SOME EXPERT ADVICE

I attended the seminar "Publishing the Photographic Book" to gain an overview of what it means to sell a book of photography. (I am enthusiastic...but, not stupid...so expert advice is a good thing :-)

To get a sense of what the seminar was about, I have included links to articles by Darius Himes and Mary Virginia Swanson. They have been writing a series of articles about publishing books of photography for Photo-Eye (PDF files are available to download at no charge - I linked them in below). Good stuff.

Publishing the Photography Book, part 1
Publishing the Photography Book, part 2
Publishing the Photography Book, part 3

I have been struggling with the fact that I think we have some great photos, but I am not sure what the book is. What is it about? Why would people want to buy our book? Who would buy our book? At this point in our project, there were two speakers who spoke to my needs: Sam Abell and Peter Fetterman.

Sam Abell told the story of a book of photography published by MoMA that he found. It was 7" x 7" - small enough to fit in his camera bag. So, he read it. It's a simple thing, but powerful to think that people would actually read the book because it was small enough to carry around. And very inspiring that other photographers might find our experiences interesting.

Peter Fetterman relayed his experiences behind creating his "Woman: A Celebration" book. As a gallery owner, he has access to many great photographs, so he created this collection. (He also sells some of the prints that are in the book.) The book is small, like a personal journal. But it has a hard cover like a precious object. Our story is what we saw, felt and did while in San Miguel de Allende. The idea of an intimate, precious book appeals to me for our project.

Anyway...some first thoughts from the seminar...Heather