The Online Photographer

It's Good to Look at Pictures

I did get to spend about five hours yesterday working on picture selections for our first book. (Despite being distracted. We're having some family drama.)

I'm always surprised by how easy it is to imagine editing photographs, and how different it is to actually do it. This has been consistently surprising, if such a thing is possible. To edit you have to actually do it, and to do it you need to actually look at photographs, let your visual intelligence take over.

I should back up and explain that I'm editing pictures for a book we plan to publish next Spring. One first book, as an experiment—an experiment to see how things go. Hopefully more after that, but for now, this one. I made a call for work, and got more than 2,000 suggestions from readers.

My intention has been to simply put all of the "possibles" into a "bin," if you will, for winnowing later. It hasn't gone like that. What happens is that when I put a "possible" into the document and look at it and it just doesn't fit, I know pretty quickly that it doesn't belong and then there's no more need to leave it in. So a lot of pictures have gone into the bin and then come right back out again, hours or days later. The ones that stay are the must-haves, the ones I feel rock-solid about. And once you get a certain critical mass of those, then you've got a core that dictates what else goes and what doesn't go. It becomes a simpler matter: does this go with what you already have? Does it belong with the others?

The "rejects," of course, are rejects just for this project. Accordingly, some of the pictures I really like but won't be using are suggesting other projects to me! For example, this wonderful shot by Sergio Bartelsman:

Photograph by Sergio Bartelsman

That's a great shot, and in the right company it could really sing. It doesn't "fit" in this first book, but it got my mind churning about future projects where it might fit. "Anonymity," a book of unrecognizable/recognizable people? This photograph would never do for identification purposes, but I'll bet this fellow's friends would know it's him in an instant. A book about negative space, where something in each photograph is a shape of featureless or near-featureless black? The possibilities pile up. These are just examples, and this is just one picture—a number of other pictures are likewise suggesting their own possibilities. I don't want to give up too many ideas.

Another interesting thing is happening, something I'm very familiar with and always enjoy—some photographs that didn't grab me at first are showing "legs"—staying power—while others I liked at first aren't lasting. The way I've always edited my own work (when I'm working, which isn't often any more) is to take the best shots from a recent batch of shooting and put them all up on the wall. Then I just look at them for a few days. What happens is almost like a form of magic or alchemy. I'll start out with ten or twenty shots I feel are all approximately equivalent in quality. Then, after two or three days, I'll have a handful I like and a handful I don't. Then when five or six days have passed, there will be two or three shots that I just love (well, if I'm lucky there will be), and the rest I just don't need to see any more.

It's like they sort themselves. Some of my initial selects for the book have traveled the same arc.

I did make a rookie mistake that I take full responsibility for. I should never have given the words "quiet color" as a cue. When you make a call for pictures, naturally people want to give you what they think you want. I just got loads of pictures that in some way illustrated the concept of quietude—pictures of emptiness and desolation, unpeopled landscapes and featureless seascapes, minimalism, lots of pastels and washed-out color, lonely scenes, out-of-the-way details. That wasn't exactly what I was looking for, but then, I didn't make that very clear, did I? My bad, mine alone. All I was really after were pictures that use unexaggerated color...easy on the sliders, maybe I should have said.

It's just very difficult to find the right way to give a call for work with an enabling cue rather than a limiting one. Take a look at this page to get an idea of the kind of pictures that people think illustrate the word "quiet." Nothing wrong with any of it, except that a little goes kind of a long way for me.

I can promise that our next book—assuming the first one goes okay and there is a second one—will have a very robust cue, one that will be enabling but not limiting. (In fact, I can give you that cue right now, if you want to be thinking six or nine months into the future. It's this: birds. Do not send me anything now—really, don't—but I thought you might want to set it it percolating.)

Back to Quiet Color. We're aiming for 32 or 36 pictures—the book designer will tell me exactly how many we have room for when he does his first concepts, and he hasn't started on that yet. So far I have made about half of the final selections, and about two-thirds of those come from TOP readers one way or another. But I'm in the process of going through all the submissions again, and I'm about a third of the way through that.

My mood is good, though. What overrides everything else is that it's good to look at pictures—always perks me up.

Good day to you, too.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2013 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Axedge Books (TOP Books Update)

In response to numerous queries, an update about TOP's first book:

• I'm pleased to announce that we have a name: It is Axedge Books. And as our motto:

"Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." —Abraham Lincoln

As Ken Tanaka noted, the business name isn't actually that important, since we're planning to market our books pretty much exclusively here on TOP. So, quickly on to two more important developments:

• Our Project Manager is Jim Schley, who, quite apart from being one of the most gifted human beings I've had the honor of knowing on God's green Earth, is one of my oldest friends. Jim is currently Managing Editor of Tupelo Press, a 21st-century independent literary press based in North Adams, Massachusetts. (I'm currently in negotiations to have Tupelo Press do our order fulfillment.) There are so many interesting things about Jim that it's hard to know where to begin, but I'll just mention that he's had an outstanding career as an editor and in publishing and has shepherded more than 200 books through to publication. (If you're a regular reader, you've recently encountered his wife and daughter, here.) We could not be in better hands, of that I'm convinced.

• We have a book designer! And it's a TOP reader, no less, one of several who offered his services after reading about our project here. After interviewing several really good candidates, we're on the cusp of contracting with Patrick Côté. He's a Canadian (no, not the perhaps better-known Canadian mixed martial artist of the same name—at least I think not) and a longtime reader (and not infrequent commenter) here on TOP. His company is called Rare Species. You can see some of Patrick's work at the link.

• We probably won't hit our target publication date of March 4th ("march forth," geddit? Auspicious date for the launch of new ventures, at least among punsters). Oh well. Later in the Spring of '14, though, we still hope.

• There will be 500 copies of the first book. That might not be enough to go around, but we have to calibrate, calibrate, calibrate...I just don't know how popular our books are going to be, or not. So I plan to be conservative at first and adjust gradually from there.

• We're going to shoot for a selling price in the $40–$60 range, so hopefully there won't be too much of a cost premium on account of the near-micro press run.

• As soon as we cement our agreement with Patrick (when Jim can get some basic specs from him) we'll begin to contact photographers asking if we can use specific images. I hope to include a handful of "friends of TOP," a handful of pictures that have been featured on TOP, and a handful of pictures by TOP readers.

I meant to get back to the selection process during my recent three-day walkabout, but I didn't get that far. Soon. There must be more hours in each day somewhere....

Mike
(Photo of Jim Schley by Luciana Frigerio)

Original contents copyright 2013 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Featured Comments from:

Michael: "After reading this site for so many years, I will pay the 'top' end of that price sight unseen, now.  :-) "

Mike replies: Thanks! One down, 499 to go.

Ernie Van Veen: "Later in spring? May the fourth...be with you."

Mike replies: Ernie, you go sit in the corner.

'Quiet Color' Submissions

Once again, I'd like to thank so many readers and others who sent in their pictures to be considered for inclusion in our first book.

Today's the last day for submissions. All in all I received just over 2,100 photographs from 941 photographers.

I'm doing my best to look at new emails when I'm fresh and in a decent mood, and then to go back over all the submissions at a later time to look at them more carefully. It's then that I drop the ones I think might be suitable into a "selects" folder.

Tomorrow I get to work on layouts and sequencing for the first time. (Each part of this process is more fun until the ultimate satisfaction, which is seeing the finished product in your hands. Ultimately, I think artists just like to make stuff...actual physical objects that you can hold in your hands or point to and say "look at what I made, how do you like this?)

As to which pictures get selected, ultimately I suppose it depends on how any particular photograph goes with the others in the group.

Oh, and I'd like to say that it's been a pleasure seeing so many fine pictures, whether I find they suit the project or not.

More updates by and by.

Mike
(Thanks to 941 talented people)

Original contents copyright 2013 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Call For Work

As I mentioned two weeks ago, I'm looking for pictures for TOP's first book, which has the working title "Quiet Color." (A working title, if you don't know the term, is a tentative title which might or might not become the final title. For example, the working title of the Beatles' last release, "Let It Be," was "Get Back.")

We're looking for recent or little-known art photographs with naturalistic or subdued color. Film work is okay but digital is preferred.

If you'd like to submit your own work, you can send me one, two, or three small JPEGs (say, 500 to 1000 pixels wide) in an email. (My email address is m c johns t on at mac dot co m. It's in the right hand sidebar under "Resources > Contact" if you lose track of this post. Note that my last name is "Johnston," not "Johnson.")

Alternately, you can just send me direct links to one, two, or three pictures. Please send direct links to specific pictures—I'm very unlikely to follow involved instructions such as "Go to this site. Click on 'recent work.' Go to number 26. Scroll right to the third image," etc. Generally, please just make it easy for me. I'm going to be looking at lots of work, and don't want to be frustrated or waste lots of time digging down to the visuals.

Note well!
All emails must have the subject line "quietcolorsuggestion." No quotation marks, no spaces, no punctuation:

quietcolorsuggestion

One "s." No "u" in "color." Just like that, nothing less, nothing more. If yours doesn't, it simply won't be seen, because it won't go into the right mailbox in my email program. (Don't think I'm being crabby here. I'll get lots of email with the wrong subject line.)

You can also suggest other peoples' work. In that case, don't send JPEGs, just send links. Again, links to specific pictures are best. You don't need to be acquainted with the photographers personally. The pictures must have an identified or identifiable author; anonymous shots on random flotsam websites won't help. Also, just suggesting names ("Check out Joe Blow's work") is unlikely to help. I won't be scouting through new websites for this project.

I have 11 tentative inclusions for the book so far and we need 19 more.

Not a contest...
Payment for the selections will be five copies of the finished book, valued at between $150 and $250, depending on the final price of the book which hasn't been determined yet. Also, you'll have the opportunity to order more copies at cost if you have any need for them (as gifts, for instance, or for publicity). If that's not sufficient recompense for you, I understand, but better not submit. Pictures will be handled very respectfully: they'll appear in the book on a single page with a blank facing page, no bleeds. A short biography of each photographer will appear at the end of the book. Part of our plans for our publishing program call for donating copies of our books to various schools, galleries, museums and libraries that are important in the photo world, so that might be considered an added bonus for contributors.

This is not a contest, so this process might not be very satisfying! (Just a warning.) You won't receive any acknowledgement of your submission and I will not comment on your work even if you request it. On the other hand, if your suggestion isn't picked, there is absolutely no need to take that as any kind of negative judgement of the work itself—it simply means it wasn't quite right for this project. Karsh's portrait of Winston Churchill wouldn't be right for this project, so it's possible for a photograph to be at the pinnacle of photographic greatness and still not be chosen. Don't sweat it and please don't take it personally.

You can send your suggestions any time between now and October 7th, which is our deadline for selecting the prospects. A little earlier in that time frame might give your suggestions a little better chance, but don't feel the need to rush—you can consider your submissions calmly and at leisure. This weekend or the first part of next week is fine. Late submissions (i.e., closer to Oct. 7th) will still be considered but it's likely that all the choices will have been made by then.

Looking forward to your suggestions! And thanks very much for your help.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2013 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Richard Tugwell: "Will the book format be square, landscape or portrait?"

Mike replies: Square, actually. But the pictures can be of most aspect ratios except panoramic, which would run too small.

This might be a good opportunity to discuss a few of our principles. Basically, I love photo books. They're just one of my favorite things. I'm a very visual person, I've planted my flag in this life in the general area of photography, and I've been an enthusiastic part of the audience for photographers for pretty much my whole life (I guess I liked children's books illustrated with drawings first, actually, but photography came along soon enough after). And, like many first-world consumers, I'm something of a connoisseur of consumer objects.

I even make it a point to spend time with my photo books on a regular basis. It's part of my recreation to look through one every day or two. I've seen thousands upon thousands of photo books of every description, over a period of many years.

Everything I'm planning for TOP's books will embody what I like best in photo books. The reason the book will be square is that I like squarish books, and the reason I like squarish books is because they don't discrimate between photographs based on aspect ratio. We've all seen books of 35mm photography, for example, that are obllong—much wider than they are tall. Those are fine for horizontal 35mm pictures, but they short-shrift the verticals, which end up not fitting the page and running quite a bit smaller. The point of a squarish book is that it can be designed to not favor horizontals over verticals or vice versa. Even square photos can be made to "balance" with pictures of more rectangular aspect ratio by just making them a little smaller on the page.

Everything I like regarding photography books are things that simply make it easier for me to see and appreciate pictures, and comfortably contemplate them at length if I want to. That's all. I don't like overly "creative" book design, I don't like full bleeds (I especially don't like multiple bleeds on the same page), I don't like pictures crossing the gutter, I don't like books that are too big to comfortably hold in your lap...but really, every single preference I have is very simply motivated by my desire to see and appreciate photographs in a pleasant and relaxed way.

Our books might not win any awards for being different, but they'll definitely give precedence to the work.

TOP Books Update

...And a bit more in another ongoing saga, that of our own publications: I am feeling a bit like Don Quixote. And also like I'm walking in shin-deep mud: everything is going too slowly, and coming to a dead stop seems a danger at every step.

But I'm meeting with our newly-recruited Production Manager this afternoon; he has a preliminary idea about a book designer; we have book specs and a detailed cost estimate from the printer, and image specs, sort of; we're still wrangling with the whole e-commerce page and fulfillment issue (which is making my head hurt); I think I've decided on a name for the company, although I'm still trying to decide whether to hire an attorney to register the trademark or do it myself, using a smidge of the large swath of free time I spend lolling about in the sunshine sipping vegetarian, alcohol-free mint juleps*; and...

...We have a plan for the first book, including a working title and a concept.

One thing I'm not short of is ideas for possible projects. I finally realized while I was fixing my coffee this morning that I'm thinking of these books sort of like elaborated blog posts, just with more carefully considered and somewhat longer essays and more pictures, in a more durable and more respectable form. There's really little limit to the creativity that could be applied to the projects, once we get experienced enough at the actual production for it to go smoothly. I hope we make it that far.

The first project will be pretty limited. We're going to print only 500 copies. That will probably sell out quickly (especially because many people will be mindful of the possibility that it might end up being not only our first book but maybe our only one—such being the nature of startups). Later projects might be printed in larger numbers, but we have to get a handle gradually on what the market (that would be you) wants.

And finally, on the good side: our books are going to be affordable. Maybe not cheap, as in dirt-, but nothing highfalutin' or onepercenty: just a well-made product for an honest price, accessible to most anyone who might want one. That bit's important to me.

I'll continue to keep you posted.

Mike

*I do not actually have large swaths of free time to spend lolling about in the sunshine sipping vegetarian, alcohol-free mint juleps.

Original contents copyright 2013 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Featured Comments from:

Marco Maroccolo: "Have you thought about creating a system of pre-orders? in this way you can have a partial idea of ​​the amount of books to be printed...."

Mike replies: I'm definitely not going to do that. The reason is that I want to make sure I have a satisfactory product to deliver before I take anyone's money for anything. We won't sell any books before we have books printed and ready to go.

James Sinks (partial comment): "Just an opinion from a potential customer: I find words in photobooks to be a waste of space about 90% of the time. I rarely make it all the way through an introduction unless it's a just-the-facts-ma'am sketch and I find almost everything 'artistic' written by photographers to be cringe-inducingly bad."

V. Roma responds to James: "To offer a balancing opinion, I am one who does enjoy words in photobooks. I don't think the selection of photos or, to any significant extent, the cost of production of a photobook is ever dictated or limited by the text portion. The way I see it, it's there if you want to read it and easy enough to skip if you don't."

Mike replies: I plan to write the texts myself, and that's one of the reasons I want to do books—I'd like at least a few of my words to have a chance of lasting. All I've ever written is ephemera, from magazine and newspaper articles to blog posts. All topical and timely—and all easily, quickly, and quite naturally forgotten.

One part of the plan, though: the text will always appear at the end of the books, after the pictures. I've always disliked the way that introductions seem to implicitly be telling you what to think of the pictures before you look at them for yourself. And with the text at the end, it will be even easier to ignore, if that what one wants to do. (This is even true with the introductions of many classic books of fiction: they really should appear at the end, after you've had a chance to read the book and make up your own mind about it. Then they can tell you what other people think, and what they think you should think. I never read "introductions" first.

Coming Up: Call for Work

N.b.: This is not a call for work! Thank you, but do not send anything yet!

^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Very important!

This is, rather, advance warning that I will be making a call for work in the near future, for our first book.

(You can tell from the above that I know some people are going to ignore my pleas.)

My publishing company still doesn't have a name. I'm heartbroken that I can't name it "Bayard Books," after Hippolyte Bayard. Hippolyte Bayard was an independent inventor of photography who was beaten to the punch by Daguerre and Talbot and never got credit for his researches. He later made a satirical self-portrait of himself as a drowned corpse, implying that he was driven to suicide by his undeserved oblivion and the treachery of those who wronged him.

Unfortunately, there's already a publisher called "Bayard Canada Livres" which I'm sure would object.

However, we now do have a printer (in the good ol' USA), a fulfillment house, sufficient capital (made possible in part by people who subscribe! Thank you!), and a production management team. We soon might even have a schedule, which, according to the TV shrink Dr. Phil, is the surest sign that a dream is turning into a plan.

Anyway, our first project—which I'm thinking of as a sort of test bed or trial balloon—will be a collection of photographs by different photographers, and we will be looking for submissions of quiet color art photographs. Among my "touchstones" for the kind of pictures I'm looking for are these two pictures from our long-ago Reader Contest:

Photo by Leigh Perry

Photo by Bill Hanson.

They're both "straight" pictures despite their ambiguity: Leigh's, of the floor and wall of a parking garage, with "found" marks that happen to echo each other; and Bill's, of an abandoned storefront through its front window.

Note that I'm not looking for pictures just like these two, but rather for pictures that look like they might go with these two. The only real requirement is that the pictures should have rather muted color. I have so far picked only six pictures, and the book will have 30 reproductions, so there are slots yet to fill.

Again, do not send anything yet. I am not set up to handle submissions yet.

You'll be able to suggest your own work, or the work of others—either way. We'll make the call for work some time after the end of the upcoming print sale, and well before October 1st, when we have another big announcement planned.

Just wanted to give you some advance notice so you can be mulling it over.

(Oh, and if you happen to be Leigh Perry or Bill Hanson, I'll be trying to get in touch....)

Mike

P.S. Please just be thinking about pictures you might want to nominate. Don't send anything or contact me about this yet. (I hope I've said that enough times.)

P.P.S. This publishing venture, quixotic as it might yet turn out to be, is very exciting. I'm really psyched about the possibilities and I often find my mind racing with ideas for future projects. I know not everyone is interested in reading about this stuff very often, so I'll try to keep updates to a minimum, but there's a lot going on behind the scenes here at TOP these days and it's really got me goin'. This is going to be a whole lot of what I call fun.

Original contents copyright 2013 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Book Plans: More in the Ongoing Saga

Okay, here's where we are with this. TOP Books (whatever it's going to be called—I haven't thought up a good name for it) needs to do a book as a "test case"—to try out the systems and get our feet wet. We've run into a few snags with the idea of doing a book of Mark Surloff's work, although I remain committed to Mark's work and to doing a book of it eventually. But the snags make it seem like that might not be the best first book to pursue.

So I think, to make it easy, the first book will be a book of readers' pictures. We'll use some of the best shots from the initial Reader Contest a year or two ago, and a few from the recent "People Working" contest. What I want to alert you to is that coming up, we'll ask for more submissions from readers for Book #1. So just be aware of that, in case you want to participate.

I didn't give people any warning last time, so I want to make sure to give everyone a proper chance to prepare for next time.

Don't send anything now. This is something I don't want to be a surprise, and I don't want to be limited, so I'll give you plenty of notice about when the entries will open and plenty of opportunity to submit. So no need to worry—if you check in here at TOP every few days or even only every week or so, you're still likely to not miss it.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2013 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Update: Bad News?

I've enjoyed my little vacation these last couple of days—I really should do this more often. It's surprisingly rejuvenating. Can you imagine taking as much as (gasp!) two days off every week?!? Such a thing seems exotic and strange, and preposterously luxurious.

I'd probably be bored, though. I mean, my work is my fun.

I've made quite a bit of progress with the book plans during my "vacation." We've had a setback, but I've also identified a potential distributor (i.e., a fufillment service) and had a very productive discussion with her (keeping in mind international customers—I will not neglect those of you who live in countries other than my own, never fear), and I'm looking into U.S.-based printers for future volumes as well.

One possible bit of bad (?) news: it looks like the first book, whatever it is, will have a pretty limited printing. More or less 450 copies, is what it's looking like.

Will that be enough? Well, I have no idea, and therein lies that particular rub. You see, I'd like to make this (the printing of TOP books, whatever the company will eventually be named) a regular, ongoing thing, and I just have no idea yet how it's going to work out in terms of numbers...until we try it a few times. With blogging, throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks is easy. With books, it might be a little harder. But that's the only way to calibrate.

The house down the street
If you'll indulge me a more personal note (I know some people very naturally have no interest in my office-space situation! Sorry...), a bit of an update on "the house down the street" with the big office space on the first floor that I was so excited about a few weeks ago: alas, the owners have priced it well above its value, and my realtor is actively discouraging me from considering it. They're asking $80,000 (28%) above the city tax assessment, or something in the neighborhood of $55–65,000 (!) above market value.

My realtor (who is one of the best in town, and has 25 years of experience selling houses here), says most houses are currently selling for below their tax assessment in Waukesha right now and that only a few are selling for more—and those, for only slightly more. Nothing is selling for 28% more.

Which means the sellers are being unrealistic.

Considering that a bank will base a mortgage on the selling price or the appraisal, whichever is lower, overpricing a house makes it much harder for prospective buyers to secure financing. You essentially have to make up the difference out of your own pocket.

So I've had to give up that idea for now. In the immortal words of Roseanne Rosannadanna (I should have this engraved backwards* on my forehead): "It's always something."

Last book note for now
Having been happily immersed in the book project for the past few days I feel like I could write about it more or less indefinitely, and this post is already too long. But I'll relate one more idea. One thing I'm considering is that as a regular thing, we'll mail out some 50 complimentary copies of all of our books to a "publicity list" consisting of a select group of photo museums, magazines, galleries, school libraries, website managers, and perhaps individual critics. I'll probably need some help coming up with such a list and keeping it groomed, but it seems like it would help us ("us" meaning our yet-to-be-named book publishing arm) and the photographer in equal measure, and would be another way that we could give added value to the photographers whose work we'll be publishing.

Normally what is sent out is a reviewer's list, hoping to get publicity for sales. Since I anticipate selling out right here on li'l ol' TOP, we won't need reviews for sales purposes. I'm talking about just helping to make a select group of institutions aware of our books and they work they feature, to raise the profile of the work a bit more.

Good idea, or idle fantasy? Again, time will tell.

Experimentation shall proceed!

Mike
 

*I.e., right way 'round in the mirror, if you didn't get that.

Original contents copyright 2013 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Featured Comments from:

Julian: "Can you run the initial sale of the book on the same model as the print sales? I am sure that plenty of us would be willing to buy the book once you are ready to go to press and you have a rough idea of when you can start shipping. I would certainly pay up front rather than risk missing out. I am also much more likely to do this for a book than a print."

Mike replies: No, can't do that. I had an experience years ago of pre-selling a book that then was not able to be printed on time. It trashed my reputation and caused all manner of headaches literally for years. I might risk it for a second printing, but not for the first.

T.O.P. Books Update: Progress!

Mark Surloff, Beach Wedding Scene 1

Plans are proceeding apace for TOP to become a book publisher. Our first book is currently scheduled to go on press either in late August or early September, although a fair amount has to happen between now and then.

I've done a lot of thinking about the principles I'll be aiming for—what I want our books to be. My decisions stem from a lifetime of loving books and several decades of collecting and looking at photography books, especially monographs. I've been right there in the front row of the audience for a long time now.

And as you might imagine, I have my opinions as to what a good book should be. My thinking is thoroughgoing—I've thought through the whole concept holistically, looking at the potential ongoing project from every angle. I have a crystal-clear vision of what I'd like to accomplish as a publisher.

I'm lucky to have some very good advisors!

Our first books will be of high quality but modest in scope. And they'll be affordable. As a business proposition, it's highly unlikely I'll make a fortune publishing photography books; so my minimum objective is for the first book to pay for the second book, the second book to pay for the third book, the third book to pay for the fourth book, and so on.

Since the first book is in part a "trial balloon"—we're gonna be seeing how it goes—the initial printing will be quite small. I'm a bit concerned that this might mean we won't have enough to go around, but it's just going to take a few tries for us to "calibrate" all the numbers and get a handle on what works best. You can probably appreciate the need to be cautious at first—I really don't want to end up with a basement full of unsold books and a gaping hole in my bank account where a lot of money used to be.

For now, the new publishing company doesn't even have a name, that's how new we are.

I'll keep you apprised of developments, as they develop.

Mike

P.S. In case you'd like to follow the progress of this project so far:

• Post I
• Post II
• Post III

Original contents copyright 2013 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

TOP's links!

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Miserere: "I suggest a prepayment system. Announce the book and tell people they have a couple weeks to order it. At the end of that time you count how many people have paid you and you print that number of books. If there is continued interest, then maybe sometime in the future you can consider doing a second edition of the book via the same prepayment system. We're in the third millennium here, Mike; there's no need to be guessing how many people will want a book. Reading tea leaves is no longer a requirement."

Mike replies: A sensible enough idea on its face, but there is NO WAY (caps intended!). I'm never again selling a book I don't have in hand to sell. I did that once, years ago, and things fell apart, and it was a total, complete disaster—my reputation took a huge hit and I was dealing with the fallout for, literally, years. A very painful experience and possibly one of the worst decisions I've ever made in my entire career. It's not going to be an option for us, and in fact it's the reason I'll have to fund this venture myself without the benefit of a Kickstarter campaign. (Hope I don't have cause to regret that too, as a different kind of disaster.)

Neat and Sweet: Our Publishing Plans...

...As of now. Or maybe I should say our publishing "aspirations." This is just a description (for now) of what I want to do, not necessarily what will work out when push comes to shove.

I have an idea very firmly in mind of the kind of book I want to produce. My "model" is Henry Wessel's Steidl book Waikiki, which (by the way) I absolutely love—it's my favorite of all the books of his I have, or have seen—just gorgeous. (Might also be my favorite Steidl book, but I'd have to think about that). That book is simple and plain, clean and elegant: 11 3/4" square, with 25 pictures, one per spread on the right-hand leaf; short essay, hardbound with a dust jacket. Neat and sweet. Our books could go from there down to as small as 8x8", the size depending on what's right for the pictures.

We'll concentrate—specialize, even—in new, unknown, underserved photographers of the post-transition era*, not the same old names who've been publishing books and winning awards and selling in galleries and populating museum shows for years or decades (not that there's anything wrong with that).

Nuts'n'bolts
We're going to be partnering with a very good, very experienced art publisher who specializes in extremely high quality photographic reproduction. Their best books are absolutely fanatical, and you'll have a chance to buy their very best book, their undisputed masterpiece, for a sweet price, in just a few days. Ours won't reach their highest, most exalted standard...but their "average" is other publishers' "very good." We'll publish 500 copies. The photographer, producer, and I will get 50 copies between us (30/10/10), leaving 450 to sell to you.

Sales numbers, of course, will be critical. There will be some number of sales—undetermined as of yet, and most likely different for each book—that will represent the "break-even" point—i.e., where all the expenses of production are recouped. Beyond that, it's profit. The photographers whose work we publish will be paid in copies at a minimum—that is, he or she will be guaranteed those 30 copies of their own book no matter what. Then, the photographer will get a split of the profits if there are any.

The way from here to there
Here's the plan. We're going to run a Kickstarter campaign later this fall to raise the initial capital (which is relatively modest). Counting my own $1k, we have promises for $2.5k already [UPDATE: now $3.5k]. Every donor of $150 or more will receive a copy of the book as a "thank you," but the book, when it's available, will sell for less than that, which means that everyone who kicks in that amount will also be making a substantial contribution to the cause. (You will of course be able to contribute less, or more.)

Going into the future, we won't do any more Kickstarter campaigns. Rather, each book will have to break even in order to recoup the capital to pay for the next book. If one book sells out, then there will be profits. If it doesn't break even (or falls too far short), then there might not be any future books.

If this model works, I could see producing, I don't know, two books a year. At least one.

Well-judged
I'm a nut about proportion—it's almost its own art form with me—so if we do books they'll be well-proportioned.

The guiding principle for the size and length and thickness of the book I want to make has to do with what I consider the ideal for looking at photographs—for the reader's (the looker's?) experience. I look at photo books all the time...virtually every day. I like to look at books sitting in a chair, which means that many coffee-table tomes are too big for my taste. I have books in which the pictures are too cramped and small; in which the layout is unacceptably busy; or which are just too big and unweildy to hold in your lap. Waikiki is perfect in this respect. It's a very elegant, comfortable way to look at an excellent small selection of photographs—generously sized, but easy to hold in your hand on your lap while you're sitting in a chair, so you can drink in the pictures at length, comfortably.

I said I'm a nut, so I don't think I'm doing any damage to my image to say I've been thinking about this stuff for years.

'Xxxxx Books'
I've created a new category in the right-hand sidebar, called "TOP's Own Books." (I have a company name picked out, but we'll need to clear it legally before I'm at liberty to use it.) I'll put all the publications post in that category, so those who want to keep up with this will be able to.

That's it for now. More as I learn more. Stay tuned for that book deal...it's not just a special offer, it's a special offer that's actually special.  :-)

Mike

ADDENDUM: Thanks for all the comments. In regard to some of the questions, note that first paragraph! We're very early in the process here, and nothing's set in stone. This is a report of what I'm thinking about, nothing more. Anything could change before the plan gets put into action.

Follow our publishing plans on Twitter @TheOnlinePhotog

*Oh—and, film or digital photographers, color or B&W, without prejudice.

Original contents copyright 2012 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Jim Becia: "Mike, Not to be critical, but I find the idea of paying more by supporting you on Kickstarter to not make sense. With your print programs, you price prints less than their normal going rates, but with Kickstarter you want to charge more for the going rate of the book. It is not the way I would approach it, but it is your business and your decision."

Mike replies: Jim, Kickstarter solicits voluntary donations from supporters, to help jumpstart ("kick-start") a venture of some kind. It's not a straight sales venue. The Kickstarter option will not be for people like you who just want to buy a book for a businesslike price: if all goes well, you'll have that opportunity later, after the book is published. It's for people who believe in the worth of the venture and want to help it get off the ground. The book they'll get for a certain level of donation isn't compensation—it's just a "thank-you" for their moral and material support.

Oh, and the people who buy the book after it's published, for the regular price (which we hope will be less than $50) will be contributing to our success too, no question, in a somewhat lesser but still important way. No one should feel obligated at all to participate in the Kickstarter program.

Gunnar Marel: "Great aspirations! (With equal expectations looming…!)"

Paddy C: "The art books I design for galleries run 500 copies. On occasion 750–1,000. Absolute max 1,500. It's doable and the cost-per-copy (if you're considering just the printing) is not bad. Mind you, add everything else in and it may be a little iffy. But then art books are not a money-making venture for most."

Louis McCullagh: "With such a small number of photos in each book and your name to uphold the quality of printing why not put the photos online and presale all 500 books before printing. If presell number is greater then 500 then you can print more. After all no one is going to physically handle the book before purchase anyway. No need to have a kickstarter fund raiser."

Mike replies: I don't just want to publish one book. I'd like to publish many books, one after another.

Let's say the total expenses for one book are $15,000. The idea is to raise $15,000, and use it to pay for the first book. Then the first book breaks even. That means the publishing company again has $15,000 in the bank—enough to pay for a second book. And so on.

If the first book earns $18,000, then we split the $3,000 profit between me, the producer, and the photographer, to pay for our time and effort. And we still have enough capital for the second book. If the first book earns only $12,000, that means I only need to invest $3,000 of my own money in order to publish the second book. I can afford that (well, once, maybe even twice—we'd need to make a profit at some point); I can't afford to invest $15,000, or even $10,000. So the Kickstarter money will in effect be seed money which I can keep re-using; it will theoretically allow us to keep producing books into the future, assuming each attempt is more or less a success.

If I do pre-sales on one book, let's say we collect pre-sales to pay the entire cost of the first book. We collect the money, print the book, and distribute all the copies. Where are we? Right back where we started—with no capital for the next book. It's back to the drawing board. Plus, there are all sorts of problems with pre-sales, which I've experienced already way too vividly. I only want to sell what I know I can deliver...promptly, no fuss, no muss.

Whether the venture will be a long-term success or not depends on how well we do overall. If each book makes a little profit, we're golden. If one book loses a little but the next one makes it back, we're also good to go. It's only if successive books fall appreciably short of break-even that the venture might fail—and if that's the case, then it probably deserves to fail.