Thanks for sharing your experience and giving the valuable advice of starting to build your audience early. On the advice of a friend I am thinking of self publishing my next book/tennis journal but just reading your experience I’m really glad that for my first book I went with a publisher rather than doing it myself.
As someone with a novel in development I found this post very inform and I appreciate you sharing the ups and downs of your journey.
I also loved the photos without knowing anything about that band, which of course I am now gonna look up. The photos are all amazing but one that I especially liked for some weird reason is the one with the pile of what I assume are reels for recording? But the way the holes on the sides of the containers look like a face due to the thing our brain does where it looks for faces and finds them even in abstract patterns (Pareidolia) made that photo very interesting to me.
Again thanks so much for your wisdom that was hard won and I look forward to reading more about your journey as someone who would absolutely love to be published one day.
Thank you. The faces are an exhibition at the holocaust museum in Berlin. They are to represent the millions of Jews who died in WW2. You are encouraged to walk over them and move them about, they are large metal faces. Disturbing and impactful exhibit.
Thank you for this series. The timing is great. I am in the final stages having my art exhibition book printed (final proofs done). I am ordering a small batch of less than twenty to test the waters. Advice on marketing?
Lots as this is also my day job. One of the key drivers of success is to accept that you will need to advertise to reach people effectively unless you have a large organic newsletter following or mailing list who are loyal.
This means running paid media campaigns in Meta/IG, Google, to reach and convert people to buy the book.
Building relationships with local bookstores across your city helps.
Hosting launch events (I ran 3 of these and managed to get friends in bands to play, made it a big event, hired out a venue and sold over 100 books on the launch night for each one and pulled in favors from friends to support).
Local newspapers were big for me too, I got interviewed so this helped with surround sound.
So, this was primarily a photography book? A photo essay?
I know you as a very good poet. My problems as I prepare a manuscript for self publishing, are all about formatting. I rebel against the tyranny of the left marginal and use the whole page. I am having a hard time getting the look I want—and see in my Word doc—to translate faithfully in any of the formatting programs I’ve used. And they each have their own learning curve, as well, and that has proven exhausting and frustrating when, after a lot of work, my poems just don’t look right.
This was primarily a photo book yes, the three books that followed and I talk about in the next few posts over the coming weeks were poetry books with illustrations, and/or just poetry.
I designed, typeset, and managed all of that - it was stressful and I made some really good choices but also some really bad ones.
In hindsight, and for my 5th book, I will most likely use a professional designer for the font and typesetting.
That makes sense for those elements. What about the direct costs of printing? Obviously there are options for print on demand but I never go down that path.
Thanks for sharing your experience and giving the valuable advice of starting to build your audience early. On the advice of a friend I am thinking of self publishing my next book/tennis journal but just reading your experience I’m really glad that for my first book I went with a publisher rather than doing it myself.
Thanks for this! And gorgeous photos!
Thank you!
As someone with a novel in development I found this post very inform and I appreciate you sharing the ups and downs of your journey.
I also loved the photos without knowing anything about that band, which of course I am now gonna look up. The photos are all amazing but one that I especially liked for some weird reason is the one with the pile of what I assume are reels for recording? But the way the holes on the sides of the containers look like a face due to the thing our brain does where it looks for faces and finds them even in abstract patterns (Pareidolia) made that photo very interesting to me.
Again thanks so much for your wisdom that was hard won and I look forward to reading more about your journey as someone who would absolutely love to be published one day.
Thank you. The faces are an exhibition at the holocaust museum in Berlin. They are to represent the millions of Jews who died in WW2. You are encouraged to walk over them and move them about, they are large metal faces. Disturbing and impactful exhibit.
Ah I see that now I totally didn't see that before thanks for clarifying that
That makes the photo much more meaningful
Thank you for this series. The timing is great. I am in the final stages having my art exhibition book printed (final proofs done). I am ordering a small batch of less than twenty to test the waters. Advice on marketing?
Lots as this is also my day job. One of the key drivers of success is to accept that you will need to advertise to reach people effectively unless you have a large organic newsletter following or mailing list who are loyal.
This means running paid media campaigns in Meta/IG, Google, to reach and convert people to buy the book.
Building relationships with local bookstores across your city helps.
Hosting launch events (I ran 3 of these and managed to get friends in bands to play, made it a big event, hired out a venue and sold over 100 books on the launch night for each one and pulled in favors from friends to support).
Local newspapers were big for me too, I got interviewed so this helped with surround sound.
Hope that gives you some starting ideas.
Yes, thanks. I’m looking forward to the rest of the series
So, this was primarily a photography book? A photo essay?
I know you as a very good poet. My problems as I prepare a manuscript for self publishing, are all about formatting. I rebel against the tyranny of the left marginal and use the whole page. I am having a hard time getting the look I want—and see in my Word doc—to translate faithfully in any of the formatting programs I’ve used. And they each have their own learning curve, as well, and that has proven exhausting and frustrating when, after a lot of work, my poems just don’t look right.
Suggestions? Thanks.
This was primarily a photo book yes, the three books that followed and I talk about in the next few posts over the coming weeks were poetry books with illustrations, and/or just poetry.
I designed, typeset, and managed all of that - it was stressful and I made some really good choices but also some really bad ones.
In hindsight, and for my 5th book, I will most likely use a professional designer for the font and typesetting.
That makes sense for those elements. What about the direct costs of printing? Obviously there are options for print on demand but I never go down that path.