self publishing books - experience?

[Michael I.]

Hi!

Recently I've been toying with the idea of self publishing a photo- book(there is not much intrest in photography in Israel so no one will publish you unless youve been accepted by the US-because then it has $$$ value).

Does anyone have any experience with this?

Thanks
Mike

[lifevicarious]

I haven't tried it myself but plan to soon. You may want to check out lulu.com if you haven't already. I know people have decent success with that. And if you were to go to a publisher with a proven track record at lulu based solely on self promotion and word of mouth, they may be interested. Let me know how things go as I am considering that myself!

[rncamero]

Fastback creative bookswould be another one to try and check out. Their website has good info on their products services. Juan Buhler's Street Photographs book I believe was done on their system. When I received my copy of his book I found that the paper, photo reproduction, and binding quality was very good.

I haven't compared prices lately, but I do think they're more expensive than lulu?

[lushd]

The wisest thing I was ever told about self-publishing - when the author stops promoting the book the sales stop coming in. There are lots of ways to get a nice looking product but the key to success is ensure your baby has an audience willing to part with money and that they know how to find you easily. You need to think about what your potential customers want in a book, who they are, how they like to be dealt with, what they can afford etc etc. In other words you need a marketing and promotion plan. There was an excellent article on all this in Lenswork a few issues ago.

I have published a book but I did it as a vanity project and did not try to sell it commercially. I gave it away as presents and used it to promote my website.

A harsh truth - if you want to share your work with an audience a website or blog will get far more viewers and interest than a book and cost you peanuts - life has moved on!. It is a major thrill holding your own printed work in your hands though and that might be the best reason to do it.

[edward]

Just checked the site for FASTBACK® CREATIVE BOOKS - they are a LOT more expensive than LuLu. Maybe 5-10 times more expensive. No way you could do a commerical project with them. Which is a shame - I did a proof of a black and white book with LuLu and it was not pretty.