I self-published a photo book as a fundraiser for an animal rescue group

**frogoutofwater** · 05-03-2016, 10:21 AM - **5 Likes**

Last fall, I took an excellent book-publishing course as the final elective in a year-long photography program at the International Center of Photography. My goal was to create a reasonably priced, kid-appropriate photo book of the portraits I've taken at Catskill Animal Sanctuary, where I volunteer as a photographer.

The course, which was taught by the founders of Conveyor Editions (CONVEYOR), a fine art photo book publishing company, was excellent. It went well beyond "let's lay out a book in Blurb" and got into the nitty-gritty of book pricing and production, as well as exploring trends in creative book design concepts. We learned and laid out our books in InDesign. Some students incorporated some very creative choices into their book designs (for example, one student bought vinyl picnic tablecloth and had the printer use that material as the covers for her photo book featuring pictures of food taken by her photographer friends).

In the end, I was able to make a small 56-page book on high-quality paper, with full color images printed on the front, back and inside front and back covers, for about $13 a copy, in small runs of 25 books at a time. We are selling the book at CAS for $25 and I'm donating 100% of the profit (and a small part of the print cost) to CAS. It's not going to be a big fundraiser for CAS, but they're happy to be able to offer an educational keepsake for their visitors (or people who follow CAS online).

I probably could achieve a significantly lower price by going to a publisher that does offset printing for larger numbers of books, but I'm not sure we really have the demand to produce the book in those quantities. But we'll see

And for me, there's the ego gratification of seeing my book in their gift shop and online

:
Photo Book - "Love and Healing at Catskill Animal Sanctuary"

If anyone has been thinking of doing a creative photo book (especially something that doesn't fit within the parameters of a Blurb) and wants to learn more about my experience, feel free to post a question here or send me a private message.

Nass · 05-03-2016, 10:49 AM

It's amazing what you can do nowadays with on demand self publishing. My family went on vacation to Mauritius a couple of months ago and we made a lovely photo album coffee table book out of the photos we took, it's a real conversation starter. But I have to say that your book is also a lovely way to use photography, it's really inspiring. It's a shame the preview doesn't show more pages!

All the best with it - my hat off to you!

**frogoutofwater** · 05-03-2016, 10:55 AM

Originally posted by Nass

It's a shame the preview doesn't show more pages!

Yes, that was a bit of a compromise with their online store display. We are so accustomed to Amazon's "Look Inside" feature that we expect to be able to see a dozen or so pages. I would have liked to show maybe another set of 3 pages - but not more than that (because I want people to buy the book, ha ha). And it was also a bit tricky to find a set of 3 pages that worked to give a feel for the "voice" of the book - many of the photo series ran to 4 or 5 pages. That's something I l'll think about if I make a book like this one again (or update this one).

One of the next steps is to explore how I could convert this to an ebook, which would be more affordable.

atupdate · 05-03-2016, 10:58 AM

Nicely done. All I've done with my foster puppy shots is make calendars for my family members.

Tim

**frogoutofwater** · 05-03-2016, 11:33 AM

Originally posted by atupdate

Nicely done. All I've done with my foster puppy shots is make calendars for my family members.

Tim

I've been doing calendars for a couple of years, too. (I get good feedback on the very inexpensive desk calendars from Vistaprint.) And I've also produced greeting cards through Moo that CAS sells in their giftshop. And previously, I'd made a couple of photo books through MyPublisher.com.

But this was definitely a big step-up in terms of effort - learning the software, coming up with a layout, writing the text, adding some dedicated photo shoots to fill in some gaps in the storyline, proofing the files, and dealing with the pricing issues. I think that if I hadn't had the structure of a 10-week class (which gave me enough time to work out some issues, but also kept my feet to the fire to keep moving forward), the project wouldn't have come to fruition.

But now I'm quite keen to see what else might be possible. I probably will take another class this summer that focuses on content, and use that as a platform to develop another book.

05-03-2016, 10:21 AM - 5 Likes	#1
frogoutofwater Site Supporter Join Date: Oct 2013 Location: Toronto Photos: Gallery Posts: 674	I self-published a photo book as a fundraiser for an animal rescue group Last fall, I took an excellent book-publishing course as the final elective in a year-long photography program at the International Center of Photography. My goal was to create a reasonably priced, kid-appropriate photo book of the portraits I've taken at Catskill Animal Sanctuary, where I volunteer as a photographer. The course, which was taught by the founders of Conveyor Editions (CONVEYOR), a fine art photo book publishing company, was excellent. It went well beyond "let's lay out a book in Blurb" and got into the nitty-gritty of book pricing and production, as well as exploring trends in creative book design concepts. We learned and laid out our books in InDesign. Some students incorporated some very creative choices into their book designs (for example, one student bought vinyl picnic tablecloth and had the printer use that material as the covers for her photo book featuring pictures of food taken by her photographer friends). In the end, I was able to make a small 56-page book on high-quality paper, with full color images printed on the front, back and inside front and back covers, for about $13 a copy, in small runs of 25 books at a time. We are selling the book at CAS for $25 and I'm donating 100% of the profit (and a small part of the print cost) to CAS. It's not going to be a big fundraiser for CAS, but they're happy to be able to offer an educational keepsake for their visitors (or people who follow CAS online). I probably could achieve a significantly lower price by going to a publisher that does offset printing for larger numbers of books, but I'm not sure we really have the demand to produce the book in those quantities. But we'll see And for me, there's the ego gratification of seeing my book in their gift shop and online : Photo Book - "Love and Healing at Catskill Animal Sanctuary" If anyone has been thinking of doing a creative photo book (especially something that doesn't fit within the parameters of a Blurb) and wants to learn more about my experience, feel free to post a question here or send me a private message.

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05-03-2016, 10:49 AM	#2
Nass Veteran Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The British Isles Photos: Gallery Posts: 2,402	It's amazing what you can do nowadays with on demand self publishing. My family went on vacation to Mauritius a couple of months ago and we made a lovely photo album coffee table book out of the photos we took, it's a real conversation starter. But I have to say that your book is also a lovely way to use photography, it's really inspiring. It's a shame the preview doesn't show more pages! All the best with it - my hat off to you!

05-03-2016, 10:55 AM	#3
frogoutofwater Site Supporter Join Date: Oct 2013 Location: Toronto Photos: Gallery Posts: 674 Original Poster	Originally posted by Nass It's a shame the preview doesn't show more pages! Yes, that was a bit of a compromise with their online store display. We are so accustomed to Amazon's "Look Inside" feature that we expect to be able to see a dozen or so pages. I would have liked to show maybe another set of 3 pages - but not more than that (because I want people to buy the book, ha ha). And it was also a bit tricky to find a set of 3 pages that worked to give a feel for the "voice" of the book - many of the photo series ran to 4 or 5 pages. That's something I l'll think about if I make a book like this one again (or update this one). One of the next steps is to explore how I could convert this to an ebook, which would be more affordable.

05-03-2016, 10:58 AM	#4
atupdate Pentaxian Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Dayton, OH Photos: Gallery Posts: 4,724	Nicely done. All I've done with my foster puppy shots is make calendars for my family members. Tim

05-03-2016, 11:33 AM	#5
frogoutofwater Site Supporter Join Date: Oct 2013 Location: Toronto Photos: Gallery Posts: 674 Original Poster	Originally posted by atupdate Nicely done. All I've done with my foster puppy shots is make calendars for my family members. Tim I've been doing calendars for a couple of years, too. (I get good feedback on the very inexpensive desk calendars from Vistaprint.) And I've also produced greeting cards through Moo that CAS sells in their giftshop. And previously, I'd made a couple of photo books through MyPublisher.com. But this was definitely a big step-up in terms of effort - learning the software, coming up with a layout, writing the text, adding some dedicated photo shoots to fill in some gaps in the storyline, proofing the files, and dealing with the pricing issues. I think that if I hadn't had the structure of a 10-week class (which gave me enough time to work out some issues, but also kept my feet to the fire to keep moving forward), the project wouldn't have come to fruition. But now I'm quite keen to see what else might be possible. I probably will take another class this summer that focuses on content, and use that as a platform to develop another book.