Black and White Photography Blog, Vol. I

Finished the first book with SharedInk.com

8 x 8 inch, slate linen cover, hardback, image on front; heavy glossy paper; 40 pages, single-sided (that’s my choice) so you actually have a thicker book of 80 pages (left side blank). Production cost: $65.

As you can imagine, it hasn’t been making the books with any of these publishers that has been difficult; it’s been figuring out if any can do a good (and consistent) job with it.

The POD (print on demand) technology is getting there for photo books, and it reminds me of the old days when I was going through what a lot of b&w photographers went through with inkjet prints. Nowadays, I can send files out to several vendors and have them printed with the same K3 ink and paper I use (silver rag).

A few other notes about SharedInk. They actually offer a binding service (with professional membership). You do your inkjet prints on your own paper, at the correct size for one of their books, send them off and they’ll bind them into a hardcover. Only limitation is that the paper stack can’t be any thicker than what would fit into their normal bound book. Cost is the same as the base price for their book. i.e. if I’m doing an 8 x 8 book the base cost is $45.

Also - as far as one-sided printing goes. All the other POD vendors will charge you by the page, whether that page is blank or not. SharedInk charges based on INK (which frankly is the way I thought it should be done).

In other words, the single sided printing option with SharedInk is available for books with 40 pages or less, and you are not charged for the blank left side. Which gives you a book with 80 pages, image on the right, blank left, for the same price as an 80 page book with images on left and right. A very nice touch. But it is all or nothing. You either select the single page option or not. Fine with me (which is how I did the first book).

The process with SharedInk is very straightfoward. I don’t have to work with inDesign, or other layout programs. You do your Photoshop files; you can zip them or upload them individually; and once they’re up there, you can move the pages around online until you’re happy.

Unlike the other sites, you can’t just provide a link to someone and have them order the book (unless they too are in the Pro Photographers group or you invite them… I’m not entirely sure about how that works).

But you can drop ship a book to a customer. i.e. the order comes into me through my site, I order the book and have SharedInk ship it to you.

Anyway, when it arrives, will write more… For now, I can go back to strolling around with the camera again.