Personal Photo Book?

T

Todd.Hanz

Guest
Just wondering, with RFF Book #1 in the can how many of us plan on making our own personal photography book. Maybe we should start a forum page with tips and ideas (if the interest is there), maybe a tutorial? I would buy copies of books from members here, sort of a RFF members collection. Just wondering :rolleyes: ?

Todd
 
I had the same thought last year but I would want to expand my body of work with another 2 years of shooting before embarking on publication. But a page on the technical issues of preparing photos to be published would be helpful.
 
Todd, it definately seems within the reach of us all to be able to make our own books. One thing that Gene and I intend on doing is to have a Post Mortum discussion regarding our experiences with RFF Book #1. We would like to share what we think went right, wrong and perhaps options different than those we took.

We would like to take a little time to digest our success before starting this conversation, but it will come soon. I think it will be very valuable to those who take on book 2 to know what we did in book 1.
 
I think this would be a great thread topic or section. I'm sure many of us would enjoy creating a book or two of our own. I agree with Rover -- let's sit back and enjoy the RFF book for awhile (goes well with the attached brew) and later we can discuss how we did it and how we might do it differently next time.

Gene
 
This is a great idea. Now I have a scanner I have a possible project for a book already in mind - a longitudinal study of two very important people in my life... :)
 
Already before the RFF book I was secretly thinking about making my own book but had no idea how to go about and where to get it done for a fair price. But now I'm truly interested.

Lulu.com for now seems the best way to go as it means that I don't have to cough up money for a small print run. I've checked out a few publishing houses in Mongolia who do good, profesional work, though. A run of 500 copies, sized 25x25 cm with about 40 pages would cost me about $3.50 per copy. Not bad, of course, but still $1750 in advance with no way of knowing I will recoup my investment.

So, Gene and Ralph, spill the beans! :)
 
The only way to produce such books at an affordable price is to print offshore (as opposed to the U.S. I work for a U.S. publisher and there is no way we can produce a "picture book" (color or black and white) in-house at a cost so the book can be priced to sell. A lot of folks don't realize that bookstores want a minimum of 40 percent discount on the retail price (and major distributors want as high as 60 percent). Even with the freight costs we can print such books overseas for 1/3 to 1/4 our normal cost -- and the printers do great work. The biggest problem is looking at a turnaround time of six to eight weeks.
 
RML, there are also some German sites that offer the same service as lulu.com - can't remember any names right now, so a bit of googling might be in order.

Roman
 
kiev4a said:
The only way to produce such books at an affordable price is to print offshore (as opposed to the U.S. I work for a U.S. publisher and there is no way we can produce a "picture book" (color or black and white) in-house at a cost so the book can be priced to sell. A lot of folks don't realize that bookstores want a minimum of 40 percent discount on the retail price (and major distributors want as high as 60 percent). Even with the freight costs we can print such books overseas for 1/3 to 1/4 our normal cost -- and the printers do great work. The biggest problem is looking at a turnaround time of six to eight weeks.
Click to expand...
So true! This would be a very difficult book to do through the traditional publishing channels. On-demand printing and the Internet are what make it possible.

I was so busy over the weekend I didn't get my weekly blog entry written. I think what I'll do is write up a blog entry of what we did, with all the specs, in case anyone wants to base a work on the same model. Then there'll be a consistent URL we can point to for reference.

Gotta recover first ... :D

I'm feeling in a bit of a celebrating mood. Anyone got a good Canon P for sale?

Gene
 
GeneW said:
I'm feeling in a bit of a celebrating mood. Anyone got a good Canon P for sale?
Gene
Click to expand...

Well, now I see you indeed got my message ! LOL ! :D

Welcome, lil grasshopper, to the Tao of P.

I'm looking forward to that discussion as for the book project, it will be really interesting to have first hand info from both of you.
 
could it be, that after all that hard work, that gene is beginning to see the 'light'??

on topic...i'd love to put out my very own book. but...i'm doubtful i could get together enough pics that i actually like.
to even begin to think about it i would need an editor that i trusted.
i've only ever had one and she divorced me.

joe
 
Once Gene and Ralph have spilt their beans I'm planning on making a book with the photos I took last time in Mongolia. It was Tsagaan Sar (Mongolian Buddhist New Year) at the time and I have photos of most of Sumiya's family. We want to make a book as thank-you gift for all their good care and the wonderful departure and wedding gifts they gave us. It'll be a run of less than 20 most likely, which is impossible to do for a reasonable price with a proper publishing house.
 
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