二零一六年九月

記得在八月的時候，在一個藝術展，看見了一段文字，讓我直到九月了還依然記住。它的標題是『夢想』，文字寫著『我們走在迷人之路，竟然成了迷路之人』。爺爺奶奶的時代，是戰亂之年，只要能『活著』就好了；爸爸媽媽的年代，必須努力討生活，追求的是『過得好』；來到了我們的年代，大家都問『你的夢想是什麼？』感覺生活，為的就是追逐夢想。彷彿大家都在追逐夢想，感覺夢想好像很迷人，其實是因為『活著』不再受威脅，生活已經算得上『過得好』，那人生目標只好定在追蹤『夢想』了。

二零一六年八月

每年八月在檳城都有個非常厲害，跟攝影有關的嘉年華（Obscura Festival），有展覽、有講座、有課程、有國際攝影書展，吸引了很多外國出色的攝影人過來。身為一個檳城人，有了這個方便，可以出席這些展覽而感恩。

二零一六年七月

七月五日，我終於把『Home Town』PhotoZine 可以開始預購的事公布於臉書，迫不及待想把書都給賣了。由於臉書上的朋友的分享，我一開賣就賣了不少本，非常感激大家對我的信任與愛戴。無法想像，如果我一本都賣不出的話，那將會是怎麼樣的打擊啊。老實說，我真的很喜歡我製作出來的攝影誌，但說到大家會不會掏腰包出來買，我心裏真的沒底。書賣得出去，真的是鬆了一口氣。我已經開始想下一本要怎麼製作了。

days of making photobooks

I had made a lots of photo book for myself, before I decided to give a go to self publish one. Today, I had successfully published 「Penang Record 2015」and recently a photo zine 「 Home Town」. And now I recalled, how far the journey was, to have a courage to self publish a photo book. I remembered at that moment I decided to publish one, I persuaded myself, “Give a go or give up!” And I give a go.

在我還沒有開始發行攝影集之前，我為自己製作了很多攝影集。今天為止，我成功自己發行了『Penang Record 2015』和剛剛才發行的『Home Town』攝影誌。現在回想起來，我到底走了多長的路，才鼓起勇氣去發行我的一本攝影集？記憶猶新，當我決定製作要發行的攝影集時，我是這樣告訴自己的。『豁出去或放棄！』，我豁出去了。

where to promote your photo books and photo zines?

Intro 序

You finally did it, you are so happy you had self-published a photo book or a photo zine. You posted them on facebook, you get a lots of likes and supportive comments from your fb friends and all, but you hardly sell them out. You may even have an website setup, with paypal business account and shipment calculation services ready, but still you don’t really sell them out except from some of your close friends.

You know your book or zine is not bad and with a reasonable price, you know the next thing to work out are marketing and distribution. You are not a professional marketing person, most of the self-publishers are not professional marketer don’t they? and you have not much budget on marketing too. So where should you start promoting your book and zine?

Not long ago, I self-published a photo zine, it's called Home Town. This photo zine compiled with my street photographs from 2014 to 2016. It was my debut zine, and I wanted to promote it so I get to reach out to the people who are interested in it. I begin to research about the photo book and photo zine market over the internet. I realized I should list down all my research findings so that I can keep track them so that future day I can refer them back, and also it benefits the next newcomers too. I’ll keep this post update, and I look forward to your comments too, regarding on any opportunities and alternative ways to promote our self-published works.

你終於做到了，你非常高興因為你終於出版了一本攝影集或攝影誌。你把消息放上臉書，你得到很多讚跟支持的留言，但你並沒有把書賣得很好。你可能已經建立了賣書的網站，有了paypal商業戶口和郵費計算功能，但你並沒怎麼把書賣出，除去幾個跟你熟悉的朋友之外。

你知道你的攝影集或誌還蠻不錯看的，價錢也公道，你知道接下來你必須去用功在經營與行銷上了。你不是行銷專家，很多獨立出版人也不怎麼樣對吧？而已你並沒有過多的預算在行銷上。那麼，你應該從何開始去推銷你的書呢？

不久前，我自費出版了一本攝影誌，叫作『Home Town』。此攝影誌收藏了2014-2016年間所拍攝的街頭照片。那算是我的處女作，我想推銷它，讓更多對此攝影風格感興趣的人找到它。我開始搜尋關於攝影集跟攝影誌的市場網路。我覺得我應該把它們一一列出來，以待未來的日子裡可以繼續參考，並且也可以幫助下一位獨立出版人。我會繼續不斷的更新此篇章。當然我也期待你的留言，請告訴我更多可以讓獨立出版人推銷書本的機會與方法。