Your portrait is important



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Every author needs a portrait, for books, websites, blogs, press kits, posters, etc.

Unfortunately, many authors use amateur photos with bad lighting, bad focus and distracting backgrounds.



The price of a portrait shot in a professional photographer’s studio can easily be in the $300-$1,000 range, too steep for many writers who don’t have a big publisher to pick up the check.



Fortunately, there are good low-cost alternatives that few authors think of -- the photo studios inside retail stores. While most of their business involves babies and family Christmas cards, they will take pictures of solitary adults, often at ridiculously low prices (typically $7.99-$65).



The photographer will be thrilled to have a subject who does not vomit on her, or require funny faces to elicit a smile.



If you’re getting one picture, choose a plain white background which can later be altered in Photoshop. Get a CD-ROM, not a bunch of wallet-size prints.



The lady above on the right is ELIYZABETH YANNE STRONG-ANDERSON. SHE WRITES ONLY IN UPPERCASE LETTERS and wrote what is probably the worst book ever published: Birth Control Is Sinful In The Christian Marriages And Also Robbing God Of Priesthood Children!! The lady on the left is financial adviser and bestselling author Suze Orman.