self publishing

[john_mauser]

Hi, I was just looking for some thoughts from any photographers who

have gone the way of self publishing or have looked into it. I'm a

black and white landscape photographer who wold like to eventually

get my photos into coffee table books. In a few years I would like

to do a book of photos of Coastal North Carolina, I would most likely

try to find a publisher for this one since it would be sold state-

wide and at large book retailers. But I would also like to try a

coffee table book(self published) of about 50-70 photographs of the

area I grew up in. It would be fine art B&W's of a county in NC

centered around farming, fishing, and a historic town. This book

would probably only have a run of around 500 books and would be

locally distributed. I know it's hard to publish a book that's going

to be so small, but I really want to do this. My photos sell well in

this town and I think people would really gravitate towards this book

since nothing like this has been done. Any thoughts on how hard this

is going to be. Any recomendations on printers? Thanks, John

www.johnmauser.com

[anders_gelbheit]

Some guys on rangefinderforum.com just self-published a book of their photographs using a site called lulu.com. The book looks very nice, but I have no idea how hard this all was. Perhaps the site or the RFF guys will be able to shed some light on this.

[randall ellis]

If you want to sell through retail stores, you should talk to them first. Many chain type stores only sell books from established publishers and will not deal with independents. I know that the local shop back in Kentucky sold locally published books but they were certainly the exception to the rule. The subject matter you are working with is the type of thing that a university press might be interesting in so you may find that avenue worth looking into. Typically, these types of presses make a fixed number of books in a single printing and then that's it. The up side is that you can work the 'limited edition' angle.

 

As for printing your own book commercially, there are a number of vanity presses out there, but you may find the cost high, especially if you want to use a nice photo quality paper. Places like lulu.com, where the RFF group published, make nice products but you are left to market your book yourself, which can be daunting and they often have a minimum order and an initial setup fee.

 

I would recommend against the Ophoto/Shutterfly softbound books because the bindings are not very solid. The paper is photo paper, but the bindings are simple glued bindings that don't have an overly impressive appearance and the covers are really not that nice. I have not seen the hardbound books they produce so I can't comment on those at this time. The upside is there is no setup fee and no minimum order.

 

Binding your own images printed on photo paper is also an option you should consider. Binding books is not as difficult as you would think and when you compare the costs, you may find it an option worth considering. You can use a better paper and create very nice custom covers that could really add to the value of the book. Another advantage would be that you only make what you need, with perhaps one or two in reserve at any given time. The drawback would be that it takes time to make the prints and bind them.

 

Let us know how it works out!

 

- Randy

[bob_lazzarini]

John,<p>

Check this site out...<p>

 

<a href="http://wally.rit.edu/cary/CP_publications/CP_DigitalDesign.html">Cary Press - Digital Book Design and Publishing</a><p>

The book is listed at...

 

<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0970713800/ref=wl_it_dp/102-2959235-6850501?%5Fencoding=UTF8&coliid=I1RD2NG9XKXFJG&v=glance&colid=3OOEY50NLOYJT">Amazon.com</a>

<p>

FWIW, I'm not related to the author nor employed by R.I.T.<p>

Cheers and Best of Luck!

[john_mauser]

Thank you.