| « previous | blog | next » |
July 27, 2008
Digital publishing-on-demand services are completely changing the way photography books can be envisioned, created, distributed and sold.
New online services for self-publishing photo books have finally attained the level of quality printing that rivals traditional book publishing — and they are turning the economics of publishing on its head.
The new books look great, they're amazingly affordable, and the technology makes it easy for photographers to get creative and experiment with different sequences, designs, and formats.
In short, we are beginning to see some remarkable photo books that never would have seen the light of day five years ago, simply because it was neither technically nor economically feasible to create them until now.
To celebrate this newfound freedom, Lens Culture (www.lensculture.com) has teamed up with the Rhubarb-Rhubarb Photography Review in Birmingham, UK, and Blurb.com to create an all-new international photo book award. All photographers who have registered to present their portfolios at this year's event (August 1, 2, and 3) will be eligible to win the prize, which will include publishing their own monograph, and getting international publicity and promotion to help sell the book.
Creating a great photo book can be a daunting challenge. In addition to outstanding photographs, it requires ruthless editing, a compelling design, and a visionary sequence that flows and builds meaning as the reader turns the pages.
Constructing a single mock-up for a photo book used to take weeks or months of painstaking work. And publishing a book was an expensive proposition, which meant that a lot of "cool ideas" never made it beyond the hand-made mock-up because traditional publishers could not afford to print them, or they weren't willing to take on the risk of an unknown artist.
But now it's possible for a photographer to design a book from cover-to-cover in a day or two. They can print only one copy — or a thousand. The finished books can even be sold through a professional online bookstore at no extra cost to the photographer.
This new award will allow photographers to experiment with their own photos and ideas to create totally unique photo books. These books can then be used as important self-promotion tools to introduce a photographer's work to new galleries, important curators and art collectors. The self-published books can also be a great introduction to traditional publishers who have the ability to re-publish a cool book, backed up with their ability to market and distribute books worldwide through traditional channels.
So, stay tuned to Lens Culture to discover some great new work.
Best of luck to all participants this year!
from their help section: "BookSmart does not technically honor color/ICC profiles"
seriously? and you want me to believe this is "quality printing that rivals traditional book publishing?"
the crux with most on-demand printing houses is that the quality does suck, in spite of what you're promising above. a landscape book printed for twenty bucks smells a lot like a hp indigo printer to me and that's just not good enough for a professional-level photobook. that they don't accept indesign files or even pdf's (they say pretty much 'make jpeg's or use our software thingie')
I'd like to know more about these people and their process but the website is very thin on details. all they really do is show you a few nice pictures, tell you the price.
finally: could you please elaborate on your relationship with these guys? are you promoting them because of a revenue-sharing agreement, is this PR for someone who paid to play with you or are you genuinly convinced they are what you make them out to be without another agenda being present?
I think this type of disclosure is important if you wish to keep the trust you have thus far earned for your editorial writing here. this strikes me as a blatant violation of the age-old separation between church and state -aka sales and editorial- that traditional media outlets have generally honored.
I find this post to be very damaging.
Chris,
I suggest you try a printing-on-demand service like Blurb before you let your assumptions get you all heated up.
I've looked at a lot of options for self-publishing, including many other online photobook suppliers, and Blurb delivers the best photo quality I've seen so far.
Of course if you get your book published by a giant like Steidl or Phaidon, you are going to get unbeatable quality. But traditional publishing houses can only print so many titles per year, and they must pass up lots of interesting, quirky work in favor of books that they feel certain will appeal to their markets.
For those of us who love to experience photography in photo books, a service like Blurb is really cool. They make it easy and affordable to design and print (and even promote and sell) unique, visionary books that look pretty professional.
NO book is going to make photos look as good as an original print.
After participating in a self-publishing workshop at Fotofest in Houston earlier this year -- and listening to feedback from lots of photographers who have actually tried many different methods of self-publishing -- Blurb emerged as the best economical choice so far. I approached Blurb after this workshop, got to know their technology and service approach, and suggested that we team up to try to discover some great new photography and photo books. They have not paid me for PR. I have not received any money from them. I may share some revenues in the future if the public likes some of the cool photo books that emerge from this award. We'll see. It would be nice, I think, to discover a 21st century Robert Frank this way.
For the record, so far, we have NEVER sold any advertisements on Lens Culture, nor have we accepted any payment for publicity. I don't recommend anything at all that I don't think is worthwhile. Period.
I suggest you try it yourself. You may be pleasantly surprised.