Private Photographic Book Publishing

[Suhit Gupta]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://luminous-landscape.com/essays/100-books.shtml' target='_blank'>http://luminous-landscape.com/essays/100-books.shtml</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Have you ever thought about publishing a book of your photographs? Not just an inkjet portfolio, but a book – hardcover, 4 colour, offset printed, about 100 pages? Many photographers have, but then they discover that the new skills required, and the costs, are prohibitive. Of course one could always try finding a publisher, but the world of fine-art photographic books is crowded and competitive, and even if you do get a publishing deal, are you willing to settle for just an 8% financial return after all that hard work? No, I thought not. But still the dream of seeing ones work in a coffee table book, with high quality reproduction, is one that lives on. How then to accomplish this at a cost that doesn't break the bank?"</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/bangla-cover.jpg" /><br /><br />Dudley Harris of 100 Books Publishing Company comes to your rescue. They offer a program that allows photographers to produce books at $82 / copy if just 100 copies are ordered. But, if you go to 1,000 copies the price drops to just $11.50 / copy. That's pretty cool actually and it looks like a nice service. The article linked here contains a step-by-step description of the process. Hmm, if I thought people would want to buy my photos, I would totally be investing here. :)

[mcsouth]

8O WOW, Great Link!

Seriously, this was a terrific read. I suspect that all of us wonder every now and then what it would be like to be published. While some of the detailed Photoshop information was over my head, it was still interesting to read about the author's journey to creating his own published book. I am seriously considering buying one of the books, based in part from the article (curiousity can be a terrible thing :D ), and in part from the wonderful sample photos shown.

Great read!

[Jason Dunn]

While $82 is a decent chunk of change, having a high-quality print of all your favourite photos in book form would be a good investment for any photographer. Of course, you'd have to have a lot of great photos to justify filling up an album with it. ;-)

[Suhit Gupta]

While $82 is a decent chunk of change, having a high-quality print of all your favourite photos in book form would be a good investment for any photographer. Of course, you'd have to have a lot of great photos to justify filling up an album with it. ;-)
Would it potentially be cheaper in the long run to buy a good printer and glossy paper and do it yourself? I am guessing the ink will end up being the main expense.

Suhit

[mcsouth]

Would it potentially be cheaper in the long run to buy a good printer and glossy paper and do it yourself? I am guessing the ink will end up being the main expense.

That may be possible, but then how do you get it into a quality book form? One of the attractions would be the sense of longevity that a book offers - can't you just imagine folks stumbling across a book of your photos in some used book store 50 years from now?

Okay, maybe that is a romantic notion, but on the serious side, this type of solution, assuming that you have the photos (and money) to justify it, does provide a solution of some permanence. In general, a quality book wears well, and IMO enhances the presentation of your art (well, perhaps not over portfolios or framed images). I know I couldn't come close to doing a similar job using a conventional printer, and would still have the issue of covers and binding to deal with.

[Jason Dunn]

Would it potentially be cheaper in the long run to buy a good printer and glossy paper and do it yourself?

While I haven't seen these books, I have a strong hunch they'll be very high quality, and that's just not something you can achieve yourself on a home printer. It's not the quality of the prints so much as it is the binding, the cover, etc.