When talking about publishing a book one needs to make a distinction between putting together a photo book and writing a photography book.
There are lots of print on demand sites out there; Blurb, MyPublisher, Picaboo, sharedInk, and others. For the right price, they will put together a photo book for you.
And the price is somewhere around $25-$40 for 20 pages. These books mostly resemble a photo album or a portfolio and are probably the best choice for any photographer who wants to put together a portfolio of their work.
Seems to me the high price tag on these books will make it quite difficult to sell them, and so they are probably more appropriate for personal purpose.
But if you are interested in writing and publishing a book about photography or maybe have a selection of your photos printed into a store quality book you should consider other options, such as soft cover books of standard sizes which are offered by most of the POD publishers. And since their prices are competitive you should definitely consider printing your book with Lulu.com
Some book-on-demand publishers, such as Xlibris and iUniverse require you to purchase a certain amount of books when you publish with them and with a steep price attached.
The only POD service I found that is somewhat similar to Lulu was CafePress, but their printing quality is poor and not suitable for photo books .
Next time: writing the book, publishing choices, prices, quality and turn around.
Feb
02
Print on demand photo books / part one
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Blurb does not require any volume purchase; their quality is pretty high, and I think their prices are quite reasonable.
Blurb’s prices are somewhat more expensive than Lulu’s but if the quality is better, than it’s probably worth it. I’m hoping to give blurb a test drive sometimes soon.
What would be the machine/printer of Lulu is using to achieve best quality compared to other POD like Cafe Press?
We have developed a Photo/Scrap Book design, sharing, and printing site at http://www.PhotoAlbum.com. There is a nice browser based design tool with full freestyle layout capabilities. Designs can be converted to online FlipBooks that you can post to your blogs or share with others. High quality photo book printing is available at a discount price.
For example our best selling book is the 12″ by 12″ hard bound book with your custom designed cover and 20 pages of your designs for only $39.95 including free shipping.
Books are printed on archival paper and sewn together for a lifetime keepsake.
David Lewis
PhotoAlbum.com
I just received my first book from Blurb and wasn’t very happy with it. I am a professional illustrator and familiar with printing. I can tell you that if you’re looking for crisp images, Blurb’s software downsamples your images to lower quality jpegs. On top of that, you also have next to zero for creative control when laying out the book. You have to go with their software and their templates. Other sites like Lulu and Photobook Canada offer the option to use PDF’s, giving you complete creative control. You make everything into a PDF and upload it, they print it. I’m still looking for more.
Spencer, I think things have changed since you used Blurb. I haven’t printed my photobook yet, but the Blurb software does let you alter the layout to suit your needs. You can use one of their templates (and amend it to suit you) or lay the book out yourself. You can also send them a PDF and get them to print that. Full details are on their website.
I can’t comment on the quality though, I haven’t finished my book yet.