Focus Publishing

[David Spivak-Focus Magazine]

Is now ready to accept submissions for photography books. After going over prices with different paper, binding and printing companies, I am confident that we can we offer photographers, museums and galleries books and other printed materials (direct mail pieces, calendars, etc.) at a very high quality, but we can offer these products at a price that's less expensive than you would get through going to one of these printers on your own. Where we really come in for you is that we take care of a lot of the other work for your book (barcodes, ISBN, etc.) and take care of marketing and advertising the book as well. The website is now fully operational. If you'd like to visit it, please take a look. www.focuspublishing.net.

And for all those wondering, yes, Michael Smith and Lodima Press can offer their services to you through us and if you'd like, he can work with you on everything from beginning to end on making sure this book meets not only yours, but his standards for how a fine art photography book should look.

Feel free to E-Mail me with questions or ask for a quote if you're interested in doing a book.

[PViapiano]

It might be a good idea to get rid of the Enter splash page, especially since it is a Flash page and the visitor must click on it twice to activate it, etc, etc, etc...

All best practices web standards designers will tell you the same thing...

[Merg Ross]

Also check for typos. I noted one on the submission page.

[David Spivak-Focus Magazine]

It might be a good idea to get rid of the Enter splash page, especially since it is a Flash page and the visitor must click on it twice to activate it, etc, etc, etc...

All best practices web standards designers will tell you the same thing...

The splash page is there to be able to have a true HTML page that will allow keywords (something I'm working on as we speak). You cannot have keywords in a flash only index page. This will increase traffic and hopefully future customers.

Also check for typos. I noted one on the submission page.

Where??

[Merg Ross]

"numer "of pages

[David A. Goldfarb]

"We are here to help you publish your book for [sic] less stress" [...]

There are more grammatical and stylistic errors, but since it's not possible to cut and paste from your Flash pages, you'll have to find them yourself.

[Dan Schmidt]

I found it odd that the pictures are covers of Focus Magazine issues. It makes it seem like the emphasis is on publishing in a magazine, not producing a book.

Yes, I have read the earlier threads on the subject and do get the gist of what you are trying to do, but still I found it peculiar.

Also it really seemed like an instance where flash was truly not needed. If you really want to get the content of your website (content is better than keywords as I understand it) flash is probably not the way to go.

[David Spivak-Focus Magazine]

I found it odd that the pictures are covers of Focus Magazine issues. It makes it seem like the emphasis is on publishing in a magazine, not producing a book.

Yes, I have read the earlier threads on the subject and do get the gist of what you are trying to do, but still I found it peculiar.

Also it really seemed like an instance where flash was truly not needed. If you really want to get the content of your website (content is better than keywords as I understand it) flash is probably not the way to go.

Since we have not published a book, yet, it would be impossible to use images of books. Although Michael did say I could use book covers from books that Lodima Press did, it wouldn't be a fair comparison. Lodima's Books are printed by the best printer in the world.

Once we get a couple of books printed, those images will be replaced with book covers.

I understand yours and others' reluctance to FLASH. I can definitely appreciate everyone's opinions on that subject and I thought about offering an HTML version, and perhaps that's something I'll do in the future... right now, we just wanted to get a site up and running that actually gave information and not just the ability to sign up for a newsletter.

Thank you for everyone else pointing to me the errors. I think I updated the wrong FLASH version that had these typos... I e-mailed my designer to send me the latest FLASH file. I think all of the errors will be gone by then.

[IanG]

Book publishing is far more than getting something printed.

Could you elaborate on how these books would be designed, edited and also the marketing and sales strategies.

There's a huge difference between magazine publishing and quality book publishing. It's not many weeks since you were asking about online publishing services like Blurb & Lulu.

Dewi Lewis, formerly of Cornerhouse, has written extensively about publishing Photo books, and has a book "Publishing Photography" on the subject. It's an essential read before anyone begins going down the avenue of getting their work published. I should add this comment is about the Photographer preparing his work and text for publishing.

Ian

[David Spivak-Focus Magazine]

Book publishing is far more than getting something printed.

Could you elaborate on how these books would be designed, edited and also the marketing and sales strategies.

There's a huge difference between magazine publishing and quality book publishing. It's not many weeks since you were asking about online publishing services like Blurb & Lulu.

Dewi Lewis, formerly of Cornerhouse, has written extensively about publishing Photo books, and has a book "Publishing Photography" on the subject. It's an essential read before anyone begins going down the avenue of getting their work published.

Ian

I'd be happy to. I will most definitely admit I am still a student in this field and my knowledge, overall, isn't as much as some of you. This is why I've retained the services of Lodima Press when needed and why clients can choose the option of working with Lodima to help them from as much or as little of the book as they'd like. With Michael's help and a few books where I've had a chance to see this all in process, I will definitely receive an education. Where I come in, specifically, is being able to acquire the deals with design, paper, binding, printing, etc. and handle the other details of the book (ISBN, barcodes, etc.).

I think that there will be three types of people who will want to take advantage of the service we offer:

1: Someone who knows what they want, the order they want the photographs sequenced in, the size, paper, etc. of the book and just wants to take advantage of the lower cost of printing and advertising. This is someone who has most likely published books before. They will require little to no help.

2: Someone who is like #1, but needs some refinement. Perhaps some help in sequencing of the photographs in the book, perhaps some help with marketing, etc. This is where we offer the services of someone who lives and breathes this stuff, where we use the services of Lodima Press. After an initial conversation with Michael, the customer will then have a good idea of what they want to do and come back to us with that idea. The customer will then work with Michael on every single detail of that book, from cover to cover. As far editing of text goes, I have those resources.

3: Someone who has an idea of what they want, but doesn't have a specific idea of the sequence of their photographs, whether they want them reproduced in tritone, quadtone or what. This is, again, someone who will work with Lodima Press but require more time and more attention.

Layout and design of photography is something we do every day here. Handling of specific images is something handled by the printer as far as scanning, or digital optimization of files.

After the book is complete, we then offer them a standard marketing and advertising package, which is included in the final price. This includes:

• A year of full page 4C ads inside of FOCUS
• A standard size (6 x 4.25) direct mail card as an outsert (in between the magazine and the pollybag) sent to every single one of Focus Magazine's subscribers after the book is published
• A press release sent to over 3,500 Focus Magazine newsletter subscribers announcing the book.
• A free listing on a soon-to-be-launched online bookstore photobookconnoisseur.net
• A free listing on amazon.com

After we've published a few books, we will offer other marketing and advertising packages to our clients where we can do a co-op advertising for all of the books we've publishshed. Unfortunately, the biggest resource I was going to use for this, PhotoEye Magazine, has ceased publishing the print version of their magazine and will now only publish online -- and they were not very clear with me as to when that will be. But there are a number of other great magazines out there that I can advertise in. We will also be able to offer our clients the opportunity not only to sell their book we published, but also their work at Photo LA and other upcoming photography art fairs where we can obtain a booth.