Also - as an aside - Hahnemuhle has a new paper out: Fine Art Pearl 285gsm (another let's emulate a darkroom fiber print paper). I'm very happy with the Museo Silver Rag - but frankly the more the merrier. Maybe that will drive prices down. You're talking about a buck fifty per letter-size sheet for the Hahnemuhle Pearl. Ah - the niche market. When we (the inkjet people) take over the world - we will abolish glossy paper and force the world to conform to our traditional fiber print-looking ways.
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I have come to the end of this adventure. My conclusion is that it is going to be very expensive and time-consuming to make a high-quality inkjet photo book with say 40 - 75 photographs. It can be done on a limited basis as a prototype to show a prospective publisher, or as a portfolio - or for the wedding couple, but to do this in any quantity for selling to the public is too expensive.
Whether you use the Innova Opus Album, or the new Hahnemuhle Album (which I can't find in the states), or just buy a beautiful scrapbook and paste your pictures on it - you are making something to show your art or ideas to a couple of people.
When you introduce fine-art inkjet printing with hardcover bookbinding - if you include the labor - makes the book way too expensive to sell - unless it's just a small album book with 20 or so prints in it.
So for me - I think the idea is to make prototypes of books - postbound so the pages can be changed around - and see if I can interest a publisher.
Maybe the secret is to just buy a three-ring binder, I've got a nice hole-punch, and just put them in there. In other words, don't try to look like a "real" book. The spiral or the 3-ring binder is actually the best way to view many prints in a certain order. I could even get those little ring reinforcements. And sell each as a one-of-a-kind item.
And with that said - I will go back to my usual line of work - making photographic prints.
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p.s. The process reminds me of the time when I was making hand-assembled photo cards. They were very nice. I sold them at about $4.50 each, which was the most anyone would pay for them. It was a tedious process, but you could somehow convince yourself that it was worth your while when there were only a couple of orders. And one day an order comes in for 700 or 1500 cards. I don't remember the exact number but it was large. and there I sat for the next 2 or 3 weeks making cards. When the cards were finished; and I had switched during the process from one broken printer to one that was working; and filled the house with cards that were drying and flattening under weights; and that some were sticking together because the glue hadn't been put on right; when everything was straightened out - I sat down and figured out that my profit was about half the current minimum wage.
This latest project has the same feel about it. Do it as a means of presenting your ideas to someone, but not as a sellable item (unless you find out that you are indeed famous. You'll know that if other photographers are interested in getting shots of your newborn baby).
