Printing And Selling A Photo Book

The problem with photo books is that it's a hugely saturated market. And, unless you create a huge run in order to keep the wholesale price down, it's not really financially viable.

Blurb is expensive because they do first class work.

Why 350 pages? Can't you do 2-4 images per page?

Another thing t keep in mind... who buys books anymore?

See my earlier post about my experiences creating a book to sell - http://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=2287529&targetid=2288332#2288332

Use Blurb if you want to create a beautiful, expensive book for yourself but don't expect to sell any unless its a specialty cookbook or some unusual topic. For my books I aimed at the under $15 gift book market. WIth CreateSpace I believe there is a sweet spot of 80 pages and less.

My books cost me $3.25 and $4.04. Selling at $9.95 and $12.95 respectively there is some profit to be had but the my main goal was promotion.

CreateSpace is owned by Amazon its on Amazon within 3-5 days. No upfront costs at all although its prudent to order a proof copy.

Lulu is another option and they seem to have a deal with Barnes and Noble. There are different royalties schemes depending on who does your book so some have suggested creating the book on both Lulu and CreateSpace to get the best deals on the different book sellers.

I signed up for Extended Distribution and a few of my sales have netted me only 5 cents. They must be the copies that go to libraries or something. Strangely it also opens up your book to third party sellers who begin to sell on Amazon. Suddenly your book looks more popular because there are more vendors offering your book. These guys just order the book when the order comes in using their Prime account. I guess they make a buck off the transaction or something but they make your book look more popular.

thanks all for your feedback...

John - genius idea of 2-4 images per page. It hadn't occurred to me at all.
Edward - looks like quite a lot of work for CreateSpace. I will have to rethink the ROI of doing this project. My audience was mostly friends etc but doing 350 images as individual files in PSE with inlaid text (I don't have photoshop) seems like quite the effort. Hmmm...

I wouldn't expect much direct ROI. I do it to further my brand.

Marking my spot in this thread as this is something I've been considering. The cost is off putting, but I've been thinking about setting them up and then selling them by request, so I don't have to lay out a fortune for inventory I may never sell.