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Rangefinder
Magazine A Dream Come True: by Larry Brownstein What is a photographer’s dream come true? A shoot with Cindy Crawford? Landing Microsoft as a new account? A client with an unlimited budget and instructions to take whatever pictures you want? All those things would be great, but I suspect that high on the list for most photographers would be a photo book of their own work. You have probably looked at many photo books and thought, “My work is better than that. I should do my own photo book.” But having known little about the publishing business you returned to a busy schedule of assignment and stock photo shoots and put the idea aside.
I began toying with the idea of a book early in 2003. They say, “When the student is ready, the teacher will come,” and for me the teacher was calligrapher/artist/poet Ken Jackson. My friend Ken had recently been diagnosed with cancer, and he coped through artistic expression. His showing me a mock-up of his work in book form profoundly impressed and inspired me to get serious about my own project. Sadly, Ken didn’t live to see my book, but his imprint is seen throughout. I thought about what subjects I could cover in a new and interesting way and what would be marketable. A commonly held publishing-industry maxim is to write what you know. Because of the depth of coverage I already had in my files, I chose to do the book on L.A. As a local L.A. photographer, I know the city well. I know locations that few people ever find for great skyline shots. Often I have been in the right place at the right time and ready to record a picture that a visitor would unlikely see. I have had the luxury of returning to favored spots until the lighting and subject matter converge to make a great picture.
I studied many photo books and asked myself what I liked, what I didn’t like and why. I considered such factors as fonts, font size, white space, page size and type of cover. As a result, it became clear to me that I needed a playful book design. A playful design would be appropriate for the subject matter since my L.A. images are very playful. This design would also allow me to bring creativity to the page-layout process. I used my Nikon LS-4000 scanner to digitize my 35mm images, and I paid to have my 120 film scanned. I learned QuarkXPress (a page-layout program preferred by publishers) and began to lay out the book. My Epson 2000P printer was used to create a mock-up that I brought to the annual national book industry event—Book Expo America—which, fortuitously, was being held in Los Angeles.
I was disappointed. I knew that self-publishing meant learning about printing, distribution and marketing—not the reasons I chose to do a book. However, I knew it was a good product, and there was no stopping me. Besides, I thought I could deliver a better book by self-publishing. (I have noticed that most regional photography books are predictable and formulaic.) I already had the computer skills and all the equipment I needed on my desktop, thanks to the phenomenal advances in technology. Also, I was aware that if the book became a financial success, I would make all the profit. So I moved forward. The next step was to choose a
distributor. When I was at Book Expo America I discovered Biblio, a national
distributor. I sent them a mock-up of
the book (following their guidelines at www.bibliodistribution.com).
They accepted it, and I was then ready to choose a printer. I received estimates from over a dozen different printers, mostly from Asia. Two of them offered to do free press proofs of a couple of images. These press proofs were very revealing. The results from one printer were quite poor—the colors, contrast and brightness did not match the reference prints I gave them. The second printer did a fantastic job of matching my vision. We agreed on a price, and I sent my files and my reference prints to Hong Kong. Working with a printer is straightforward. The printer generates press proofs. These are prints run on a press that is nearly identical to the actual production press. The idea is for you to see what the printed pages will actually look like. If you see problems, you correct the digital files, send them with new reference prints, and they redo them.
When all the press proofs look right, you give the printer the OK to roll the presses. As I write this, the book has been out for just a few weeks. There have been many pleasant surprises: neighbors showing up at the door to buy books, people ordering large quantities to give as gifts, and just today I sold one to my dentist between “rinse and spits” and autographed it right in the dentist’s chair!
With national distribution behind the
book, quotes from three dignitaries (Los Angeles Mayor Jim Hahn; Barron
Hilton, Chairman of Hilton Hotels;
and Gil Garcetti, former Los Angeles District Attorney and currently
a fine-art photographer), the book for sale on Amazon.com, Mostly, this article addresses the process behind publishing the book. Briefly, here is a little about the book’s content. I think of it as an artistic portfolio masquerading as a travelogue. It captures the energy of Los Angeles in an inspiring and positive way. My book goes way beyond the requisite city skylines and famous landmarks. It also covers the zany characters, unusual events, such as the Doo Dah Parade, and hidden treasures such as St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral. The photos accompanying this article are from the book. More images can be seen at my web site: www.larrybrownstein.com/, where the book can easily be ordered. (The ISBN number is: 0974263303, $19.95.) Larry Brownstein is a travel, and landscape photographer who is represented by PhotoDisc, The Stock Shop, Rainbow, and Ro-Ma stock. To see a gallery of his work go to www.larrybrownstein.com/. Contact him at larry@larrybrownstein.com or by telephone at (310) 815-1402.
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In early
2003 I, too, had little idea of how the publishing world worked. Yet,
as I write this in January, 2004, my book, Los Angeles, Where Anything
is Possible, has been available for several weeks, receiving rave reviews
and enjoying brisk sales. It is available on all the major bookstore
web sites and is soon to be appearing in bookstores. You, too, can do
a project like this in well less than a year. Read on to find out how.
Editing began with
an initial cut of 300 images. With feedback from a select group of friends,
I culled this amount down to about 125. Then
it was time to learn about book design. Before working on my book, I
never appreciated good book design—except in a subliminal way.
I was not consciously aware of book design. Now, I know the design of
a book is as important as the photographs. Bad design can ruin great
photography. Good design coupled with good photography creates a beautiful
product.
After two days of meeting and greeting,
I left the conference especially excited about two publishers that expressed
a great deal of interest
in my book. I also met with many printers from Asia as I realized even
then that I might self-publish. I continued to tweak the book’s
design, color and text, while my contacts played out over the course
of the next several months. Eventually, my book was rejected by about
25 publishers. 
Don’t
deliver anything until you think you have found all the mistakes in the
text, you have tweaked all the photos perfectly, and your reference prints
reflect what you want the finished product to look like. Changes made
along the way are expensive and waste valuable time.
So, has it been worth it? A photographer
whose work I respect, Martin Elkort, gave me some valuable feedback during
the production of the book.
Martin is collected in the New York Museum of Modern Art and the Museum
of Fine Arts, Houston, and other museums and was a member of the New
York Photo League. When he saw the finished product he was moved to compliment
me, saying that I had “pulled off a high-wire tightrope act by
mixing cliché subject matter, though done in an artistic manner,
along with more personal and idiosyncratic work into an integral and
artistic vision.” Hearing this praise made the project worthwhile
even before I sold a single book!
Borders and
Barnes & Noble web sites, and my promotional campaign still kicking
in, I expect to sell a lot of books. I have been enjoying the benefit
of completing a creative project that I have been passionately pursuing
and making a nice profit, too. Now that is a dream come true. 