Looking for a low production and high quality printing service to publish a book....

[David Spivak-Focus Magazine]

I don't know. If I understand correctly, for 66 pages at 50 USD (quite expensive) you will earn 13.50 from sale. If you sell 1000 copies you will get 13,500 USD. You will pay as author 14,000 USD to run your 1000 copies. Distributor gets 9,000 USD, printer gets 22,500 USD and you would get -500 USD.

Hmm, quite an offer and awesome deal.

I think that's only if you sell the book for $49.95...

You know, I just found out yesterday that Tim Anderson from Camera Arts has a book publishing company. Or the company that runs Camera Arts that Tim runs also has a book publishing wing. One of the photographers in our latest issue, Jackie Brenner, was printed under that company....she's on Amazon.com and a lot of other major book sites as well. Anyone know if Tim browses these forums?

[Greg Miller]

I have used SharedInk (ask them for access to their "Professional" site) and was impressed with the quality. Their prices are not cheap but are in line with or cheaper than most of their competitors.

If you are doing your book to make money, you might want to reconsider. I don't think many photographers make much money through book sales, either using vanity press or a real publisher.

[SAShruby]

I think that's only if you sell the book for $49.95...

Actually I was being little bit sarcastic.

[Erik Eks]

yeah I know - Lee Friedlander's a real expert at that self-published vanity press stuff... tacky tacky tacky

And your point is...? How does Lee Friedlander negate the fact that there is a vanity press? That's exactly the kind of delusion the vanity press feeds on: that you think you can be the next Friedlander.

A dumbkopf is a dumbkopf is a dumbkopf.

[Kirk Gittings]

I think that's only if you sell the book for $49.95...

You know, I just found out yesterday that Tim Anderson from Camera Arts has a book publishing company. Or the company that runs Camera Arts that Tim runs also has a book publishing wing. One of the photographers in our latest issue, Jackie Brenner, was printed under that company....she's on Amazon.com and a lot of other major book sites as well. Anyone know if Tim browses these forums?

I know Tim Anderson well. He is indeed publishing books. His email address is:

Tim Anderson <tim@cameraarts.com>

[tim atherton]

And your point is...? How does Lee Friedlander negate the fact that there is a vanity press? That's exactly the kind of delusion the vanity press feeds on: that you think you can be the next Friedlander.

A dumbkopf is a dumbkopf is a dumbkopf.

The term "Vanity Press" generally has a somewhat negative connotation to it and evolved from within the poetry/writing world. In photography there is a long, accepted and honorable tradition of self-publishing which carries little or none of those negative connotations.

Many photographers have and do self-published work and this is in no way looked down upon as it is in some of the writing world for example. (also many of these self-published books also now go for a very high premium).

Bear in mind that probably 85%-90% of even the very best photography books make no serious money at all and a good percentage make a loss. Most publishers are happy if they break even.

Small, "tradicional" specialist presses are now also adapting to short runs of such work and are probably the place to look rather than the iBooks route.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by the vanity presses "feeding upon"? Most of those who do photographic books aren't following the same pattern as they do in say the poetry world. Rather they provide shorter print runs which the photographer then markets themselves.

Essentially, in answer to your question, we are not actually talking about Vanity Presses - but ask a stupid question eh...

[tim atherton]

Try telling that to ...the erstwhile Arena Editions that they should not expect to make money from their photo books

err - they didn't and went bust as I recall

you seem to have a few issues around this not much point discussing it with someone who only seems able to course rather than discuss. (hmm - lose a bunch of money on a bad publication...?)

You seem to think that it is OK to lose money and until you lose your own, you won't know what it feels like.

Suffice to say your points are about 10 years out of date. One of the major issues of the changes in presses and publishing over recent years is that it's possible to self publish and for it not cost a fortune (and thus not the possibility to lose a fortune) as well as be distributed and sell reasonably well. There are several examples I know of where either individual photographers or a small group under their own imprint have done just this

The vanity press carries the negative connotation precisely because there is no curatorial or editorial rigour.

nice misconception, but there are remainder shelves full of bad, bad photo books put together with so called "editorial" rigor - and plenty of self published ones that sell well.

What's probably more important than editorial rigor (and what most publishers provide) is business sense

[David Spivak-Focus Magazine]

And your point is...? How does Lee Friedlander negate the fact that there is a vanity press? That's exactly the kind of delusion the vanity press feeds on: that you think you can be the next Friedlander.

A dumbkopf is a dumbkopf is a dumbkopf.

Didn't Friedlander have the largest photography exhibition at the MoMA last year? Who cares if it's vanity, the guy promoted himself well enough that he's world famous.

You can look at it two ways: Either work hard and wait for an opportunity to come to you or work hard and create opportunities for yourself. Just because you would be published under vanity press, does not mean your work isn't meaningful or relevant.