I've been working on a street photography/documentary project for about a decade now, and I'm at the point where I'm finally ready to begin thinking about finally putting it all together into my first serious monograph. This will be a mix of photos taken on both film and digital -- I am scanning on a Nikon Coolscan V, and I also have many darkroom prints, as well as access to a digital printing lab.
I'm looking for any and all advice on the process of producing a photobook AFTER the editing stage is complete. What should I expect if I decide to self publish this, rather than shop it around with publishers? How do I get this idea out of the book mockup stage and onto the printed page? Any advice on anything from printing, paper selection, binding, publishing & distribution? Who out there has done this, and what kind of advice can you give someone doing this for the first time?
Any advice on budgeting/pricing (I realize this could get expensive very fast), how large a production run to consider, and any financial advice (grants? Scholarships? Other resources?) are welcome too.
You might consider laying out your book in a page-layout program (such as Adobe InDesign) and letting Blurb print it if you only need a few copies?
Blurb only print exactly what you send them so be careful to use a low screen-brightness (not more than 100 to 120 candelas) when colour-proofing.
You can try sending a PDF to various publishers as well to see if they would be interested in picking up the project.
I am doing a similar project only mine is of rock concerts I had photographed in the early 70s.I am still in the photo selection process and had questions about how many photos is too many to include. While using Gemini to colorize some photos I decided to ask Gemini how many photos is appropriate for a Photo/Art type book. I provided names of all the artists, which ones I had the best photos of. Gemini gave me all sorts of great ideas for organization of the book and the appropriate amount of photos. It mentioned things I hadn't even considered. I am also considering selling some books and wanted info on who do use and the best way about this. You might give this a try. I think you will be amazed at the info and guidance it can provide.
This is an interesting topic for me too. I can't offer much answers as I'm trying to figuring out same kind of questions. But I can share couple of points:
If you are planning a book, you really shouldn’t edit the images before you have designed the book’s structure and sequencing. The planning of the structure and image sequence alone already takes a lot of time. It should begin with a clear idea of what you want to say with the book and what kind of book it is (documentary photobook, art photobook, etc.). It’s not a good idea to think, “I’ll just make a collection of my best images in book form,” because that is a fairly reliable way to end up with a book that says nothing and lacks internal cohesion - and will look amateurish. Depending on the kind of book you are making, the final image sequence can vary greatly. Because of this, you usually don’t even know which images will be included until the concept, structure, and sequencing are finished. Image editing should come only after that.
If you are making a self-published book, it’s worth browsing online and exploring different services. I wouldn’t use mass-market companies aimed at family albums, such as Blurb, because the books produced through them tend to look exactly like what they are: as cheap and generic as possible. Instead, look for printers that specialize in small runs of highly customizable photo art books. This way, you can choose between different paper stocks, embossing options, bindings, and so on—and make your book look like a real book. These printers typically work with small editions, even just a few copies, though the price will naturally be higher. I’ve been searching for such options myself and haven’t yet found one that satisfies me 100%—but there are many out there.
To get your idea and pictures into book form you probably need to hire a graphics designer. You can work on the idea, forewords & other texts and image sequencing, but to make it into a book it's probably a good idea have someone to help you with it.
If you’re looking for a publisher, for example in street photography, there are some out there as well—such as the Italian publisher Eyeshot. However, keep in mind that the quality of your project needs to be extremely high. For most of us, that level is rarely reached. So a small self-published edition is likely the most realistic and credible option.
I would recommend looking at Brooks Jensen's website- Lenswork.
He has literally thousands of podcast type audio files.
You may have to subscribe to see all the older ones, although I think he has a free trial.
He has published a photography quarterly for 20yrs or so- and he often talks about the trials and difficulties in such publishing. He talks about how to pick images, which images play well with others, color proofing, etc. You would have to go through the bunch, they are not segmented out for those interested in publishing- but the jewels are in there.
Sadly, at least according to his podcasts, the likelihood of a publisher picking up a photography project is small- so at least first run likely to be self published.
Good luck with your project.
gary
I would look to published books to find both a look and a publisher. I really like the general look and quality of the images in Saul Leitner’s book, Retrospective.
This particular example might be wrong for you, but the idea of identifying a publisher that can produce the right look for you might be a reasonable place to start.
I use Affinity for the book layout as it's a no cost, capable alternative to InDesign. I also recommend doing a bit of research on how to layout a pages of a book, because there's a skill to it that can make a big difference in its aesthetics. You'll need to study the proper settings you'll need to input into your layout software to provide what the publisher needs. The recommendation to calibrate your monitor with a lower brightness is also good advice as if you don't you may run into dark prints. Some testing here making a few prints of critical images can help.
Once you have the technical business down, you'll have to figure out the storyline and sequencing.
I use Adorama Printique for my books, but I only print a couple of each.
I'm not a pro, but I've created several books and catalogs and it's very rewarding, though quite time consuming.
Have you had any luck finding reliable printers yet?
I just pulled a project from Mixam because they couldn't run clean BW without color casts or overly warmed color images. It's been incredibly frustrating because I have a background in design and production, but they have their process so standardized that they factor significant variance into the finished books.
