Selling My Body

[Choate]

Hopefully got you with that title. What are the chances it would be profitable?

I'm talking about for book covers. I recently read the erotica thread in the Self Publishing Forum and a key note was that most romance/erotica ebooks have a cover featuring a topless dude or a smoking hot female. And we all know how important covers are.

Hypothetically, if you had a 10/10 body, could take professional pictures, do you think it'd be profitable to license your picture out to ebook authors for a fee / royalties on their sales? Or take requests? Or are these authors most likely just ripping stock photos?

 

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[Bigguns50]

Just try it man.
I don't know how the whole thing works but I would imagine it starts with getting professional pics done. Sending them to talent / modeling agencies. Maybe you have to get an Agent...don't know.
Maybe put your pic out on the web...making sure it's protected so no one can copy it.

There are beautiful people splashed all over ! Gotta be some room for you. Go for it !

 

[smarty]

Hopefully got you with that title. What are the chances it would be profitable?

Honestly I'm tired of this bullshit "title-bait". Everyone and their dog is faking the title here. I miss some old authentic posts on this forum...

 

[Choate]

Honestly I'm tired of this bullshit "title-bait". Everyone and their dog is faking the title here. I miss some old authentic posts on this forum...

Are you saying its not an authentic post because one would be selling their body via book covers versus prostitution? Still "selling my body" imo. Maybe I should've left what you quoted out, because I gave you the wrong idea.

Sorry for advertising Pepsi and giving you coke.

 

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[DaRK9]

There are a ton of stock models out there and tons of agencies, how would you be different?

I know this because I was a photographers assistant for a bit. You wouldn't believe how many people were getting pictures for modeling portfolios. BUT how many were marketing to romance eBook authors? No idea.

 

[Choate]

There are a ton of stock models out there and tons of agencies, how would you be different?

I know this because I was a photographers assistant for a bit. You wouldn't believe how many people were getting pictures for modeling portfolios. BUT how many were marketing to romance eBook authors? No idea.

That last sentence is the key. The idea may not be feasible solely because someone might not want the same guy on their cover as 1000 other romance eBooks.

 

[DaRK9]

That last sentence is the key. The idea may not be feasible solely because someone might not want the same guy on their cover as 1000 other romance eBooks.

I would pay models for a few photos and market them to eBook authors. When you need more photos, pay out or just charge a "finders fee".

 

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[yveskleinsky]

I think your best bet is to just email some romance authors and tell them that you'd love to break into romance/erotica covers, and what are their thoughts--what would they like to see/buy? Find out if there are some needs in this area, and then go from there.

 

[jazb]

haha. reminds of the time some guy on a bodybuilding forum found someone selling huge portraits of him on ebay. they were massive canvases. he was making a killing too.

 

[GuestUser113]

A simple search on Amazon top sellers could do you wonders. Instead of coming on here and saying "How about this idea?". Why not email those top 100 sellers? How are you going to solve a need? Adding value? Only way you will know is by emailing them. Before you do that. How are you going to distinguish yourself from any other person who does professional book covers? Are you simply giving photos and they do all the hard work?

http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-...bs_nav_kstore_2_154606011/190-9484581-5427638

 

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[ChickenHawk]

A simple search on Amazon top sellers could do you wonders. Instead of coming on here and saying "How about this idea?". Why not email those top 100 sellers? How are you going to solve a need? Adding value? Only way you will know is by emailing them.

Actually, I think this is a great question for the forum, since so many of us now are writing romance. And I'd definitely be interested to hear what other authors here say.

To answer the original question, I can say firsthand that it's not always easy to find that perfect pix of a smokin' hot male torso in the right pose for a book cover. I get my cover artwork from istock photo, but I looked at other sources too, and IMO, there wasn't nearly the selection I would have anticipated. I think that if you truly do have a terrific body, especially if your abs and chest are drool-worthy, it's worth a try. But make sure your photos are really super-high quality. Look at ebook covers and see if yours can stand against them. Make sure the background is professional too.

If you can make it work, I think your idea has a ton of merit. It might be a nice source of some passive income if you get a good catalog of pictures.

(Edit: Additional note...I wasn't bothered by the thread title. I thought it was clever. But I must confess that I only clicked on it for morbid curiosity. I'm betting more forum fiction authors would've chimed in if you'd titled it something like "Selling My Body for Book Covers", because then we would've thought, "Oooh, something we can provide good input on...")

 

[GuestUser113]

Actually, I think this is a great question for the forum, since so many of us now are writing romance. And I'd definitely be interested to hear what other authors here say.

I stand correct.

 

[ChickenHawk]

do you think it'd be profitable to license your picture out to ebook authors for a fee / royalties on their sales? Or take requests? Or are these authors most likely just ripping stock photos

Oh hey, an additional note...I don't think authors would consider giving up a percentage of their royalties. But I could see them either paying you, or more likely, if you can post your photos on one of those sites (like istock photos or wherever), you can sell the same photo multiple times. For my books, I saw someone else using the same image, so I know that particular image of some topless dude was sold at least two times, and probably very like more.

 

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[Magik]

A much bigger winner would be to create an entire stock photo website specifically for romance/erotic authors. What I am talking about is something similar to Shutterstock, except niche specific for that industry. You could have photos that you own yourself, of you or people you know perhaps, but others could upload their photos and sell licenses, you get a cut and they get a cut. Other good photos you could have would be BDSM stuff: handcuffs, chains, whips, etc. Plus, pics of men and women. You make money off of the work of others, you merely own the marketplace.

If you're looking for small money, do the modeling thing. If you're looking for a Fastlane idea, I just gave it to you. There was just an INSIDERS's call about the pub industry, and something MJ talked about is how the bigger need is selling shovels to the miners. I'm not sure what it would take to make it work, but the business model certainly does work, Shutterstock has proven that. Clearly a demand as well, given how many romance/erotic authors there are. The challenge is making sure the photos are good enough to be on the site. You don't want a bunch of crap on there, that will only drive away potential customers. Filtering out the crap would be time consuming, some sort of barrier to entry for both male and female models would be necessary. Remember, the real money is always found by digging deeper and filling a larger need, on a larger scale.

 

[ChickenHawk]

A much bigger winner would be to create an entire stock photo website specifically for romance/erotic authors.

Yes! In fact, I was kind of surprised that something like this didn't already exist...until I started searching for cover photos. And dang, did it EVER take up a lot of time. This really is a spectacular idea, IMO. I could see a name like coverpix or something similar.

 

[Choate]

After reading your responses, I definitely dug a bit deeper. I could even create a website and merely act as an intermediary.

1) Become skilled in deciphering good cover pics from bad.
2) Create a system for deciding whether or not somebody's pic is good enough to make it on the site.
3) Host the website for stock photo submissions.
4) Allow users to upload their cover photos for bidding, and then when a writer purchased the photo, it would be removed, and I would take a small cut.

I really like how this is shaping up to be, and I discovered the need right here within this own forum, by reading the writer's section.

Edit: guess I found the first competitor, eroticstockphotos.com. But this only means that there must be a need for it.

 

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[RBefort]

Edit again...don't want to clog your thread with useless opinion. Ignore this.

 

[ChickenHawk]

Edit: guess I found the first competitor, eroticstockphotos.com. But this only means that there must be a need for it.

Dang! Of course, you're right that it means there's a need for it. I find it interesting though that I looked for such a thing about six months ago, and didn't find it. It makes me wonder if they're not doing a great job of getting the word out. Also, just taking a quick browse, the images are highly sexualized, but not necessarily romantic. And they're not targeted specifically for book covers. I could see using one of their pix if for example, i were writing an article entitled "the joys of BDSM." But I'm not sure they'd be my to-go place for a book cover. Hard to say for sure though! (Edit: Taking a closer look, they do have some really nice shirtless male model shots, and I'll probably consider them for my next book cover. And, it looks like the site might be new. Interesting how things like this pop up to fill a need.)

4) Allow users to upload their cover photos for bidding, and then when a writer purchased the photo, it would be removed, and I would take a small cut.

I like where you're going with your plan. As added insight though, I wouldn't want to bid on a photo. I'd want to know how much it is, and then be able to "buy" it. If I had to bid, I'd probably just keep on going, just because I'm always so pressed for time and would rather look for a sure thing. If I were a photographer, I'd also want to be able to sell (license) my photo repeated times. If you go to istock photo, I believe there's a feature that tells you how many times a photo has been licensed. Some of the better torso shots have been licensed a bunch of times. But that doesn't really seem to stop us authors from buying the image(s). Under your scenario, one challenge would be (IMO) photographers wouldn't be willing to sell their images for a single use when they can sell them for repeated use elsewhere. And, if they WERE willing to sell them for a single use, the amount of money they'd need for the image would probably exceed what an author is willing to pay.

Just food for thought!

 

[Darren1]

Considering the state of the Internet, I really do not think that they would make a ton of money. Especially if we consider that we have unlimited access to ‘hot people’ (they are literally a picture and a SnapChat away) what is to say that someone would be worth a ton of money like that. If you wanted say 100 dollars, why shouldn’t someone else just do it for 20?

 

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[Choate]

Considering the state of the Internet, I really do not think that they would make a ton of money. Especially if we consider that we have unlimited access to ‘hot people’ (they are literally a picture and a SnapChat away) what is to say that someone would be worth a ton of money like that. If you wanted say 100 dollars, why shouldn’t someone else just do it for 20?

Good point, but why could I then just not do it for $9.99 and even undercut the other competitor that's out there right now?

What I think would be best is to create a site that allows users to upload their photos and license it out for X amount of times, at a price they set, then getting a profit and then the site gets a cut as well for each time. To add value to that, we could have an automated system or designer that takes the photo that the user bought and creates a cover out of it for $x additional. Bringing convenience to the buyer, because now they don't have to go out and seek a separate designer, when the service could all be brought in-house.

The idea allows for all hot people to try to make money off of their 'hotness' versus going into professional modeling, porn, etc. It also provides affordable covers for people in the specific book genre.

I'm thinking of something like teespring but for book covers.

 

[rexxkai]

Honestly I'm tired of this bullshit "title-bait". Everyone and their dog is faking the title here. I miss some old authentic posts on this forum...

this is what happens when the IceCreamKid creates a viral thread on copywriting.

everyone and their dog starts using copywriting XD

 

[smarty]

this is what happens when the IceCreamKid creates a viral thread on copywriting.

everyone and their dog starts using copywriting XD

Copywriting should be more about promoting value and getting targeted readers, than promoting junk shit and attracting comments like this one (mine).

 

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[rexxkai]

Copywriting should be more about promoting value and getting targeted readers, than promoting junk shit and attracting comments like this one (mine).

u mad?

not sure if you recognized that my post was a joke, but im not gonna argue over you for this.