you need contracts and invoicing in the same tool as your galleries, ShootProof covers ground we don't. Our whole surface area is narrower on purpose: gallery in, designed book out, client buys it, print ships.
The album is the bottleneck, not the invoice
A contract is a solved problem — there are a dozen good ways to send one, and you probably already use one of them. What isn't solved is the five to ten hours per album, or the roughly $144 it costs to outsource that design. Removing that is the only reason to add another tool to your stack.
Straight talk on the physical book
8.5x11 casewrap hardcover, press printed in full color on archival paper, normal gutter. Page count follows the gallery within a 24 to 150 page range. Not lay-flat, not flush-mount. It's the companion book you sell beside your flagship album.
| Feature | Hickory | Them |
|---|---|---|
| Book design | AI drafts it, you edit | You design it yourself |
| Client gallery | Yes | Yes |
| Contracts and invoicing | No | Yes |
| Client checkout in gallery | Yes | Yes |
| Time to a sellable book | Minutes after upload | An evening per album |
| Fulfillment | Drop-shipped, 7–14 days | Lab-dependent |
Questions photographers ask
Can I run both?
Yes, and that's the sensible way to try it: keep ShootProof for the business paperwork and run Hickory on the galleries where you actually want to sell books. Nothing here asks you to move your delivery workflow.
Does Hickory handle contracts?
No. We're not trying to be your whole back office. We're trying to remove the album design evening.
What does Hickory cost?
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.