Photo Books . . . How Do I Decide?

Posted on September 24, 2009
Filed Under Digital Photography, Photo Book | Comments Off

Author: Glen A. Clark

I was recently asked the following question, “I’m looking to create a coffee table book. I doubt I’ll be making more than 200-300 of these. From what you’ve seen, do you have recommendations?”

I guess the short answer for deciding how to select a photo book fulfillment partner these days is . . . It depends!

But my “probably too long of an answer” was this . . .

Today there seems to be an almost endless number of options for printing photo books (and many more if you’re looking to produce photo “albums”). I am personally familiar with only a handful of them but I do have some suggestions to consider.

I think some of the key points to help you make a decision about how to produce a book are:

1. What is the content balance of your book?
a. Your book will contain mainly photographic images with just a small amount of text?
i. Intro, Captions, Credits, Acknowledgements, etc.

b. Your publication will have both significant copy and photo images.
i. Storytelling, How-To Information, Anecdotes, etc.?

c. Your publication will have mainly written copy and some photo images.
i. Text books, Novels, Theses, Reports, etc.

2. What are the most important elements of the book?
a. True photographic reproduction (silver halide) or near photo quality digital press printed reproduction
b. Continuity of the written content
c. Two-page panorama printing
d. Hard or soft cover options
e. Size of the publication
f. Cost per book
g. Total Investment (capital expenditure)
h. Retail price of the book
i. Overall presentation and packaging

There are many elements to creating a quality photo book including printing, binding, finishing and packaging; and, there are significant differences between photo book publishers and photo quality book manufactures.

3. Are you going to select a producer first and then design the book to their capabilities or are you going to create a very specific design and look for someone to produce to your specifications?
a. Size selection
b. Available cover materials and styles
c. Selection of page papers
d. End sheet options
e. Binding and finishing options

4. Are you planning to do things like page layout design, editing, and copy writing yourself or will you outsource the work?
a. If you are going to undertake laying out the book are you going to do so with the tools provided by the book producer or utilizing other programs to create your page layouts independent of the provider (i.e. Photoshop, InDesign, etc.)?

5. How are you planning to market and sell your book?
a. Are you going to print an “edition” of a certain number of copies up front or will you “print on demand” per order?
b. How will you process, package and ship each order

Here are a couple of scenarios to think about.

If you’re looking to sell photo books to your imaging clientele a professional service such as f•stop books www.fstopbooks.com enables the uploading of images and provides design tools to create photo book layouts online. They also provide a “completely packaged” photo book by delivering a finished publication in a high-end presentation box. This type of value-added presentation can help support premium price points for professional photographers.

The “Completely Packaged” Photo Book Presentation - fstop books™

If you are considering selling books to a broader market a “publication” photo book website, such as Blurb www.blurb.com, offers additional services for page numbering and robust options for extensive text, as well as online e-commerce tools to post the publication on their site and accept orders for printed copies. This allows you to create and sell photo books (or almost any kind of book publication) without having to pay the up front costs of producing multiple book copies in advance. Like www.fstopbooks.com they print, bind, package, and ship the actual book “on demand” (when it is ordered) so you don’t need to do any of this work yourself.

The upside of this type of publication includes very low upfront costs and outsourcing of order fulfillment and payment processing (i.e. labor). The downside of this type of service may be things like reduced margins due to fees charged or not being able to check every one of the publications individually or offering hand-signed autographed copies of the books.

There are also companies that will help you “self-publish” your book by offering services such as financing an initial print run and even sponsor and/or non-profit support

Another consideration should be professional alternatives like Shared Ink’s (pro) Photographer Program which offers information and options including lay-flat pages and offline coating that can add snap to a pro-quality photo book (http://www.sharedink.com).

Like I said before, when it comes to deciding how to select a photo book fulfillment partner these days, I guess the short answer is . . . It depends!

For more information about photo books download a FREE copy of “On Demand Book Basics”

Glen A. Clark
Vice President - TAP Custom / Professional
Cleveland, OH 44114-2184

E-mail: gclark@ChilcoteCompany.com

Birth of The Professional Photo Book – f•stop books™

Posted on August 28, 2009
Filed Under Photo Book | Comments Off

fstop books photo books
Photo books are a great way for photographers to present and sell their photography to brides, new mothers, and just about anyone with an event that is meant to be saved for future generations. Photo books are not new. In recent years, the ability to purchase a one of a kind book at an affordable price has made photo books extremely popular. Digital cameras and digital printing presses or high-quality inkjet equipment can produce pages for a single book to be bound in a hard cover for a one-of-a-kind photo book. There are numerous services popping up everyday making it difficult to decide on a provider but few are designed specifically for photographic professionals. f•stop books™ allow you to upload images and create a photo book that is delivered back to you or directly to your clients.
As a professional photographer, you are faced with the fact that your clients can build a photo book using the same service you might be using. In addition, becoming a photo book designer who now has to spend hours creating a photo book that cuts into profits? f•stop books™ offers a photo book that is sold only to professionals through professional distribution and is priced between the low-end consumer photo book and the high-end digital album.

f•stop books™ is a service that is designed to fill the gap for the professional photographer. f•stop books™ photo books offers complete professional presentations only to professionals. The designer software can quickly auto populate a book with your photography or let you create a totally customized book. You can spend as little as 20 minutes making your book or take as much time as you would like designing your own unique creation. It is possible to upload and work with full composite images if you choose. The high-quality clamshell presentation box, leather and linen covers, and press quality printing on a heavy, durable paper stock make it a smart choice among professionals.
fstop books photo book foil seal
f•stop books™ is a photo book made by professionals for professionals.

Find out more about fstop books has to offer at fstop books. Setting up an account is free. Once approved you become a client of one of the f•stop books™ distributors and you can upload images, build books and store them until you are ready to purchase.

f•stop books™ distributors offer great service as well as many other photographic products. Though the f•stop books™ brand is young it is backed by more than 100 years of photographic packaging know-how and professional support. Make fstop books photo book presentations your first choice for you and your clients.
Go to the fstop books website

Rick Bender
f•stop books™ Creative Team Member
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