Hi, I'm planning to self-publish a book about fairground art. It's aimed at designers, ad-folk and other professional creatives (as well as funfair enthusiasts, of which there are many). So the book needs to be a decent size, both to present the images at their best and make it feel part of the art book family.
I plan to take the litho print route and work with a designer colleague on the layout, but I've had conflicting information about sizing. "Printers/bookshops don't like landscape", "Crown 246x189mm is best because of cost" etc.
I'm struggling to make sense of the options and with most publishing resources focussed on books outside this art/photography/design category, I'm a bit stuck. So I really hope I can get some feedback here and maybe send a synopsis with key images to anyone with a professional interest in getting involved.
I look forward to your response.
Nigel
Yeah I think Blurb's quality does let them down a little, which is a shame, but like you say, it depends what you are looking for.
Firstly, thanks Katie. Yes, I did look into Blurb but the swatch book I had to buy was really disappointing: the paper stocks just weren't very good at all. For an audience of creative types, the execution will be as important as the idea. That's why the whole package needs to look and feel good. It will be a 'premium' book too, so quality is key.
I got pretty excited about Blurb initially, so tearing open that package and seeing the paper swatches for myself was a real let-down. Boo!
And thanks Sue. That's a huge help. I actually got some early interest from Thames & Hudson! But they weren't convinced they could sell the book in sufficient quantities, hence the self-publishing route.
I'll certainly check out Butler & Tanner too. And I'm in conversation with Matador Publishing http://www.troubador.co.uk/matador.asp. They look excellent, but I wondered if you know anything about them?
I saw a great book on Kickstarter called 99 x 99s by an amazing photographer called Luke Stephenson. His 'route to market' was to appoint a design agency and get the book printed by a company called Midas in Shanghai. I'm going to investigate that option as well.
Thank you so much for the swift response and good advice. Hopefully, I'll soon be able to make an informed choice on how to produce my book. I should have written a novel!
Nige
It's an interesting and much ignored subject area.
Repro is going to be vital so I would start by talking to Butler Tanner and Dennis.
Based in Frome in Somerset they are art book specialists with a reputation for excellent reproduction.. They are primarily printers but they lead the field in this market and they can probably shortcut you on best sizes, formats etc. : http://www.butlertanneranddennis.com/
If you were going to a publishing house this would be Thames and Hudson territory so I would have a look at their catalogue and see what sizes they favour.