I’ve got a “vanity” book of sorts in the works for a group of artful souls. The audience of this book is mainly ourselves, family, and friends who will still love us inspite of our art.

I’m not really looking to “market” the book outside of this small circle. Our first thought was (and still is at this point the POD modal. I’m looking to use a local editor for word-smithing and the opinions and expertise of the book contributors for all the graphical design elements.

I chose the POD format for multiple reasons - no stock or delivery issues, low cost, and that silly do-it-yourself mentality of mine, to name just a few. But also because of who the audience is and the purpose of the book. I mean we do like the self-serving kudos of seeing our art in print. But we really don’t want to spend too much money to get those warm fuzzies.

However - a few of the participating artists have shown some interest in making it available through their blogs and I think they are planning to use it in their personal art portfolios as well. So with this secondary (and unplanned) use of the book, I’m beginning to question using the POD format.

Keeping in mind that these contributing artists are creative hobbyists who make a fair amount of $$ with our art, but none of us are yearning to be fulltime artists — What do you think? Is it worth the expense to do a self-publishing thing with hired designers, instead of going the POD route?

You can do POD printing, and some POD printers will do distribution as well. I would compare the costs of going this route with what some of the POD publishing companies charge. Then, take into account how much you want to be in control. I believe your design choices might be more limited with a POD publisher. Either way, make sure to ask for samples to see the quality of the printing. This is so important when you’re reproducing art. One of the critical things a hired designer would provide is technical expertise: they would know the best way to scan the art, make adjustments to the files, and work with the book printer, so the art reproduces well.

Excellent suggestions! Thanks for sharing your expertise.

An artist friend and I have written/drawn most of a “coloring book” aimed at both children and adults. The words are simple 2 line ditties. Much of the book is blank. The illustrations and the words must go together. The aim is to encourage expressiveness. It doesn’t seem to fit any categories publishers have, yet we have people telling us its a phenomenal idea, and we should be serious about it, although we originally intended it only for family members. I can handle the design, but we don’t know where to turn next. We have different opinions as to whether we should launch it ourselves or not, and the design might differ depending on the publishing route we take (for example, number of pages.) Amazon POD? Google? An agent? Blind submissions?
Webbette2

Hi Webbette2,

I encourage you to back up and get clear about your goals. The two of you originally teamed up to create a book for family members. If you decide to reach a larger audience, this will affect each of your roles in the partnership. And regardless of the route you take to publish the book, if you’re going for a larger market, it will take a lot more work. You’ll need to know what your purpose is for doing this, b/c you may have disagreements and it may be challenging to stay motivated. If you’re embarking on a bigger project b/c others say you should, will that be enough to help you persevere?

If you decide to move forward, your goals, purpose, & resources will help you decide which way to do it. You’ll need to do a little research to see how the different modalities work. I don’t know what you mean be Google — I don’t know of Google offering a publishing program.

I wish you the best of success on this adventure — have fun finding out about the publishing process. And thanks for asking for your post.

-Liz

Hi Webbette2,

I encourage you to back up and get clear about your goals. The two of you originally teamed up to create a book for family members. If you decide to reach a larger audience, this will affect each of your roles in the partnership. And regardless of the route you take to publish the book, if you’re going for a larger market, it will take a lot more work. You’ll need to know what your purpose is for doing this, b/c you may have disagreements and it may be challenging to stay motivated. If you’re embarking on a bigger project b/c others say you should, will that be enough to help you persevere?

If you decide to move forward, your goals, purpose, & resources will help you decide which way to do it. You’ll need to do a little research to see how the different modalities work. I don’t know what you mean by Google — I don’t know of Google offering a publishing program.

I wish you the best of success on this adventure — have fun finding out about the publishing process. And thanks for your post.

-Liz