Publishing a Book

What a headache. Literally. I plunged into InDesign. Great program, but of course I had to keep looking up lots of stuff. But I've got the basics down.

As I may have mentioned, I'm starting off with the simplest layout you can imagine - and I'm going to call the book and organize it into 7 "chapters." Each chapter will have a roman numeral to separate it from the others. What the 7 chapters mean - what these groupings mean - I'm not sure yet. It is like tossing down Tarot cards at this point.

The name: VII Photography Groupings

That is as obscure as you can get without leaving the title blank. I wonder whether there has ever been a book called, "untitled." Sort of like the "white album."

I've been reading as much of the Lulu.com stuff as I can. Some of the usual "my book looks horrible" in the discussions; and others very happy with the results. Talk about "what color space" is Lulu using with their printers etc. That seems a mystery.

I've already created a couple of test PDFs with sample pages - and of course they look great with the inkjet - but what they're going to look like from Lulu - time will tell. I decided that it doesn't make sense to order someone else's b&w book from Lulu because whether it looks good or bad, I won't know who to blame. I'm just going to have to take the plunge myself. And there is a proof mechanism (I'm pretty sure) where they send you a copy before you really print up a batch.

And even if I'm not happy with the result - I will have a hardcopy at the end of all this - man - I'm pessimistic. I do have a way of anticipating all the things that might go wrong. I suspect that is leftover from my computer days... No - can't blame it on computers - it began when I was about eight years old... Lot's of responsibility as a kid - that's what did it.

Lulu (On Demand Printing)

Okay. I have my work cut out for me. I began to design The 11th MAN (photography by me, story by A.G.) with InDesign yesterday. At the same time - started to look at print on demand sites. You don't (as far as I can tell) give up any rights to your work, and frankly - the process looks straightfoward. I can sell them from my site, from their site, and depending on which plan you have - there is a chance to get them into some distribution channels.

Lulu looks like it may do the trick - at least to get me started. Sizes, prices, workflow - all look clear and there really is no money up front - just my labor (what else is new).

I will do the book (yes all black and white) with four color process (which is much more expensive than grayscale) but the paper is better, as well as image reproduction of black and white.

I'm seriously thinking of doing a simpler book than the 11th MAN first with them - to get a feel for the quality and the whole process. Maybe: 50 IMAGES - VOLUME 1. I still have the Bronx Book on the backburners (3 years plus) but that I also seeing as having a lot of text.

Anyway - the more pages, the more expensive, and for me, something without a lot of text editing will be a simpler layout. I'll just model it after some photography book that I like - say Apres Paris by HCB and see how it goes.

That will get me up-to-speed with InDesign and help me determine whether Lulu is the way to go for the 11th Man which I can see will be a much more complex / creative endeavor.

If anyone out there has used Lulu for a b&w photography book - well - let me know how it came out.