Self Publishing

[gene thornton]

<p>I run the search for this and everything that came up is 2 - 3 years old, I have the same questions about this concerning your experiences with a project of this nature. I was hoping for some current experience and suggestions<br>

I have determined that some of these POD companies are not to interested in helping with image and pixel sizes and to make matters worse some of their free software does not work.It might appear they just want your money and then the photographer can only hope for the best.<br>

Are all of these problems common or am I just having bad luck?</p>

<p>Any help will be appreciated,<br>

Gene Thornton</p>

 

[gdw]

<p >Gene, what are you publishing? Is it something for family and friends or is it for general consumption? There are basically two different types of POD. One is geared for the person that wants to publish their own book rather than going through a publisher or has been turned down by publishers. There is another level such as Blurb, Mpix, and dozens of others that are for single or small runs. There is a world of difference between the two.</p>

<p > </p>

<p >I have published several books through Blurb, nine or so, and have four in the process presently. I am on a PC so I can’t speak for Mac, but I have had no problems with the software. The text portion doesn’t come up to a dedicated word processor but it is getting better all the time. Blurb just made a major change in their software. You can now edit templates or create your own templates. I keep a photo journal that I work on several times a week. I have never had so much fun putting together a book as I am on my current journal because at last I can really put it together my way without resorting to pagination software. </p>

<p > </p>

<p >There is also MagCloud if you want to publish a magazine rather than a book. </p>

<p > </p>

<p >If you are looking for the one or small production printer like Blurb, I would be more than happy to try to answer your questions.</p>

<p > </p>

[gene thornton]

<p>Thanks for your response Gary, my project is intended for general sales in gift shops and/or some of the establishments that are included, hopefully the local tourist commission will also be interested.<br>

I first looked at LuLu but I have decided not to mess with them for several reasons. I down loaded the software from BookSmart and immediately found it had spy ware included so I removed that, now it locks up my computer (PC) when i try to use it. So far they have not responded to my email regarding that problem.<br>

This is my first shot at this and I find it somewhat frustrating.<br>

I have downloaded a book by Mark Levine which spells out some of the dos & don't s of which I am in the process of reading. At this point I am beginning to wonder it I will ever get this accomplished. As the more I read the more it seems it will cost, me being a totally unknown I simply can;t go overboard, the money tree died.<br>

Thanks,<br>

Gene</p>

[Spearhead]

<p>If you downloaded Booksmart from Blurb, there is no way it could have spyware in it. If you downloaded it from a third party, the question is why? </p>

<p>POD is not really suitable for resale because of the price. Even in volume, the cost per book is way too high for wholesale. POD trades economy of scale for reasonable price at low volume.</p>

[leicaglow]

<p>Hi Gene, I did my first book on Blurb in January, on Stand Development. I have a more coffee-table retrospective book coming out an a week or so, that will go with an exhibit. I have several more books in the works that are part photo and part fiction, but I think it will go to Lulu.</p>

<p>Here is what I know of the services I have used:<br>

<strong>Blurb: </strong> Pretty good experience.<br>

Image quality: B- for B&W, Color, A. I would give them about a 10-15 point boost on the PhotoShop brightness scale, and I do calibrate my monitors.<br>

Price: C. Middle of the road.<br>

Ability to make a profit: B. There's still room for profit.<br>

Software: B, though the last version's auto save drove me nuts. The newest version is pretty good. The only thing I would like is the ability to create a book and have it do its best to resize it if I want a different size.<br>

Marketing help: C. Not a lot of help. It's sort of up to the writer.<br>

Binding: B. A little rickety.<br>

<strong>Lulu: </strong> I haven't actually published there myself, but have seen some other books that friends have done. I would not hesitate to use them if I were printing mainly a text-rich book.<br>

Image Quality: C. Better quality paper would help<br>

Price: A. Pretty affordable and the volume discounts are very attractive. They also run a lot of specials on printing lately.<br>

Ability to make a profit: A. Lots of room for margins<br>

Software: Non existent. You have to do your own page layouts and upload them. A bit of a hassle.<br>

Marketing help: A+. they have one of the best marketing programs in the business, and really help you promote the book. They now do a deal with Amazon to include your book on their site, and I think Barnes and Nobel.<br>

Binding: A. The books I've handle have publisher quality binding.<br>

<strong>CreateSpace (Amazon.com's): </strong> I've seen books from there and they are pretty similar in quality to that of Lulu. I would probably choose Lulu for two reasons: A little broader marketing scope, and not as many dang rules about ISBN codes and UPC codes as Amazon.<br>

Image Quality: C.<br>

Price: B. A tad more expensive than Lulu when I looked, and when you add in the cost of startup, it is more expensive. They don't require an order to get going though. Blurb, for example, won't publish your book until you buy one. That's a pretty good idea anyway<g>.<br>

Ability to make a profit: B.<br>

Software: None, it's all your own page layouts and uploads.<br>

Marketing help: A-. Anytime you can show up on Amazon.com's site, it can't be a bad thing.<br>

Binding: A. The books I've handle have publisher quality binding.<br>

<strong>Asuka Books: </strong> These are done in my hometown, so I have to be careful what I say, but the books are stunning if done properly. Their claim to fame is really wedding books, but I include them because a) they are somewhat affordable, and b) the quality is a level above everyone else's.<br>

Image Quality: A. It would be an A+ if it looked lke NYGS printing, but it's not quite the same.<br>

Price: C-. Spendy.<br>

Ability to make a profit: D. Not likely you can make a lot of money on your book, unless you're a wedding photographer charging up the ying yang for it.<br>

Software: None. You have to do your own layout. A friend of mine did his book through them and it really suffered because he didn't know how to lay it out. But you could see Asuka did the best they could with what they could control.<br>

Marketing help: None. It's not really what they do.<br>

Binding: A. The books I've handle have publisher quality binding.<br>

__________<br>

If you find this helpful, make a donation to... oh, sorry, wrong forum. Anyway, I went through the same process you are going through, and realizing that things change all the time. So it's okay to ask. I can also say that I've seen books from Winkflash and MPix, and while they look very nice, the bindings were very flimsy. I should have added this to the review.... Okay, I'll go back and do that. Ask any questions you might have.</p>

[monika_epsefass]

<p>I had a book published with Blurb, and I cannot agree with all of Michael's comments.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Image quality: B- for B&W, Color, A. I would give them about a 10-15 point boost on the PhotoShop brightness scale, and I do calibrate my monitors.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>If your monitor is properly calibrated, and you work everything out in sRGB, it's just like out of the monitor. I was amazed about the accuracy. Nevertheless, I know there is a difference between PC and Mac, the latter always appearing slightly darker.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Price: C. Middle of the road.<br /> Ability to make a profit: B. There's still room for profit.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Ehem... the price is OK, compared to other services. They have a policy calculating per 40 (+40) pages, which I find very clever. Other companies start with 25 pages, and then add +5, so you quickly run up huge sums for a book. About profit... well, did I want this for profit? Not really, so I cannot speak about that. But you have to add quite some to have some tiny income from this, and sell yourself well. I guess it's easier if you buy a huge quantity of books and sell them yourself, e.g. to your local bookstore or giftshop, who will do the sales for you.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Software: B, though the last version's auto save drove me nuts. The newest version is pretty good. The only thing I would like is the ability to create a book and have it do its best to resize it if I want a different size.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>The last time I have worked with Blurb was around New Year, so if they have a new software version, I hope that it's better, in particular if you combine pictures and text - beware of text breaks, because you will spend nights proofreading! Else, the software is logical: it tells you what size picture is best for what size image on the page. Smart.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Marketing help: C. Not a lot of help. It's sort of up to the writer.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>"Please read our FAQs"... yeah, thank you. If you ask a question, though, it will be answered in about 12 hours (given the time difference I have)</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Binding: B. A little rickety.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>I disagree. But maybe this depends on the binding you chose - I ordered in hardcover, and the books were excellent. They have softcover, too, but if I take the time to make up a nice book, I would not really dream about having it published in a softcover version...</p>

<p>Just my two.</p>

[Brad_]

>>> Binding: B. A little rickety.

 

What does that mean? I've ordered books with Burb and found the binding, both hard and soft, to be fine.

[leicaglow]

<p>Hi Monika and Brad, I compare these books against good publishers, like that which might be published by New York Graphic Society for Ansel Adams, Westons, etc.</p>

<p>Image quality is nowhere near that of a regular high end book publisher. As for image brightness, that's my experience, but that doesn't mean it's yours. My first book on Blurb was also printed off, so there were orange and cyan lines around the edges of the B&W. A reprint was better, but B&W is still not up to par with a good printer. Monika, I don't know if your images were color or B&W, but as I indicated color was very nice while B&W was pretty mediocre.</p>

 

<blockquote>

<p>The last time I have worked with Blurb was around New Year, so if they have a new software version, I hope that it's better...</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Yes, there has been a new version since then. It is much better.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Please read our FAQs"... yeah, thank you. If you ask a question, though, it will be answered in about 12 hours (given the time difference I have)</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Marketing help is not the same as customer service help. I never used customer service, so I didn't rate it. But Blurb really does very little to help you actually sell the book, unlike Lulu who promotes books on their website (in fact their website looks like a book store), and also to Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.</p>

<p>As for rickety bindings, both hardback and soft cover are of average quality. All of my books "crack" when you open them up for the first few times, and loosen up pretty quickly. A good binding will not do this. If you look at a Blurb book that has been handled at all, the gap between the binding and spine begins to grow, and the binding gets uneven. You should see an even arc where the pages meet (on a hardback), but Blurb books have an uneven look. You may not notice this on a smaller book, but mine was 120 pages, which gives the spine a bit more of a workout. While the binding is acceptable, it is <em>not </em> a good binding, if you're into fine art books, anyway.</p>

<p> </p>

[Charles_Webster]

<p>I did a book with LULU last year and was completely dissapointed with the color reproduction quality. Nice paper, nice binding, awful color.<br>

They do not publish profiles for their printers, so it's "by guess and by gar" for getting the color right, and they didn't. When I complained, their customer service reps just said "too bad, that's the way it is"<br>

I would not use LULU again.<br>

<Chas></p>

[monika_epsefass]

<blockquote>

<p>I compare these books against good publishers, like that which might be published by New York Graphic Society for Ansel Adams, Westons, etc.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>That's a different category to being Michael Axel, isn't it? ;-) But you're right - a decent publishing house should be capable of providing serious results. My books were not that thick, about 50 pages, so no worries there, but with 120 pages in large format or so, I believe the stress on the spine is quite high.</p>

<p>I don't know Lulu at all. Guess their name is their URL, too? My problem was that I was looking into companies printing books that are not plain photo books, but rather your journal variety with lots of text. There is nothing like that in Germany really; all you get are photo books printed on photo paper, and tremendously expensive for what they are.</p>

 

[leicaglow]

<p>Monika, I think a NYGS book is the standard by which these self publishers should be held. The struggle with self publishing seems to be balancing quality with profit. Following Blurb for a several years now (I'm a book fanatic), I've seen the quality improve dramatically. Let's hope it keeps going this way.<br>

One more thing, Monika, you bring up a good point about publishing in Europe. I believe Blurb has a production facility in Amsterdam. I'm not sure the others are printing in Europe. That could be important in terms of cost of shipping, which should have been another criteria on my list.</p>

[gene thornton]

<p>Thanks everyone for your input, since my original question I purchased a book by Mark Levine which sorts out most of the fine print and pricing. When comparing the royalties of these publishers I find the photographer would have to sell a truck load of books to make any worthwhile profit.<br>

Myself being a beginner in this publishing field I hesitate to do it for peanuts, as I am sure y'all know a lot of time and effort goes into a project like this. I never thought of going with the big guys, however even with the costs involved Mill City Press has some appeal to me. I waiting for their reply regarding landscape format and size before making any decision.<br>

Please don't misunderstand my thinking by mentioning peanuts, I never thought this would be a get rich quick thing, but at the same time it seems like the producer is on the lower end of the food chain.<br>

I wish to thank everyone for their replies, they are all helpful<br>

Regards,<br>

Gene T</p>

<p> </p>

[robert_k1]

<p>I have yet to publish a book, but have done lots of research online. Blurb seems to be the most popular. But the paper is thin, and your book will be printed at one of several printers, which may explain the variation in quality.<br>

About layout. Blurb supposedly have some new sw allowing you to create pdf files for better control. But I think a much simpler approach is to create your own layout in Photoshop, with image, text and background on separate layers. Flatten it and paste as a single image in the vendor's sw template. You will be in full control, and can resize it for different vendors.<br>

Here are some comparisons of different vendors. As expected, not all are in agreement. Some are very dated, and some are found in archive only. We need more of these.</p>

<p ><strong><a href="http://photo-book-review.toptenreviews.com/">http://photo-book-review.toptenreviews.com/</a></strong></p>

<p ><strong></strong></p>

<p >http://www.naturephotographers.net/articles0405/mh0405-1.html</p>

<p > </p>

<p >http://www.naturephotographers.net/articles0905/mh0905-1.html</p>

<p > </p>

<p >http://web.archive.org/web/20071209093209/http://www.daepublishing.com/pod/PODExposed.html</p>

<p > </p>

<p >http://web.archive.org/web/20080127115515/beckermanphoto.com/category/pod-books/</p>

<p > </p>

<p >Good luck, and hope you can post your experience after publishing.</p>

<p> </p>