There’s a Right Way, and Then There’s This

I’ve been on a publishing spree lately and this episode is going to reflect that with a bit of a nuts-and-bolts commentary. If you’ve ever entertained the idea of self-publishing your own print books, I got you with this one.

The Finds

• One of my favorite self-published art mags is 46pgs, filled with graphical eye candy on every page.

• When I saw the work of fiber artist Alicja Kozłowska, I knew I’d found a kindred spirit. I wonder which of us has more superglue under our fingernails.

• The most painfully true depiction of the turmoil that most graphic designers must go through.

• Is the City of Angels changing out museums work?

• This is the best way to lose money on publishing your own art or photography book.

New in the Shop

Hot off the press, it’s Rad Scrap 2, chock full of gritty, typographic goodies across 50+ pages. These pages are meant to be ripped, torn, cut, and used in whichever way you see fit. Work directly on the pages, or leave them pristine for their inspirational qualities. Do whatever you want with them as long as you do something.

Let’s Rethink the Process

When I saw the video linked above from the young photographer sharing her experience with self-publishing her own photography zine, my first reaction was utter dismay. This woman is essentially telling her audience to throw all the money they have at a problem (self-published book project).

Estimating the size and number of pages of the zine she published, and considering that she contracted a graphic designer for the cover, and a local print shop to handle the printing, I’m guessing she spent somewhere between $1,200 and $1,500 for the design and printing of 100 copies. She’s going to need to charge at least $20 or more per book in order to make a decent profit (veteran zinesters are collectively rolling their eyes).

Her approach to publishing her own book isn’t wrong. In fact, it’s the way most people would approach it, mostly because they’ve never self-published before, but there are ways to reduce the costs to make the books more cost-effective for you and whoever might buy them from you.

For Rad Scrap 2 and every other book I’ve published, I use Amazon KDP and I can order author copies of the books at a fraction of that cost above. Granted, I do all my own graphic design, so I have an advantage, but that shouldn’t be a deal breaker.

If I wasn’t a professional designer and I wanted to publish my own art book, this is what I would do to save myself some green on my first self-publishing project.

1. Reduce the Size - Big books are overrated, most people don’t want to hold onto them and prefer a smaller book, especially zine scenesters. 6x9 is an industry standard as is the half-page digest (5.5x8.5).

2. Buy Affinity Photo - A much more cost-effective alternative to Photoshop. It may not be able to handle the power-user aspects that Photoshop can, but it can do most of the important work in helping you edit your images.

3. Subscribe to Envato Elements - You have a lot of options when it comes to finding high-quality images, fonts, graphics, sounds, etc., but while most companies charge you per item you buy, with Envato Elements*, you can download all the graphics you need in one sitting and only pay the monthly subscription. You can get a 1-week free trial, so if you’re diligent enough, you can score big.

4. Use Free Templates - Don’t laugh, because Canva* has legitimate and free options for helping you generate a snazzy layout for your book. The learning curve is low and if you don’t stray too far from the templated layout, you’re guaranteed to generate something cool.

   • Alternative: Invest in Affinity Publisher and study how to use the app to do the layout yourself. This is the long-road route, but you’ll be building skills and enhancing your publishing skills (I know a guy who has videos on this topic).

5. Print with Mixam - There are lots of self-publishing options out there, but very few rival the cost-effectiveness and turnaround time of Mixam.com. They have plenty of flexible options and allow for small print runs. It’s not exactly print-on-demand, but it’s close.

   • Alternative: Not only is Amazon KDP a viable option for printing your own books but there’s the added benefit of being able to sell your books directly through Amazon.com. The quality control aspects can be a bit tricky at times, but if you can produce work that passes inspection, you can be selling your books there in as little as 3 business days after upload.

Using these options, if I wanted to print twenty copies of a 50-page 6x9” book, I’m looking at about $180 delivered, and the more I order, the cheaper each book gets.

Now these are still going to be fancy books compared to a traditional zine, and if you wanted to go that route, you can save serious bucks getting things printed at your local copy shop, but you’ll want to invest in a really great stapler.

Cheers,

Dave

Extra

Baritone Saxophone with Traffic Cone Megaphone

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*This publication is an affiliate partner with and not directly sponsored by Shopify, Envato, Printify, and others. I am a loyal customer of all these services and would recommend them to my grandmother!