2025 12 28
Sorting through images to make a zine. Chicago, Illinois. August, 2025. © Clayton Hauck
Becoming a (Physical) Photobook Shop Owner in 2026
For last year’s post about becoming a photobook shop owner this year, please see: 2024 12 28
Realm Books exists! Realm Books LLC is a legal entity with a bank account, inventory of many books and zines, and two working photographers at the controls of the ship.
Among all of last year’s resolutions, this is the one that gained the most traction. Had you asked me to guess if it would play out like it has, I would not have suspected it. However, the catalyst came when my now-partner at the bookshop and I met up for beers last winter and ultimately decided to make a go at it. Previously, it was me asking Jack if he wanted to team up on my crazy idea to open a shop. He’d had similar thoughts but I wasn’t able to convince him. Once he eventually came around to the idea, our motivation reach a level of critical mass and the bookshop was formed.
To summarize the year in brief: Realm’s first popup was May 18th and our selection of titles was tiny. Looking back, it’s cute and almost funny to see how quaint our table appeared. After grinding it out for many weeks, our collection grew and the excitement and enthusiasm we heard voiced to us from so many photography lovers kept us pushing forward. For the year, Realm did 21 popups at various locations around town; 1 book fair at Staple + Stitch; 2 photo shows (with David Catalano and Bryan Birks) at my See You Soon studio; 97 books and 27 zines were put into inventory; and one zine was published of my own work under the Realm name.
While this is all very exciting, the realities of running a small business never pause and the constant need to do more things is always there, nagging at you every day. I thought it would be a fun thought experiment to look back at my list of Pros and Cons, which I posted one year ago, before Realm existed, and reply from my current perspective some eight months into the project.
Clayton’s 2024 Pros and Cons, with replies from Clayton’s 2025 Perspective:
PRO: Will gain a ton of experience and understanding of what other photographers are up to. Endless inspiration (aka things to steal)!
This is probably my favorite part about running a bookshop. I wrote a few days ago (see: 2025 12 26) about how I feel like I’m back at school, and it’s this constant stream of new work that I’m being exposed to which is the main reason for this. Sure, you don’t need a bookshop to gain access to these images, however, much like this here blog serves a role in keeping me in check and better focusing my energies, the bookshop does the same. Beyond the books we’ve ordered, I’m now constantly hunting for new things we might be able to put into the shop, and in turn discovering things I would not have previously encountered.
CON: Will possibly have too much exposure to other people’s work, to the point that it will affect my own work a bit too much, in a bad way, or burn out on photography.
This was a serious concern of mine previously but has not been an issue whatsoever. If anything, I’m more inspired than ever to do my own type of work because I now have more confidence that my voice has value and I am capable of putting things into the world that other people will be excited to see.
PRO: Will gain a huge photobook library that will be impressive (to some people)!
Honestly, not counting our bookshop inventory, my collection hasn’t grown dramatically, mostly because I’ve bought less books for myself this year than I have in year’s prior. This is for various reasons (namely: budget conscious, shelves full, and it’s now my job to buy books). But the thing that gets me most excited is not my own personal collection, but what we might be able to build for the shop. One dream vision of mine is to place one copy of each book we stock into a future photobook library that will be available for anyone to check out and browse in a future physical location.
CON: Will have a huge photobook library that I will need to put somewhere and transport somehow (hard!).
Logistics is easily our biggest challenge currently. Realistically, the only reason we’ve been able to make the shop work is because I’ve turned my office into a book warehouse and purchased some large shelving on casters in order to be able to store everything. Considering we are still a tiny operation, I can only imagine how much bigger this challenge can become as we scale. If publishing becomes more of a focus, it will become exponentially more challenging still.
Jack made the comment recently about how he finally understood how publishers will magically “find” boxes of old books they didn’t realize they still had and I totally get it.
PRO: Will make a living and/or have a bit more consistent income through doing something that I love to do (assuming the business does work as I think it would!)
Complicated! When I said logistics was the biggest challenge, I guess I forgot about money. Eight months into this business, we have not paid ourselves anything. All the money made from book sales has gone back into buying more book inventory. When you consider the amount of time we’ve invested into making it all happen, it becomes apparent why nobody has yet done this in Chicago. While it has very much been a passion project, I am still cautiously optimistic we’ll be able to pay ourselves a (very small) salary next year — though “real” money won’t come unless we’re able to scale into a physical space offering things other than just photobooks.
CON: Will spend a lot of my time working in the photobook store, sourcing inventory, packing and shipping (my local post office has 1.9 stars on google. I stopped in there yesterday and they were not accepting customers because “the clerk was out,” as told to us by the apparently-not clerk), and generally doing things that take away my time and opportunities for creating new work of my own vs sharing the work of others in exchange for money.
Bingo! As just mentioned, so much of my time is now spent making Realm happen. On the positive side, the post office concerns have not materialized as we mostly use pickups and do drop-offs at a newly discovered location run by a super nice clerk. That said, we do a majority of our sales at in-person events, so shipping has not yet become the beast it will inevitably become if we are able to scale this thing into something bigger.
PRO: Will make many new connections in the photo industry and likely some new friends as well!
Hell yeah! This one is a big one and has been probably the most rewarding aspect of running the shop thus far. The community aspect of things has been great and I’ve been able to meet and hang with some people I’d previously only known through their work. I can only imagine this will continue and be the driving force that keeps us pushing forward. Just today, a legendary photography ordered a book from us, which I now need to go pack and ship…
CON: Will be forced to do more things I dislike doing, such as legal paperwork, taxes, bureaucracy, posting and responding to people on social media.
Ugh—yes. Figuring out how to pay state sales tax was daunting (still not sure we’re doing it right?!). Tax season is around the corner and we’re not looking forward to learning more bureaucratic necessities. And if our online sales ever pick up steam, learning how to stay in good standing with fifty different states (not even considering international shipping) will be a full-time job in itself.
CON: lots and lots and lots of breaking down boxes.
Eh, I’ve learned to kinda enjoy it!
Bonus CON: I wanted to add a new entry from this year. Perhaps my biggest takeaway thus far from running the shop is that my personal opinions are less important than I expected and the shop is a public-facing entity that needs to approach the world in ways that I myself would not. Managing egos and expectations from your customers, non-customers, suppliers, and artists is challenging! Just yesterday, we were accused of being sexist, which both stings and becomes a time-consuming process of handling in a sensitive matter. Remembering that you need to separate yourself from the business will forever be a challenge, but also one I am ready and excited to take on, as I’m confident I will only grow and benefit from it.
I’m not sure if any of this is interesting to anyone but myself, but I’m mostly doing this post to give myself a warm pat on the back. Setting up the shop is probably the thing I’m most proud of this year and optimistic it has a shot at being something that defines the rest of my career. Just yesterday, we went and looked at a spot that could become the future home of Realm!
Anyway, back to work…
-Clayton
This is one entry in a multi-part series of self-exploration and contemplation-out-loud in advance of the new calendar year. Some of this may happen; none of this may happen.
For the complete list of Year-End Contemplation posts from 2025, please see: 2025 12 25.
For the complete list of Year-End Contemplation posts from 2024, please see: 2024 12 25.
