Photography

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A place to politely discuss the tools, technique and culture of photography.

This is not a good place to simply share cool photos/videos or promote your own work and projects, but rather a place to discuss photography as an art and post things that would be of interest to other photographers.

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Printing/Photo Books Without a Following (alien.top)

submitted 11 months ago by dryra66it@alien.top to c/photography@viewfinder.pro

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Photographers that print your work or make photo books, but don’t have enough of a following to sell them… What do you do with them?

I really liked printing my photos in collage when we would do critiques, but since then I haven’t really printed anything because the cost hasn’t felt worth it. I like the idea of doing books or zines, but don’t have anyone to share them with (friends/family will flip through once, but are otherwise not that interested). I’ve thought about looking into local art fairs, that kind of thing, but am not sure my work is good enough to sell. I simply can’t afford to print 100 copies only to sell one or two haha!

What do you all do? Or is having the physical copy for yourself enough?

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[–] SilenceSeven@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

In the past year I've self-published four photo books. It cost me a little bit of money but honestly, I could have done it almost or 100% free.

I spent $50 for Affinity Publisher to help lay my books out. I purchase a proof copy before publishing. The price of the proof will depend on book size, page count etc.

For example: 8.5" x 11" @ 200 pages on "premium color" paper is less than $20 for a proof. Premium in quotes, because this is being printed by Amazon or Barnes & Noble and the Premium paper is good but not great.

So I'm in at $70 so far, but I've also ordered author copies to give away to friends/family etc.

You can forgo the proof copy if you like and go ahead and publish, and you can also just use Word or Google Docs, etc. to layout your book.

Doing it this way through Amazon or Barnes & Noble or a handful of other companies you can get your book printed, it will be out there for sale, and you can order author copies basically at cost to sell on your own or give away. You don't have to have any inventory, you don't have to manage shipping etc. The profit for books isn't that much per copy. But if you're just looking to get some copies printed this is a great way to do it, and also potentially get some sales, and get your photos out there.