I’m interested in looking into ways to self-publish books or prints of some of the many photographs I’ve taken over the years. There are many ways to self-publish books, bt most are quite expensive. Like most manufactured products, a single unit costs the most, with costs per book decreasing as more units are printed. However, there is considerable risks associated with publishing too many books, namely if you can’t sell the units you’re paying for a number of the same books to sit on your shelves or in boxes at home.
An alternative to printing books is to print single high-quality prints, as prints only, or framed. Another option is to produce and sell a subset of prints, centered around a theme or idea, as a box of prints. Some high-end photography agencies, such as Magnum, sometimes do this through their online store.
I’ve tried printing books through the Blurb publishing site accessible via Adobe’s Lightroom photography software application. The cost of my single 52 pp. book ran about $50. The quality was so-so, certainly not of the grade found in many similarly-priced professional photo books in bookstores. But some of the quality issues were due to my misunderstanding of print resolution requirements at the time. Some of the quality issues could be tied to my paper selection. I believe Blurb called out a minimum print resolution of 240 dpi (dots per inch). Many of the photos I submitted were of much lower resolution, say 150-180 dpi. So the edges in some photographs were a little jagged.
Some images of my first (and to-date only) photo book are shown below. It was a black & white printing. It was a proof-copy only (e.g. no ISBN number was assigned; some contact information was incomplete).
I suppose an alternative to printing or self-publishing a book from a printing agency, selling single prints, and producing and selling a box of high-quality prints is to create a high-quality paste-up book, basically a scrapbook of sorts. This is something I’m attempting during this COVID Spring as a creative exercise to see how easy is it to do this and, how well can I do it.
A first self-published book proof printed via the Blurb service in 2016.
Sample page layout of my first self-published book proof printed via the Blurb service in 2016.
Another sample page layout of my first self-published book proof printed via the Blurb service in 2016.
A final sample page layout of my first self-published book proof printed via the Blurb service in 2016.
High-quality prints can be printed, boxed and offered as a set along a theme or idea as well.
Individual prints, standalone or framed.
A simple version of a ‘hand-built’ book can be made using an off-the-shelf acid-free sketchbook, high quality prints, and careful mounting techniques (here, the photos have not been mounted or bonded to the pages yet). This is essentially a scrapbook but with care and good technique can be an inexpensive method to “publish” a self-made book.