Since coming back to America, I've been flirting with the idea of self-publishing a book of my best photos from China. I'm thinking a soft cover book with, mostly, 5 x 7 inch and smaller photos (ie. not a huge, hard-back coffee table book).
I'm wondering if anybody reading my blog has ever done such a thing. I haven't talked with anyone who's self-published a book. Any advice would be most appreciated.
Also, would any of you, Mark's China Blog readers, be interested in buying a book of my best photos? I imagine that I'd be able to push several copies of the book onto family and friends, but would also like to make it open to a wider audience (if anybody would actually be interested in buying it).
I literally have thousands of photos. Some of them can be found here. Several really good ones are also on the post I made on Sunday. I have many, many more photos that either aren't on this blog or aren't on the internet at all.
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6 comments:
I would of course buy a couple Mark, but would I would really love to see you do is write a book (with pics) of your journey in China. In reading your old blog I really saw how wide ranging your experience was and think it would make an interesting read. Plus, if your looking to actually publish something that has the chance to catch fire, a well written memoir always has that chance. A photo book is a harder sell to a wider audience in my opinion. However, with China's growth, there is certainly a hunger for knowledge on an expats life in China.
We would love to buy a book with pictures of China and all of your stories. We are moving to Xi'an next summer and we are searching everywhere for pictures and most of all advice on expat living in Xi'an. Go for it!
You have great photos! Amazon has slef-publishing services.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/seller-account/mm-summary-page.html?topic=200260520
It's good to use Amazon becasue they have a very large user base. But their fee is slightly higher than other service providers.
Thanks for the encouragement, guys. I really appreciate it.
I've been looking around on a couple sites about self-publishing. Lulu.com is one I've looked at. It's not perfect, but it seems pretty decent. I'll definitely check out Amazon.
The content is there. I have all of the photos so now it's just a matter of getting them organized. I'll let you know when it starts coming to fruition. I'm excited about getting something together.
Don't be a fool Mark, go all out on this, forget softcover do a hard bound book. How many are you looking to put in the book? I made a book a few years ago, it turned out nice. I have a couple more in mind but have yet to organize all the photos. A site I have had my eyes on is blurb. The address is http://www.blurb.com/ prices seem fair and they do all sorts of layouts. I think a coffee table book would be sweet for your china photos.
Thanks for the blurb.com idea, Scott. It looks a lot better than lulu.com. I wish I hadn't spent several hours over the past few days making one on lulu... Oh well.
We'll see if I go hardcover or softcover. A hardcover book is going to probably end up being about $40. That seems damn expensive to me. A soft cover more like $25.
I have about 70 photos or so that I think are worthy.
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