Topic: Plugging my book: In Ordinary Time

[jrong]

Hi all,

I hope the moderators will allow me to post this plug here. I've just published my first book on street photography, 'In Ordinary Time'.
Have a look here: http://www.artemisworks.plus.com/books.htm

There is a link to the Blurb page which also offers a book preview link. I'd appreciate it if people could go and have a peek. It includes a critical introduction by a fine art photographer.

All of it is B+W street work imaged on film, naturally, and I know that almost every photographer and their grandma has a book out on Blurb these days... but I do believe mine offers something a little different!? (or don't we all....)

The trouble is, how to market it, since the market is saturated with so many books that are self-published. I am hoping to eventually get a deal with a proper publisher, to bring the prices down (Blurb really make most of the profits from one's efforts!) and to enjoy wider distribution.

Does anyone have any tips on how to achieve this?

Those of you with blogs, I'd appreciate it if you could review my book - I'll be happy to send a complimentary copy in the post with a SASE return envelope.

Thanks all, for looking.

kind regards,
Jin

[LT]

congrat Jin  -No problems with FW posting their own achievements here. good luck with the sales.

[gothamtomato]

The trouble is, how to market it, since the market is saturated with so many books that are self-published. I am hoping to eventually get a deal with a proper publisher, to bring the prices down (Blurb really make most of the profits from one's efforts!) and to enjoy wider distribution.

If you go with a commercial publisher, THEY will make the most profits off your book as well.

The only way for YOU to make the most, is for you to publish it yourself - not with a service like Blurb, but find a good book printer, and get a number of copies printed yourself. (Generally between 1000 & 5000 copies).

It costs a lot, but it is the best way for you to market your book and make the most profit doing it.

I've studied self-publishing extensively, and self-published some wall calendars. I haven't done a book yet only because I don't have a body of work that yet that holds together and fits a book format. But when I do, I will definately self-publish. And in fact, there are MANY big name photographers (in fact, most) who are self-publishing themselves, when it looks like they are being published by commercial publishers, but they create an imprint to publish under, so it doesn't look like they are self-publishing.

Self-publishing is the best deal for photographers for many reasons, not just profits. But you have to also understand how to promote your book once it's printed. I don't know where you're located, but I'd suggest you take a good college level class on self-publishing photography books.

[jrong]

It seems that commercial distributors tend to make most of the profit, not necessarily publishers. Otherwise no one will ever write a book and try to flog it to a publisher.

The pitfalls of self-publishing are many, not least trying to get people to distribute your books and not have them taking enormous percentages of your profit. At least with a publisher, there is no big initial outlay, unlike self-publishing which can be extremely expensive. I know someone who has gone down the self-publishing route and they're still struggling to break even, despite having the books in mainstream bookstores and even Amazon.


I guess we're definitely not into this to make money.

[gothamtomato]

I agree about the distributors. There ARE photographers who self-publish profitably, but they all distribute the books themselves as well. AND they spend more time thinking about publicity, marketing and distribution than they do about making the pictures for the books.

I don't know where you're located, but if you are in Europe of Asia, you'll have it easier. The best, and least expensive publishers are in Italy and Asia. You can self-publish there for half the price.