Creating and Printing Photobooks

[cfreye]

Nicole, thanks for a great post and so much to think about. A few other things to think about when printing a digital photo book is the type of binding used. For a hardcover book a stitched binding lasts much longer than a glued binding. For a softcover book a synthetic adhesive holds up much longer than a hot-melt adhesive. Are the books printed using a photographic process or a digital press? You will get much crisper photos with a digital press. Are the pages coated? If not they may "glue" themselves together over time in a high humidity environment.

Another source for digital photo books is www.creativememories.com They have both pre-designed pages you can use to create the books or you can design them from scratch with their StoryBook Creator Plus software. These books have been put through extensive testing and have a 100 to 300 year life.

I have personally created a couple dozen books from Creative Memories and love the quality and ease of use of the program.

Cheryl

[FDCPR]

Nicole, thanks for a job well done. I was able to find a lot of the information I've been searching for.

Originally Posted by Photologyst

The very best company for fancy books especially weddings is Asuka if you are a pro. Be forewarned: Bring money! AsukaBook USA - Home

Is the cost worth it? Is the difference between them worth the cost? Cost is something that's difficult to determine for a product such as this. Is one going to outlast the other, or is it just branding?

[photobookgirl]

Hi Nicole, I enjoyed reading your post. I write a blog on photo books where I do reviews of the companies (there are so many!) and I wanted to share my site with everyone. I've subscribed to the DPS newsletter for a while now, but just checked out the forum.

My site: PhotoBookGirl.com - A Guide to Photo Book Reviews, Deals and Tips

As you will probably see if you visit my site, I am quite photo book obsessed. I haven't tried out digiscrapping templates outside of those offered by the printing companies, but now I know where to look b/c of your post and all the links you have to them! I have reviews of several of the companies that I've tried along with photos of the books I've done with each company. I also have a "photo book wizard" that allows you to search through the features of 28 companies (with more being added everyday). Anyway, I appreciate any feedback you may have for me!

[EmbassyProBooks]

DIY photo books are certainly rewarding crafts to undertake, however daunting the task may seem, because they are something you will keep for years to come. As a professional photographer, offering photobooks as part of your package is a great idea, because of the appeal they offer to clients.

[shutterprincess]

This thread is much needed for me! I would like to start making photo books for others. What is the best way for them to send me their photos and any text to go along with the photos? Email is a hassle to me. Sometimes files are too big to send via email. Any suggestions, thanks!

[Doug Sundseth]

CD or DVD by post or files by YouSendIt or FTP (if you have an FTP server available).

[Sweetlifephoto]

Sorry if I missed it, but I didn't see either Blurb or Lulu mentioned. I have used both of these and have had my work published by third parties you have used these and they are excellent for self-publishing photography books!

[corry]

I have printed a few at shutterfly.com and am very pleased with the results and they have great predesigned templates so makes quick work of putting it all together....and often sales and freebies..

[shutterprincess]

Originally Posted by Doug Sundseth

CD or DVD by post or files by YouSendIt or FTP (if you have an FTP server available).

Thank you!

[shutterprincess]

What is a ball park figure of what I should be charging? I'm using Shutterfly, but will try Mixbooks as I Iove their scrapbooking options. (Though I'm starting to read negative reviews about them, so I don't know)

The standards I prefer to work with are the hard cover, 8 X 8, 20 page books. These books will cost $30 to be printed. In order for me to earn a decent profit, what should I charge? No matter what I charge, $30 will not go to me, so it will seem like I'm charging so much. But if I charge, say 60 dollars, 30 goes to the printing company and 30 to me.

Here's what I can offer:
---Customized pages. Yes I use the template design, but I customize the page to fit in with the photo theme & make it unique so that they will not see another page somewhere that looks exactly like it online. I will alter transparency and move, delete, resize etc the template to make it one of a kind and not generic.

---Grammar editing. I'm a freelance writer and have strong grammar skills (though I know you can't tell from this post). But customers can expect their product to be free of spelling and grammar errors. So if they submit written messages or anything for the book, I will edit any errors. That can be a lot of work!

---Photo editing. I use GIMP to edit the photos. I'm no expert or anything, but I do simple cropping, color conversion, remove unwanted objects, sharpen, change transparency etc

---In some cases, I might feel the need to design a page from scratch using GIMP & work with overlay, screening, and other tools like the perspective tool and some others I can't think of.
I like to be very creative and make things very unique for the customer so that people can actually ask for my services, rather than just conclude they can make the book on their own (which they can) but that's why I want the unique photo editing that the average person can't do.
Am I on the right track with this line of thinking?

So basically I'm not just dragging photos into the template. I don't want to start off charging too high, but this takes a lot of time and I don't want to cheat myself either. Right now I'm making one for someone for free.

Thanks