The fifth, and final, installment of a five-part series on getting your photo book into print from my photographer friend Sara Frances. Start with Part One.
Getting your Book Out There
Thought you were done, once You’ve done a great design and edited away any little errors?! To make your book findable on the web, on Amazon, in libraries and stores you must have an ISBN (with barcode for the cover) and preferably also a Library of Congress number. The LOC is a free sign-up on line, the ISBN will cost $35 as of last report at Bowker.com. Don’t forget to copyright!
John Fielder is a star with his extensive line of fine landscape books and accessories; this image from Colorado Black on White. Note this is a chapter heading page, reading like a story.
You’re ready for the next part of the game: warehousing, distribution, wholesaling, fulfillment, and PR. Unless you have a huge garage, insured, heated to accommodate several pallets of heavy, bulky boxes, you need a distributor. And are you planning to take orders, pack and ship, take returns, vet stores for their business licenses and payment, collect and report sales taxes, keep track of inventory? Not a wrong answer; especially for a limited, short run doing this yourself makes sense.
Here’s the reason I enjoy John’s work so much: he writes little experiences about his hikes, the weather and unexpected things he encounters in nature. Not just picture books!
A possible distributor
My distributor, Thin Air Collective is run by Melissa Serdinsky (formerly of Perseus and Ingram). She’s decided to go the small business route to help artists, photographers, memoirists, and poets in particular. She’ll do it all the warehousing, order taking, credit card orders, store vetting, fulfillment, and accounting for you for a minimal fee, and I tell you she knows everyone and everything in this highly volatile industry. Both wholesaling (to an outlet that offers books from many difference publishers as a convenient on-stopper to stores) and special purchase sales (bulk purchase to a library system, non-profit, or corporate incentive gift) are under her purview as well. Tell her I sent you: melissa@thinairpub.com.
Early on, John decided to fill a niche with a series of self-published, regional interest books. He does everything, including high profile web sales and in-person appearances at special interest events, not just book stores. He’s a consummate promoter.
Promotion
But you can’t just rest and expect the orders to come in. PR on virtually all books, even by high profile authors, require a hands-on approach by you! Gallery events, gallery or bookstore or other venue talks (don’t expect a fee, and some venues require a minimum guaranteed book purchase or an organizer fee.) Facebook and Instagram are essential. Blog and postings weekly to lure readers with extra content are essential. No, you don’t continually ask, “Buy my book!” You give readers tips and anecdotes and insider information they can’t get elsewhere. Your public wants a connection. Start a mail list for your book: ConstantContact or iContact seem to be favorites. Offer gallery prints as a special deal along with a signed copy of your hard bound edition. Have links that make it easy for people buy. It’s a continuing job, but the public will love you for the value they receive!
Marty Knapp is another fine promoter. He emphasizes fine art print sales, but books and accessories help support his gallery. His email list is probably equal to John’s—and the model for the rest of us as we get started!
Sara Frances
Sara is a many-decades Master Photographic Craftsman out of Denver whose artistic focus has always been book making with images. Her albums won PPA merits starting well before digital capture, as well as for what is believed to be the first ever awarded portrait album. She has evolved from daily, shorter-term studio photography into exclusively special projects of long commitment. Her second hybrid photo/memoir art book, Fragments of Spirit, now published under her own mark, Photo Mirage Books, is available mid-December 2020.
Renewing her lifelong interest in creative writing, she was recently was accepted for Lighthouse Writers Workshop’s Poetry Collective, graduating a year later with a forthcoming hybrid work marrying over 275 manipulated iPhone images with 120 poems: What to Wear to Paradise.
Her three-year quest to learn all facets of the art book industry has influenced her to give back with hands-on publishing classes. She is a judge for the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) and for Colorado Independent Publishers Association (CIPA.) She teaches for Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at the University of Denver, for PPA Super One Day seminars, and also mentors hybrid image/text projects.
Number four of the five-part series on getting your photo book into print from my photographer friend Sara Frances. Start with Part One.
You are Designer and Editor
Paying outside services for book consultation, editing, cover, and design are the costs that put a book project out of reach to most photographers. Here’s the good news: your abilities with image making and with Adobe apps give you the tools to do this yourself. The power and facilities of Photoshop now provide almost everything you need; Both publishers and Adobe are noting that many books, including my own Fragments of Spirit, are now designed exclusively in Photoshop. Who better to select, sequence and design your photographic art into a beautiful book?
Cover of my own Fragments of Spirit showing both hard bound and soft bound versions. Note they must have separate ISBN numbers.
What do you need to know?
Once you’ve selected your eventual print house, query them about every detail of the specifications, and make a reference copy of all of this: file size and type, resolution, template, bleed margins, gutter, color space conversion, embedding images, vectors, layering, paper type and weight, cover stock, cover materials and debossing, single page or spreads, PDFs, FTPs, proofing, corrections, timing, delivery. You’ll be responsible for all of these, but it’s like paying yourself back for many things you already know how to do.
Three main pitfalls.
• Conversion to the specific CMYK required may make changes in your original file. Open the original and converted files side by side and compare as your monitor simulates that color space.
Go to View>Proof Setup>Custom and then a drop down menu. This is not sticky, so you have to recheck constantly, and it’s tricky to have two files open with different settings.
Where to find the Photoshop simulations of different color spaces. Click the Custom menu option for the long list, then save the ones you use most often lower down. Cover of an artist’s retrospective book I am currently designing for a museum.
• Different types of printing will require different contrast, saturation, and sharpness. This is an experience thing, and sometimes quite subtle. But you’re a stickler for precision, aren’t you? Ask (and pay) for a few pages in advance proofing to see directly what you need to do. Continuity is king. Sometimes proofing is with inkjet that will be similar, but not as sharp as the final printing, and possibly have a paper-driven color bias (this is not done on your studio Epson or Canon equipment.)
• Photoshop is a hybrid: not fully bitmap or vector in its file structure. Vector PDF submission is essential for all traditional offset printers I’ve encountered. I’ve found the easiest way to create the vector PDF is to open in Illustrator> convert layers to objects> save out as an Adobe PDF. Then Acrobat will take the single page or spread file and create one document. You’ll be uploading to the printer’s proprietary site.
Settings that make you look like a seasoned pro with type manipulation in Photoshop.
Sound like a lot?
Not really, because you are only adding a few nuances to the skills for every piece of commercial work you manipulate and enhance.
Want more detail? Sign up for my Zoom online 8-week class at Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Denver, Boulder location. All teachers are unpaid volunteers. Next class starting 1/12/21.
Or, look for the next Professional Photographers of America Super One Day!
Sara Frances
Sara is a many-decades Master Photographic Craftsman out of Denver whose artistic focus has always been book making with images. Her albums won PPA merits starting well before digital capture, as well as for what is believed to be the first ever awarded portrait album. She has evolved from daily, shorter-term studio photography into exclusively special projects of long commitment. Her second hybrid photo/memoir art book, Fragments of Spirit, now published under her own mark, Photo Mirage Books, is available mid-December 2020.
Renewing her lifelong interest in creative writing, she was recently was accepted for Lighthouse Writers Workshop’s Poetry Collective, graduating a year later with a forthcoming hybrid work marrying over 275 manipulated iPhone images with 120 poems: What to Wear to Paradise.
Her three-year quest to learn all facets of the art book industry has influenced her to give back with hands-on publishing classes. She is a judge for the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) and for Colorado Independent Publishers Association (CIPA.) She teaches for Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at the University of Denver, for PPA Super One Day seminars, and also mentors hybrid image/text projects.
Professional Photographers of America (PPA) hold the International Photographic Competition (IPC) each year. My results.
The Jury
A panel of 36 eminent jurors from across the United States selected the top photographs from over 5,000 total submitted entries at PPA headquarters in Atlanta. Judged against a standard of excellence, 1,706 images were selected for the General Collection and 865 (roughly 17 percent) were selected for the esteemed Loan Collection—the best of the best. The Loan Collection images will all be published in the much-anticipated “Loan Collection” book by Marathon Press.
“I’m thankful that these challenges exist through PPA. Having your work reviewed and judged by top industry professionals helps keep my image making from becoming static. I get feedback on new techniques which is priceless in keeping me growing my image creation skills.”
‘Another World’ was captured at the Toadstools in Southern Utah.
‘Great Blue’ was captured in Page Springs, AZ at the Bubbling Ponds.
Loan Collection
Three of my images were accepted into the Loan Collection.
‘Orange Outburst’ is a water droplet photo.
Another water droplet capture in the PPA Loan Collection.
Two were made of experimental photography involving falling water droplets. Orange Outburst and Twice Nice show the result of specialty lighting of three water drops crashing at intervals which are done by very specific timing of the drops, plus a bit of endurance. Many images need to be captured to find some that create these patterns. The other Loan image was from a composite image titled ‘Blessing Place. Bob worked with images of animals photographed at the Phoenix Zoo some northern Arizona landscape features and and clouds photographed from above. In addition two more photographs were named to the General Collection. I rendered a watercolor of a great blue heron in flight over the Bubbling Ponds in Page Springs. ‘Another World’ was a night sky photograph of the Milky Way made while in Southern Utah of the Toadstools. It has a very prehistoric feel.
‘Blessing Place’ is a bit of a departure from my normal work.
Images will be in the International Photographic Exhibition alongside other top photographic works from the competition and traveling and special invitational displays. These images constitute one of the world’s largest annual exhibits of professional photography gathered simultaneously in one place.
About PPA
Founded in 1868, Professional Photographers of America (PPA) is the largest and longest-standing nonprofit photography trade association. It currently helps 30,000 professionals elevate their craft and grow their business with resources, protection, and education, all under PPA’s core guiding principle of bridging the gap between photographers and consumers. See more of my artwork at coatesart.net or at the Gallery of Modern Masters in Hillside, Sedona, AZ.
Coming soon
Above you can see the images that were favored by the judges. Soon I’ll share those that did not make it into the General Collection.
First Friday in Sedona
Featured Artist at The Gallery of Modern Masters
I told you I had some news… And here it is.
I’ll be the featured artist at The Gallery of Modern Masters for the month of September. First Friday in Sedona will mark the opening of my new work being displayed. September 7th you are invited to join us for some wine and light hors’ dourves from 5 PM til 8 PM.
There will be new pieces on display for the first time. It turns out I must be in my ‘Gold Period’. Most of the new imagery features golden tones. Didn’t really think about it it just kind of turned out that way. Must be in honor of the fall season. I chat with Tom Taback of KAZM about my art and process for its creation. You can listen to the 20-minute KAZM Radio show Tech Talk from August 28th below.
Tech Talk on KAZM August 28, 2018
New work being prepped for Gallery of Modern Masters Show
Friday, September seventh 5 PM – 8 PM
Gallery of Modern Masters
671 State Route 179
(Hillside Sedona)
Sedona, Arizona 86336
928-282-3313 Toll-free 888-282-3313
Photographer Muse – Part Two (or Deux if you prefer)
I shared how much I enjoy working with Pash. I can’t give her enough credit for coming up with concepts she would like to pursue that lead me to new imagery. She knows how to move, and hold a pose, when necessary. Both are equally powerful skills. See my original post about my muse here.
Learn more about Pash and her work with modeling, mask making, performance and more here.
And now to the images.
This image is pushed to high exposure.
Going very high key with the exposure of the image with the ND filters in place allow the wind to play a part giving an even more ethereal feel to the image as the leaves and cloth wrap blow gently.
ND filters are by Tiffen. It’s the Pro100 package which includes the holder, a 1.2, and a 1.2 graduated filter. For this shoot, I had a 3.0 and the graduated filters. You can buy much less expensive filters but in ND you get that for which you pay. These are very thick optically pure glass filters.
This one turned out a bit spooky!
All the images were photographed in the same space, but all have a different feel.
A different view of the creek and the amount of space my model Pash takes up within the frame makes for a very different look for all the photos. Let me know which one is your favorite and why. It would be interesting to see the various responses.
All images were created in Infrared made with Lumix G6 converted by LifePixel.
A 14-140mm (28-280mm 35mm equivilent) lens was used. This allowed for the significant changes in framing without spending time swapping out lenses. Files were processed with Adobe Photoshop and Skylum’s Luminar 2018.** Some images were givin a little extra glow. I set up a preset in Luminar to get the image close to where I wanted then tweaked from there.
If you haven’t captured photos in infrared with a digital camera here is what a file looks like when downloaded in RAW to the computer.
SOOC Infrared RAW file.
The files captured in the IR spectrum need some work as you can see. The nice part of using the Panasonic camera with live view set to monochrome allows you to get a better idea of what the final image will look like. If you shoot RAW plus jpeg, you will end up with a magenta version as above and a black and white version. Can be very handy when you first start shooting IR.
Yours in creative Photography, Bob
PS – Save $10 on Luminar 2018 by using the Promo Code COATES
Occasionally I'll send out a digest version of the blog posts on Successful-Photographer. I'm not a fan of Spam and I'm sure you are not. Your Email address is safe with me. Bob
For infrared conversion of my cameras I use LifePixel. Infrared allows you to put an older camera to use and opens up a new time time of day for productive image creation.
Learn Photoshop in a fun environment. Aaron Nace applies the right amount of fun with easy to understand and follow tutorials. Actions and brushes are included with lessons!
Luminar 4 and LuminarAI software from Skylum are creative tools. In addition to being a stand-alone program, I often use it as a plug-in for Adobe Photoshop. Full of creative possibilities! Find all of the Skylum products by clicking on this link.
By using the COUPON CODE COATES you'll save 10 bucks or get the best deal going on Luminar. Click on the logo for more info.
Luminar 4 and LuminarAI
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Lightning, waterdroplets, sound, time-lapse, HDR sequences, smiles and much more control for your camera!
Cameras Get Smarter -
A High Speed Smart Camera Remote
Sara is a many-decades Master Photographic Craftsman out of Denver whose artistic focus has always been book making with images. Her albums won PPA merits starting well before digital capture, as well as for what is believed to be the first ever awarded portrait album. She has evolved from daily, shorter-term studio photography into exclusively special projects of long commitment. Her second hybrid photo/memoir art book, Fragments of Spirit, now published under her own mark, Photo Mirage Books, is available mid-December 2020.
