On-demand Publishers

Does anyone have any experience of On-Demand publishing and can recommend any companies? I know that Amazon have Createspace.com

Thanks for any advice.

Bill,

There was an article in American Photo or Pop Photo a few months ago, and they provided pros & cons for various publishers. Sorry that I can't recall the exact issue, but it seems like I saw it last winter...

Tim!

I know that HP is really pushing on demand Publishing with their new Indigo printers. You may want to contact their Indigo division and get a contact or two from them. If you need help contacting them let me know I may have a couple people on the inside still that can help out.

thanks Jim, I'll try that, I worked for HP for 38 years so might know someone! If that fails I'll take you up on your offer.

Bill, that could be the reason that I recognized your name but couldn't figure out where from... I worked for HP for 6 years in out of Loveland, I also have friends that have worked there for well over 30 years.

Hi Bill. I've used blurb.com for a couple of books. They have a free app you download as a template. It's very easy to work with. They offer several book sizes and both hardbound and softbound options. Cost is pretty good as well. They use Indigo technology for printing and I've been really happy with the output quality. Good luck.

A friend of mine is putting out a very photo-heavy book on Blurb. I haven't seen a physical copy, but the previews look great: http://www.blurb.com/books/769061. $51 doesn't seem too bad a retail price for almost 200 pages of photos, but I don't know how much of that goes to the author.

I've used blurb personally and the Travel Photographers Network (TPN) used it to put out our "Around the World with TPN" book last year. It certainly has its pros and cons.

Sarah Clarehart was our production and design lead over at TPN so she might be able to answer any pertinant questions. You can get an ICC profile for blurb's North American printers and that helps. I have heard that some people have been disapointed in the consistancy of blurbs stuff - honestly I think that is what you get in many print-on-demand situations as ink batches must change fairly regularly.

I've been happy with my personal projects through them but I don't think there is much ability to work a profit margin in on many of the sizes.

As an aside, I've got both my blurb books here in Denver. If in town sometime I can let you borrow them for a look-see.

Shared Ink, for photographers ...
Having tested a few companies, the quality here is a notch above the others (like Blurb).

http://www.siphotographer.com/

Thanks for all the comments. I guess I'm still looking for an economic solution. Blurb do a good job. I've used them once before but they are more expensive than Createspace and neither leaves room for a profit margin at a reasonable selling price. I'm sure that SI do a good job, thanks Jesse.

Bill, I used MyPublisher a couple years ago, and was happy with them. First one I did had a very slight green tinge, but was one of those things a non photographer would notice. I corrected slightly for next run, looked nice. The only thing I didn't like was their front covers, which had to have an image pasted on to it (like 4"x4" on a 12" hard cover). Back then they didn't have the option of NOT having that, but might have changed in the past couple years. I believe Rich Voninski did his incredible Italy book with them also, it was nice!

Good luck!