Problem
What problem was I trying to solve? Independent publishing of printed photo books is expensive. For example, I experimenting with the same book on 3 different services and the average cost was $63:
- On Shutterfly, my 10 x 10 hardcover photo book, Myopia in Italy, of 42 pages was $90 WITH a coupon.
- On Blurb, my 10 x 8 softcover photo book and 8th book overall, Myopia in Italy, of 70 pages was $45.
- On Artifact Uprising, my 10 x 10 softcover photo book, Myopia in Italy (limited preview ability), of 40 pages was $54.
[Note: this post is about printed matter. Blurb also offers iBooks, Amazon, iOS and Android compatible digital versions as well as PDF.]
Solution
While searching for alternatives I found the Alliance of Independent Authors and they review and rate self-publishing services. For example, they recommend Blurb as well as Apple iBooks and Amazon CreateSpace is a partner member. AIA also have Watchdog Advisory and Caution categories and they use them.
While researching other publishers, I stumbled upon a prolific photographer. She recommended switching from photo book to magazine format. This change would significantly reduce cost while keeping the photo quality up.
Indie magazines have experienced a renaissance lately in part because of the availability of technology. Blurb got into magazines in a big way in 2014 by licensing MagCloud. MagCloud is HP’s web-based publishing platform invented by HP Labs in 2008. It created a network of users publishing magazines on-demand using HP Indigo commercial printing presses.
Result
I published a 37-page soft-cover magazine, Myopia in Britain on Blurb for $10. A book cost an average of $63. That’s a 6x difference.
Next week I will have a physical copy in my hands. I will let you know how the quality stacks up. In the meantime, my next post will cover the things I learned. I discovered the differences between creating a book and creating a magazine. The medium really does matter!
Jennifer Hartnett-Henderson 
Interesting! I look forward to hearing your experience with this. I publish my own comics, in softcover, so I suppose that might be somewhat like making a magazine. I use two different local printers, depending on whether I’m doing colour or black and white, and depending on the binding I need. Do you have any good local printers who do short-run books near you? It might be worth a try.
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Hi Karen, that’s an interesting point – comics are a bit like magazines in terms of the paper, spine, and paper surface. Maybe Blurb’s magazine format would be useful for you. Thanks for sharing your experience on using a local printer. I never thought about that so I will check it out.
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