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• e-tivity 11

  2007 Dec 08

  My lulu experience
  
  the meaning of self-publishing: what does it mean to publish independently of a selection by committee (editors/ curators)
  
  I can't believe I actually did it - I published a book all by myself (with the help of my coursemates and Paula of course - thanks, guys!)
  I have yet to receive the book and maybe I shouldn't say anything just yet, but up to now, lulu seems like an excellent alternative to traditional book-publishing. I think that it won't overshadow publishing houses, though it does sound nice in theory - simply ordering any book you want and have it printed for you.. no more slow-selling books ending up in landfill and no more running around bookshops trying to find a certain book.
  
  From my experience of trying to get published as a writer in Estonia I have to say that self-publishing is so much better for your self-esteem. You have full control over the book and the whole process. You don't have to face endless rejections, negotiations, meetings... it is usually a terribly long and unpleasant process. Of course it can end well and then it is even better for you ego - the book-launch parties, getting your book to bookstores and libraries.
  But who's to say you can't arrange all that by yourself after publishing your book with lulu?!
  
  In the end I think I'm even prouder of my books now, than I would have been when using other publishing methods. There is only my name on it, it's my 'baby' from the beginning to the final product, no-one else interfered. But I still think that if I want to get my books out to the crowds I would need to use a proper publishing house. Because although lulu in my opinion is great for printing your own book and maybe using it a s a book-dummy when trying to get it published, I don't think selling books through lulu or even a web-page that has a link to lulu, is going to be very successful. I know I would never buy a book that I haven't held in my hands. Ok, a novel possibly, but a photo-book - not very likely, sorry!
  
  To all those out there thinking about which publishing method to go for - I recommend trying out lulu. It may very well be the solution you were looking for or it might not work for you, but in the end all you have to lose is just the cost of the one book you order.
  
  As test-prints of how lulu prints buy my wonderful photo-book 'The Third Space' and my collection of poems with beautiful illustrative photographs called 'Igavene Igatsus' (you might need to learn Estonian first, though!)
  Also look out for the magazine our group is going to publish very soon - it's called 'DP magazine' ;)
  

• e-tivity 9

  2007 Nov 27

  Outline for the photo-magazine project
  
  
  I am lucky enough to be in a group with Karel, Helen and Kate. They all had loads of brilliant ideas straight away and I think the mag is going to be fab! :D
  
  1.
  When Karel told me that the e-mail address for the magazine is dpmagazine@something I thought: what a cool name for a magazine.. good job in choosing that, guys! but it turned out to just mean Digital Photography magazine.. which is not the most original or flashy idea in the world, but it will suit our magazine just fine I think. The main thing is to just use a very cool font and no-one will ever know what is behind those mysterious letters ;)
  
  
  I got to choose (and invent) my own topics that I am curating.
  I am the boss of these subjects:
  - windows and doors (of my own images, maybe other photographers as well)
  - me & big ben (amateur, random and found images.. exploring the theme of repetition in touristic images)
  
  I think that using professional photographs in some themes and amateur images in others is a good balance in our magazine. Because a magazine is not like a photobook, where we just put our own fancy pictures and the readers have to just browse in awe. A magazine is a collaborative project not just between the makers of the mag, but also with the audience - they should be able to send in their own images and take part in the production of the mag. After all - it is made for them!
  
  2.
  I don't think we are going to start producing this magazine in the long run, for years and years to come, but who knows ;)
  I personally like magazines to be around 100 pages and that are given out quarterly (for a thorough magazine a month is not enough to be made or read in)
  
  3.
  Sources are, as mentioned, photographers (us mostly) and amateurs - random people/friends
  
  4.
  In this issue we are including as little text as possible. It has to be about the images, they have to tell the *story*
  
  5.
  Well we have not established team roles - so I guess I could just as well be the president of our publishing house and the editor in chief of the magazine. Sounds fancy! Yes, I think I'm going to print my businesscards straight away!
  No actually I'm afraid this is a very democratic magazine. By the people and for the people! We are all equals.
  (very Marxist of us)
  
  6.
  The others would have liked to make the mag XXL, but I like magazines to fit nicely in my handbag (and a handbag, mind you, not a huge backpack!) to take them with me everywhere I go.. so would have actually preferred even smaller, almost A5 size maybe. But I like the double-spread-per-theme idea, so I guess we have to make a compromise between all of us and the possibilities that lulu offers. So A4 it is!
  The design will be the best ever! Different for every single spread, very inspiring and cool. I'm sure.
  so...
  BUY IT!
  

• e-tivity 8

  2007 Nov 27

  Social bookmarking
  
  (Im in the middle of figuring out what exactly is del.icio.us and why on earth people need something like this. I like to keep my web research to a bare minimum, so don't have anything much to share.
  As soon as I am over that point, I will update this entry)
  

• e-tivity 4

  2007 Nov 04

  I didn't want to add this entry earlier, because I didn't have a book dummy and thought I'll add the blog post, when I have the snapshots of the dummy. But by now my book is finished and I still don't have a dummy. I find it pointless to make one just for the sake of it, after actually finishing the project. I understand the purpose of the dummy very well, I think it can be an excellent way to plan one's book. It's not that I object to the idea of a book dummy. But I belive the need for it depends on the specific project. In my case, it would have been too much trouble to make one, it would have been so much more time-consuming and harder to make than the version in indesign. The reason being that I mostly used parts of photographs and details from them, rather than the full original images. In order to print out the images like I finally used them, I would have had to still create the digital version first... so what would have been the point of the dummy afterwards? If you could compare the images in the final book with the originals, you would understand what I'm talking about. Choosing the parts of images to put in the book and the layout of the pages was actually enjoyable in indesign, but would have been a total headache when using papers and scissors and glue.
  I hope that is alright if I just describe my book without the snapshots of the dummy.
  
  The background throughout my whole book in black, because I find that it adds to the mood of the book and makes the images stand out better than on any other background.
  
  The photos I finally chose to use were hand-picked from the initial 500 or so photos that I took in October last year. It was a long and difficult process, to choose the photos, but the one's chosen in the end all have something in common, I'd like to think. They are mostly of everyday objects taken out of their normal surroundings or settings and placed to be viewed from a different perspective, hopefully making the viewer question them instead of just ignoring them as we normally to in our everyday lives. The other images of the surrounding environment are there to set the mood and give context. All the photos are calm and empty (no people, no busy clutter) yet they do not have a calming effect - the feeling you get from the book is not the most happy and serene one.
  
  The text used in the book is extracts form the Starbuck's Parter Handbook and is there to carry the mood and context of working in the 'Third Space'. I have used one own sentence as well in the end to convey my own impression of the place. But the whole book is by no means about the text. It could work without it as well.
  
  Formatting -
  page size 6x9 inches
  63 pages
  perfect bound
  times new roman
  
  

• e-tivity 3

  2007 Oct 10

  I liked Louise Forrester's presentation on Tuesday and found it really useful. As well as the talk with Paula afterwards, which was very inspiring. I had never seen books that were produced using self-publishing, and to see books made in Lulu as well as other companies, was very interesting. I found it extremely useful for my own photobook project, that they talked about the downsides and mistakes that occur in Lulu and other platforms. It made me anxious, though. For example I'm not sure if I want to design my book in full-bleed anymore, if problems with printing it are common in Lulu.
  
  I have studied the photobook templates in Lulu and found them quite bland and common. The 'baby boy' and 'baby girl' templates almost made me sick - such a cliché. The Vintage one was quite bad as well. Seeing those really made me want to design my book from scratch, only then I would get what I really want out of it. But bearing in mind that I probably won't have an opportunity to spend so much time and effort on this book, and the fact that we should try to keep it simple, I think I would go for a simple, more straightforward layout. From the templates I liked the most the one called 'Modern', which was really basic, jet looked very presentable. Though I wouldn't go for the two images on every page style, because my images from the 'Society' project need to have more space around them, I reckon, to work better.
  I'm very confused about the choice of available sizes in Lulu. I would like my book to be smaller than A4, but which size to go for then? Regarding binding, I would prefer the perfect-bound for sure, after seeing the examples of photobooks in the session. The saddle-stitch thing means just staples, for crying out loud, and it looks like a holiday brochure, not a book. I'm not fond of the glossy covers Lulu offers as well by the way - there really should be more free choice in these matters there.
  I'm just hoping, that when I'm finished and receive the book, I won't be dissapointed by the differences between the book as it is in my head, the book as it is on screen and the actual thing in my hands in the end. Because as I understand now, these differences could be significant indeed.
  
  

• Photobooks

  2007 Oct 04

  Photobook –
  For me, a photobook is a book, where there can be text, but where the photographs are more important and everything else – the design and layout as well as text are secondary. The text may support the argument/story the photos are presenting, but not be in itself the key element in the book.
  
  
  The book ‘‘David Hockney Photographs‘‘ –
  I would classify this book as a photobook, because of the excellent design/layout of the book. Although it was essentially more of a career review, a survey of his best photos and also an exhibition catalogue, for me it still is foremost a photobook.
  
  The graphic layout is very interesting and versatile, there is a different layout for each page. Some images are printed individually on a page, some pages consist of many photographs. Black and white images are mixed throughout the book with colour photos. There is no predominant use of a specific layout.
  
  What I thought was a very nice touch were the ‘‘handwritten‘‘ captions under every single image, that introduce the viewer to the photos. But they only help to understand the photos a bit better, they are not the main carrier of the works message. They also contain the date the images were taken and the use of those captions throughout the book helps to create a narrative and hold the book together as a whole, keeping it from being just a collection of independent prints.
  
  Details:
  

  • Author: Alain Sayag
  • Hardcover: 96 pages
  • Publisher: Petersburg Press (October 1982)
  • Location: London & New York
  • Language: English
  • ISBN: 0902825151

  
  I could find lots of thing in the Internet about photobooks and artists books, but nothing much about the ‘‘David Hockney Photographs‘‘ book.
  
  Buy this book:
  http://www.amazon.com/David-Hockney-Photographs/dp/0902825151
  http://www.davidkrutpublishing.com/dkp/bookstore/2006/05/david-hockney-photographs/
  
  
  The strategy for my photobook –
  Having gotten a lot of inspiration from the photobooks we browsed in the library and also the ones I looked at in the Internet I have come up with some ideas for my own masterpiece. For my photobook I’m planning to play with the design as much as possible. I’m thinking of using many different layout styles and repetition – using small details cropped from the images already in the book.
  I’m planning on using quite a bit of text as well, although I know it shouldn’t be predominant, as I should be careful to not make it an artists book in the end. I may also add some photos that I didn’t use in the exhibition. Although I am very sad that we are not allowed to use the Society Project for the book, because my Subcultures Project is just not suitable to be made into a book – I used old ‘‘found‘‘ images with very poor quality and although I managed to pull it off as an exhibition, I don’t think the book is going to look good. But let’s try and see.
  On second thought, publishing my controversial ‘‘undercover‘‘ photos of Starbucks as a book in Internet wouldn’t have been the best idea anyway – although I wouldn’t be risking my job anymore, I‘m still a bit afraid of getting sued or getting shot by the ‘‘CIA department of disguising the horrors of Starbucks‘‘ :P
  
  
  PS Sorry, I know I crossed the max words limit by a landslide, but how else would it have been possible to complete the task!?
  
  
  

• Getting to know Lulu

  2007 Sep 25

  This is my first time in Lulu as well as a first time I have ever come into contact with self-publishing environments. I am excited about learning about self-publishing, because I have heard from people I know using it to make photobooks and always wanted to know how to do that too. The first time someone advised me to make a book using self-publishing, through photobuch.de, was actually already 5 years ago, so it's kind of embarassing that it took me so long to finally try it.
  So I'm glad our assignment is taking place online, and that the outcome will be an actual book as well.
  I think this is promising to be an interesting project to work on.
  Cant wait to see the results!