coffe table books

I am considering doing my first coffee table book. Any one have any experience with this? What do you recommend? any tips? Any ideas on publishers and how to make a manuscript. I won't be doing this until at least another year or 2 but am wanting to start getting prepared now and learn as much as I can now so I don't have to do a silly crazy mad dash down the road. It's going to be about the Eagles Nest Wilederness. You know the Gore Mountains North of Silverthorne and Vail.
What about self publishing? would that be recommended?

Oh yeah I have a friend who is an English major who will be doing the few text that it will contain

Congratulations, Paul on your decision to develop a project. I would hold off on calling it a coffee table book and just consider it a book project in the early stages. Erik Stensland has an outstanding fine art "little book" that is selling like hotcakes. It's hard to imagine Erik's work in a small format until you see it - and it works! About the silly mad dash - you will do that anyway, but leave your timeframe as open-ended as possible. Think of it this way: You will be tracking the seasons and there are four per year. My prairie book took four years. That's only 4 of each season and some of them weren't that great. You need a wet winter and consistent moisture to get those screaming flower shots and that happens maybe 50% of the time. And, we all know how fickle fall color can be. You can go to the bookstores, library, web etc to search for publishers while you're laying out the project and what you visualize the finished product looking like. You will need to put together a professional proposal and be prepared to get an publisher's attention with your incredible imagery and knowledge of the area. This is the sales part and is often called the "rejection process". Be prepared for rejection and equally prepared to re-tool and go back to those that rejected your proposal. In short, prepare to market yourself as much as possible. Oh, and one more thing: start a file to gather information from any and all sources. Keep a journal while in the field.

Good Luck!

You might also pick up a copy of the 2008 Photographer's Market, if you don't already have a copy.

Ken

I have one book in Editorial Review with CreateSpace, by Amazon and another in layout now. I have tried a few do it yourself sites and CreateSpace seems to be the best I've seen. It has been a real learning experience to say the least.

"The Air up There" should be finalized by the end of this week, and "Garden of the Gods - In and Out of Season" should be in review right after the first of the year.

I would follow Dave & Ken's suggestions as well!