A Book Question

None compare to blurb in my experience.

Hum okay. Thanks Marlene I will look again at Blurb but was hoping to see about others as well.

Assuming you need art reproduction? Blurb.

Text - Try CreateSpace.

Okay well so far it appears to be Blurb.

Jeffery,

Really depneds on what you're looking for and how many books will be made. For small runs,then Blurb is probably the best. If 50 or more than you need to do some research and see what's available,

Rich

Rich,
Not sure how many will be sold this is why I am interested in a POD book publisher.

Jeffery

I was very pleased with the quality and printing of the hardbound books I ordered a year ago, from Winkflash.com -

http://www.winkflash.com/photo-books/photo-cover-books

I ordered them at 50% off, as a test of the product, and liked them enough to give as Christmas gifts. :-)

For European members: www.saal-digital.de. They print books on photo paper with a special binding, which makes flat spreads.

For me this begs the question, will faa, in the future, consider entering the art book publishing/printing business?

Phone cases. Throw pillows. Why not pod books?

Walter perhaps add that to the suggest thread as it really would compliment the mission of FAA/Pixels.

Walter,
go to a book POD site and see how complicated it is....then think of our members and how much difficulty we have with the easy stuff.
A nightmare in the making.

Then perhaps it's time to eliminate the wheat from the chaff.

Not sure what you mean, Marlene.

As for the complications faa may have in implementing such a feature? How complicated was it for them to contact with a fabric printer so that they could offer throw pillows?

If your remark was directed to the members here, I suggest is sounds a bit disparaging to the membership here. I invite you to clarify your remarks.

I can't speak for Marlene, but I would assume that she is referring to the buyers trying to put a book together,from a range of images and a group of artists.

I've made 3 books from MYPublisher a few years ago and really not that complicated after understanding the format and watching a few YouTube videos.

The software provided is simple and I would imagine that a buyer could "select" a "portfolio" of images,much like adding images to a contest and then taking that folder and making a book from it. Depending on how it was set up, ordering/making books shouldn't be that hard, if the process is kept simple. A choice of a few sizes,covers types,hard or soft covers and then the inside layouts and you're done.

I've seen 3 great books from Blurb and look as good as anything from Barnes&Noble has...............

Rich

If the right "publisher" was chosen, then I could see myself offering and buying books..........

Rich, humor me....we have artists here that don't even know to hit the submit button when they upload. Can you imagine Sean buying that software and then hiring special people just to answer questions on how to use it??? He'd be flooded. These books cost a consider amount of money to produce...mark ups remain low,assuming you want to sell, and that's working with a book printing company directly....once faa would add it's cut, they'd not be something very marketable.

As an artist, I'd never be satisfied to have the software make most of the choices for me when it comes to my work being displayed. I meticulously work on all of the book options from blurb to make sure my books meet my standards .....way more than just uploading a series and letting the book software throw it together.
If it's a software program that doesn't have all of those choices, many artists would be frustrated and not use it.... I ran into that problem with calendars...

About your last comment....nothing is preventing you from going to the right publisher directly.... ;) Those of us that make books are already doing that.

Jeffery, I have also used mypublisher but the quality from book to book is iffy and there is no ability to have them help you market from their site.
Once you get into quantity of at least 100, a local full service printing company is the way to go.

Thanks everyone. Yes when the books get to the point of selling over quantities of 100 or more I will perhaps look local but in the meantime it appears Blurb is what is being suggested.

I have looked at MyPublisher for an eventual book for myself but they don't appear to user friendly for selling books to others.

Jeffery,

My experience with MyPublisher was a few years ago and at that time, they were using Fuji Printers and had an issue of how Fuji printers handled color and had a function that "enhanced" certain colors and negatively affected others, green was bad,as I remember and they couldn't turn it off.

I would check with Tech support before getting a complete book done. They may have fixed that issue by now,

Rich

With books its chicken/egg. Small runs are expensive so you are not bound to sell many. Pay for a large run and you might be left with a garage full of boxes.

I manage to sell about 10 copies of my "the Quotable Westie" book a month on Amazon created with CreateSpace. A compromise was made on image quality but the resulting book can be sold for less than $10 so it makes a nice little gift book.

Its not a coffee table book but its a fun little paperback.

I just checked my stats and I've sold 57 copies of "the Quotable Westie" this month. Not bad.

http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Westie-Photographs-Edward-Fielding/dp/1481084372

Speaking of books,

@Edward, I followed your link and have a question for you ...sorry if a bit off topic. What are the legalities governing using quotes from people? Does it follow the same line of copyright as Art does? I've always wondered about that and I would venture a guess you've checked into that before publishing and can answer. I'm not questioning your use but more curious about the answer... for my future use. (aside from getting an attorney)

Jeffery, I also think it depends on how many pages you'd be talking about. I'm Not overly impressed with Blurb when using an amount under say 20 pages. They may do a better job with books of a coffee table type.

Jeffery, Very interesting topic, I was please to hear others opinions and experiences. I have used My publisher as well for about 4 years the prices are too expensive if your ordering just one. Depending on the discounts in emails between $75-80 for 11x14 hard cover coffee table book. I did get 3 on an internet special for $51.00. I have used them for showing my work in hard copy and for friends for a wedding album gift. I too have been looking for a cheaper alternative. I just check out Blurb looks similar but has much more options for promotion. I am going to check out what Edward said about Quotable Westie, I think $10.00 is a great price depending on the quality. I loved that he sold 57 copies! congrats!
Thanks! Christine

It is free to use CreateSpace (owned by Amazon). You can order as many copies for yourself as you wish - Amazon list and potentially sell others for you and send you royalties directly.

I am an author and publisher. Most publishers are finding that it is a difficult market to sell in at the moment: books don't sell well in this digital age.

I use a traditional printing company for 400 - 500 copies at a time of each book here in the UK. I will be adding further issues to be marketed alongside them through CreateSpace in the new year. This is mainly so that I can access overseas markets by POD which are too expensive for me to ship to and make any profit on unless they are printed in the country they are being sold in to.