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Rangefinder Magazine
March 2004

Five Steps to Publishing Your Own Book by Andre Krump
Making Book Publishers Sit Up and Notice You

The chance to have their work published in a book is the dream of many photographers, but the opportunities to do so are rare. Major publishing houses are often inundated by book proposals, and it is quite uncommon for them to actually accept any of these proposals. This situation leaves the aspiring author frustrated and disappointed. At least, that has been true in the past. Now, with the availability of new computer technology, digital cameras, and access to overseas printing facilities, photographers can publish their own books of photography by performing the following five steps.

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1) Understand Your Objectives
Before you begin, you should clearly identify and understand your motivations for creating a book. This insight is critical to making many of the decisions related to book production, as well as ensuring that in the end you are satisfied with your creation. Some photographers, for example, produce photography books so they can be used as calling cards to procure more work and sell more prints. For them, the goal is not to make money from the book, but instead to generate more respectability, awareness, and demand because they have a book.

Perhaps your objective is to be famous, or “to be published.” These are quite common long-term dreams of many photographers. They are also very legitimate goals.

Maybe you want to produce a book to support a cause, such as bringing awareness to a medical or social condition. In this case the book can used as a tool for reaching and informing others, as well as a vehicle for fundraising.

Of course, a book can simply be part of a photographer’s effort to earn a profit. If the book has “the right stuff,” this outcome is a distinct possibility. Regardless, be clear in understanding why you are creating your book and what you want it to achieve.

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2) Decide on a Topic and Format
This decision is the most difficult part of creating your book. The choice of topic drives the theme, composition, and format of the book, as well as its ultimate success. You must decide, “What is this book about?” The answer will mold your selection of photographs and the sequence in which they are shown. Current photographic titles have a number of themes, including landscapes, portraits, nudes, dogs, shapes, flora, cultures, movements, clubs, neighborhoods, architecture and travel. Choose well, and be as critical as possible of your own work. Bring in fresh eyes as often as possible to review the images selected, and to guarantee that your vision is comprehensible.

The book’s format is a great enhancer of your vision. Will the book be hardcover or softcover, 8x10 or 5x5, matte laminate or cloth cover, one picture per page or several, accompanied by text or standalone, 80 pages or 160? The format and layout of books have been singular topics of praise and criticism, so if you don’t have creative talent in the areas of graphic design and composition it is highly recommended that you consult a friend who does. Even their informal and unpaid opinion can be worth a mine full of diamonds to the success of your project.

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Having decided on the format, you must now decide on how you will bring your book to life. You may decide to do so by using techniques that utilize the finest paper, the highest standards of reproduction and lines per page for each image, archival quality materials and hand-bound covers. The result of this decision may produce a book worthy of library and museum special collections. Or you may instead decide to be more modest in your approach, select commercial grade paper and styles of bookbinding, and use a book layout software program like Quark or Adobe InDesign. If you decide to follow the high-end route, you should research available artisans who can help, as well as consult your local “Friends of the Library” association, who will lead you to the craftspersons you need. If you decide to go a more high-tech direction, it is recommended that you download the software demos, read the relevant magazines, and follow the online training courses so that you and your team are proficient enough to use at least 50 percent of the software’s features. Learn to use a Mac. Microsoft Windows may rule the world, but the Macintosh still dominates the publishing industry. Using these programs also make things easier by allowing you to submit the book in a digital format. In the digital format, the images are scanned and then edited in Photoshop, and the final book is shipped to the printer on a set of CDs.

Before you begin work on your book, you should spend at least a month of research at your local bookstores and library. Look at the design styles of all the books, in particular in the sections for photography, architecture, travel, cooking, and gardening. These books tend to have useful and compelling book designs that are relevant to various photographic titles. This research will be enlightening and invaluable to your final vision.

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3) Find Partners
There are many partnerships required to produce and promote a book so that it meets your objectives. Who is going to help you create your book, not to mention sell it? Perhaps you are represented by a gallery, a university, or an organization. If so, they should be partners in developing the book. Can you get a grant, matching funds or subjects who will pay a fee to be a part of the book? These could be partners as well. For you to make the most of what you have, look at all available resources, both monetary and otherwise. Students, for example, are an excellent source of assistance. Many students will work on a book simply to add this experience to their own resumes. This, like most partnerships, has mutual benefits for everyone involved.

The choice of printers is also a form of partnership. The printer is responsible for making your dream tangible, and the final result will reflect on you, not them. Choose wisely. Be certain they can accommodate your parameters and requirements, including time to delivery and budget. Although there are many great printers in the U.S., the majority of quality, affordable, photography books are printed overseas. Country choices include Italy, Spain, Hong Kong, China, Singapore and Canada, to name a few of the most prominent. The Chinas (Hong Kong, Singapore and mainland China) are common choices for American publishers. These printers provide high expertise, good reputations, favorable credit terms and competitive prices to even small publishers. Of course, there are many domestic printers from which to choose, and if a book is producing less than 200 copies these printers may be preferable under certain circumstances. Whatever you decide, be sure to receive no less than five estimates from various printers for your RFQ (Request for Quote).

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Don’t forget the partnerships you will need to sell the book. We advise that before you begin the actual layout process you call all of the local bookstores, library acquisition managers, and museum gift shops in your area and tell them about the great book you’re developing. Ask them if this is the kind of item they might stock and in which their clients might be interested. Do not ask for orders, ask for feedback. Orders can come later, after you’re close to finishing the book. What you need now is to know if the book is going to sit in your garage unsold, and what elements can be added to avoid that outcome. These people are partners, and after your talk with them, add their contact information to your priority mailing list for future announcements. This may seem like a lot of work, but in the end it will both save you money and enable you to meet your objectives.

4) Put it Together
This is a time-consuming but pleasurable step, and is the true act of book creation. Be sure to cross all of your t’s and dot all of your i’s, and proofread, proofread, proofread. No one likes to see typos, and neither will you. Compare your design and layout to the books that you’ve used as models. Make sure details like borders, fonts and page numbers are consistent and professional-looking. Aside from actual printouts, PDF files are excellent tools for looking at and reviewing book pages and images.

When you’ve completed the book layout, the next phase is the prepress process, in which you prepare the book for submission to the printer. The advantage of book layout software such Adobe InDesign is that it will create prepress packages that compile all of the files, fonts, images and graphics used in the book into a nice and neat folder that you can drop onto a CD and ship to Singapore, Ottawa or Milan. Along with this package you will also need to include copies of your actual prints, either made by hand in the darkroom or from the digital images at the local color lab. Plan on supplying a minimum of 20 images from the book, which the printer will use to check their output against for accuracy.

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Once at the printers, they will create what are called “blues,” or ozalids. This output, which is blue tinted like architectural drawings, allows you to sign off for the printer that every element on each page is where it should be and how you wanted. Changes after this point can be very expensive, so be certain everything is right before you give the green light. For an extra fee you can have some test pages run, or you can wait until you receive samples of the “signatures,” which are unbound copies of the book’s pages. Package these up and send them to some of the key media on your mailing list as galleys.

5) Promote the Book
By the time your book is about to go to the printers, you should have already taken the cover design and put it on about 500 postcards. These postcards should have text on the back that includes the book’s title, the publication date, the price, ISBN number, a brief description, and the publisher’s contact information. They will be sent to your mailing list as soon as you receive confirmation from the printer that the book is on press. ISBN numbers are required for all books sold in bookstores, and you can order them online from Bowker, as well as get the barcode version for your book’s back cover from recommend vendors, also online. Be sure to tell your printer to send 25–200 copies of the book by express courier so you can send them to your key media contacts and store accounts. Include with the books a copy of book announcement information, press releases and order forms if appropriate. Don’t forget to send copies to all of your partners, though you should be frugal and not send them to every single bookstore on your list. Send books to several of the more important bookstores, perhaps, but to most just send the postcard and later visit in person.

Critical to the promotion process is sending copies of the book to key distributors such as Baker & Taylor, Bookpeople and Ingram. Also include major chains like Barnes & Noble, Borders and Amazon.com. With Amazon you also might want to sign up as a small publisher in their Amazon.com Advantage program, which provides useful advantages to small-timers.

By the time your books arrive back from the printer your pipeline of orders should be primed. If it’s not, pick up the telephone and go to work. Don’t forget to show some of your advance copies at local art fairs, books sales and photography shows. Inform your friends and family and offer them a special discount. These activities can help you build up your mailing list, as well as sell a few books early. After your books arrive, plan on spending at least six months of intensive book promotion. Contact your mailing list. Put out a minimum of two press releases. Make sure they are interesting, make sure they are understandable, and make sure they are newsworthy. Consider hiring a publicist. Do interviews, talk on the radio, appear on television. Enjoy the fruits of your labor. Who knows, you might just become famous.

1) Example of the front of promotional postcards for a new book title. 2–5) Popular photo books cover a variety of topics. Shown: Indian Nations by Danny Lyon, Athlete by Howard Schatz, Lux et Nox by Bill Henson, Two-Hearted Oak by Roman Loranc, 6) Adobe InDesign is one of the latest software tools for desktop book layout.

A.K. Crump has over 25 years of experi-ence in photography and is founder and publisher of TCB-Cafe Publishing. His first book, the photo-essay entitled, Green Eyes, the Greenest Fields, came as a result of time spent in Brazil and France. Other books from TCB-Cafe Publishing are The Cafés of San Francisco, Brazilian Royalty, and Sand.