Self Publishing

It’s vital to have some previous experience with one of these internet self-publishing businesses if you’re working to a deadline, and quality can vary a great deal. Here’s a by-no-means comprehensive list, for later reference, and for people who’re looking to make cards or books of photos for the customers’ seasonal market.

Qoop
I’m on my 3rd order of Local Colour minibooks, and people really love them. They’re tiny at 3.75×2.5 inches, but they do make larger sizes too. Great value at around just under £2 for 4, but watch the postage. I’m very tempted to order my next large hardback from them. Softbound photobooks start at around £6, hardback around £15.

Upload from Facebook or one of the many other ’social’ sites, or your own machine. US company, US printers, takes about a fortnight to deliver. They’re currently offering a 20% discount.

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Lulu
I’ve bought several books from Lulu, including these on cyanotypes, polaroid lifts, and photograms. The softback are far better quality than the paperback, which are a wee bit flimsy. The big and clever USP is that books can be ordered by anyone, and the site is properly optimised so search engines can find your title if it’s properly described and keyworded.

I’m in the planning stage of a how-to-do Type 55, with examples, this time next year, and Lulu will definitely be my publisher of choice for this text and photographs based softback. Of course you’ll be the first to know how this goes. Not sure I’d use it for a hardback photos-only book, although your clients can get their own copies of say, their event photobook or wedding reprinted direct from the site. Allegedly it’s the biggest online community of self publishers, mostly writers.

Horribly slow and ponderous login; note that the login page doesn’t finish loading at all, if you’ve used the wrong mail address.

Photos (and text) are downloaded from your own computer using their publishing wizard.

Shipping costs from the US can be deadly, and my orders took about 2 weeks to arrive. Last orders for Xmas for a hardback is 26th November, but they can expedite for even more money.

My Photobook.co.uk
Downloadable editing software, very easy to use, helps you resize, choose layout and all that jazz. I was very impressed with this until I came to the payment page. It is expensive. A 36 page softback, ‘compact’ aka small size 12.5 x 15cm cost £19.95 plus £4.90 postage from Germany.

They accept payment in credit cards and bank transfer, but not Paypal, and somewhere on the site they’ve hidden the button to enable payment with a debit card: it’s there, but it’s not where you think it is.

My locum postman kindly folded my book in half to get it through the letterbox when it did finally arrive, an astonishing 16 weeks after I’d paid. Since allegedly it takes 10 days, Maria in customer services and I have an ongoing dialogue, and I’m expecting a complementary replacement copy any day now. I hope they use a ‘Do Not Bend’ sticker this time.

Disastrous service, especially if you have a client waiting. But it’s a nice quality product, so it’d be good if they get these issues ironed out.

Publishers I’ve never used:

iPhoto within Mac OSX
iLife secretly introduced book publishing back in 2004. The books I’ve seen look good, with a generic old school matt fabric-lookalike hard cover the favourites. There’s remarkably little about it from Apple themselves, but there’s a missing manual somewhere on the internet, and here’s an independent tutorial.

Prices for an 8.5×11″ hardcover double-sided photobook are around £15 for a maximum of 10 pages, with around 50p more per extra page, plus postage, from the US. For delivery by Xmas, order before December 11th or 14th for express lotta money delivery.

Photobox
UK based, conventional looking photobooks, currently £19.99 for 26 pages. I know photographers who wouldn’t use anyone else. They do calendars and now also small 8×8″ Style Books for a mere £15. definitely worth a try.

My Publisher
Don’t know anything about this lot, except their hardback books look exactly like the ones from Photobox. They also do a 7.75×5.75″ paperback pocketbook at 20 pages for about £7. Plus delivery from the US, of course. Dirk Van der Werff a local Hartlepool based photographer uses them, and he’s exacting. You could try the code 2MAC2550 if you want a 50% discount, and you’re on a Mac, but it might not work.

Blurb
Nobody I know has the slightest a clue about them, although the rumour is that they make the best coffee table books ever, which means expensive, but I like that they make portfolios, and that they’ll slurp your blog into a nice hardback, too. One day.

Fotobook
Nice wedding albums, apparently.

Business cards and whatnot suppliers I use regularly:

Moo
Extremely attractive mini business cards, with fully customisable information on the back. A talking point in themselves, which is nice, and the size makes them stand out, although that can be a drawback if people are using a card index. Also, it would be useful to be able to put your phone number on top of the photograph, instead of on the back. Otherwise, which side do you pin on a board? They don’t make books, yet.

Upload images direct from your computer now, important if you don’t use one of those ubiquitous photohost places. US company with UK printers, takes about a week from order to arrival. Last orders for Xmas Dec 17th.

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Vista Print
Producers of the world’s favourite spam emails, Vista Print is notorious for offering significant chunks of their whole product catalogue for free. I’ve had several sets of traditional business cards, calendars including magnetic ones to stick on your customers’ fridge, and lots and lots of sets of promotional postcards. Don’t forget to put your url or phone number on the front of the card, where it can be seen when people pin your photo onto their notice board.

Last orders dates aren’t posted yet, so we’re okay. And they’re currently offering a 50% discount. Good service, and if you get stuck, they have real, live, helpful people on the phone to sort it all out. Recommended.

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Spectrum Imaging
As well as being my C41 film developing shop of choice, Phil and his friendly crew also make an impressive and increasing range of tshirts, mugs, mousemats, jigsaws, badges etc, and they offer a book binding service useful for dissertations. 100 gloss or matt photo-based party invitations or postcards cost only £15 and they’ll help with the artwork for a measly £10. They don’t do photobooks, although they might soon.

Upload from your computer to their website, or email them, and collect the next day. Really.

Newcastle, near the Civic Centre. Support your local small business!

Brilliant Badges
My favourite online badge makers. 50 round 2.5cm, to your own design is only £13. I know, they’ve gone up, but they’re still the best.

Please go ahead and add your favourite publisher in the comments. All information gratefully rec’d.

Some General Tips about Self Publishing

1. Check every detail carefully when laying out pages in online software, making sure that photographs fit properly within  the given frame/s, and any crops are accurate.
2. If they provide a template, use it. Using Vista Print’s, for example, will make the difference between a usable and a scrappy looking postcard.
3. Colours are likely to be unreliable, even in the most expensive books. Check your own colourspace knowledge, and calibrate your monitor, for best results.
4. Order in plenty of time. So many things can go wrong, it’s ridiculous.
5. If your book is valuable, or a one-off, get postal insurance or pay with a credit card or paypal, where you can (more) easily get redress if it all goes wrong.
6. Use a currency converter if you’re buying (say) from the USA, to check prices.
7. Bear in mind that although exchange rates can make some transactions seem quite cheap, the UK Customs & Excise will find you eventually, and you’ll have to pay them upfront, plus the carrier’s handling fee, in order to get the parcel from the carrier.
8. Recorded delivery parcels may get returned to the sender if you’re not at home when the postman calls.
9. If your friendly local postman bends your book, there is a complaints form available from the Post Office or your local delivery office. Good luck.
10. In the absence of a local, friendly print shop, use their agents, a local friendly photographic shop or poster centre, for the best personal service. Really.

There might be more of these tips, as we proceed, and I’ll certainly be adding more (and better) photos of the outcomes.

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