The Cheap and Easy Way to Self-Publish

I just released the second edition of my The Amateur’s Guide to Landscape Photography ebook and that inspired this next blog article. Even as amateurs, many of us have dreamed about our photos being someday published. Sure, you can do print-on-demand books (like from Blurb), but that’s not the same thing as seeing “your” book on the shelf at a Barnes and Noble. Well, wake up—you likely never will. OK, don’t cry yet; just reset your expectations. As Carlton the doorman on the old TV show Rhoda would say: “aim low and avoid disappointment.”

First, a reality check and then a little introspection. The reality is landscape photography is a very tough sell. It’s a hugely crowded market by established professionals, and how does an amateur compete with the likes of an Art Wolfe or David Muench. (Short answer: for the majority of us, you don’t!). Instead, examine your reason to publish. If your ambitions are to become professional, or semi-professional, then this article isn’t for you.  If you’re a committed amateur, but still want money and glory, then good luck! But, if it’s for the pride of accomplishment to compose a book, actually see it on a bookshelf, and maybe have some buyers—even if only a few—then read on.

To publish in the big times, you have two avenues: find a publisher or self-publish. Finding a willing publisher is much like winning the lottery. By sheer serendipity, I found an internal contact at Focal Press who said (in short): “liked the book, but we’re up to our snorkel in landscape photo books so, instead, would you be willing to publish it on our blog?” I passed on the blog offer, but I was thrilled I could get a large publisher to acknowledge I even existed! I then explored the self-publishing route and realized that I have to shell out a few grand upfront, plus still deal with marketing and distribution (unless I shelled out even more). The odds of recouping even a portion of that investment would be the same as the Guggenheim begging to display my photos.

The easiest, cheapest, and quickest path to fulfilling your dream is the ebook route. This may be a concession to those who really wanted a physical book; but life is full of compromises, and ebooks are the wave of the future anyway (look what happened to Borders). The advantage is anyone can get a book on sale in Amazon, iBookstore, Barnes and Nobel, and other ebook retailers—and you don’t need a publisher. The only work you need to do, besides creating the book, is whatever marketing you’re motivated to do. Total cost is at or near zero and the retailers handle all the finances. However, though this may be the cheap and easy way to publish, you’re still not spared the enormous effort that goes into creating a book.

The next big decision is what to write. Just a picture book alone, in my opinion, isn’t going to sell; you also need a subject, and that’s the hard part. In my case, I decided that if I was ever to create a book on landscape photography that sparked enough interest just for someone to look at the cover, I needed an “angle”. So I took inspiration from a line in an old Buck Owens song: “and all I gotta to do is act naturally.” There are already a zillion how-to landscape photo books and as many coffee table books with eye-popping images. So I decided to write a how-to book just for amateurs by an amateur. I’ve had many years of experience as an amateur, so I felt qualified! I figured there would be many budding photographers out there that would be attracted to reading about the travails of a fellow amateur rather than from hard-to-relate-with globetrotting pros. It’s still a how-to book, but from an amateur’s perspective that attempts a more practical real-world approach to the subject.

My first version was published in both Amazon and iBookstore. For my second version, I dropped Amazon for a variety of reasons. The biggest reason is 90% of my sales were in iBookstore even though Amazon has 62% of the ebook market versus iBookstore’s 10%. One reason is a good deal of Amazon’s sales are to black & white Kindles and it’s unlikely those users would buy photo-based ebooks. The bigger reason, though, is the competition in Amazon’s landscape photography category is brutal. Another downside to Amazon is I can’t control the quality of the ebook. I made the submittal with Microsoft Word, but after Amazon converted it, quality took a decided hit.

iBookstore, on the other hand, is tailored-made for ebooks on photography. The iPad is the perfect medium to display color photography, and the Retina display is added dazzle. You use Apple’s free iBooks Author software to create the ebook, which is a full-featured and easy to use page layout program (very similar to Pages). You have total control and the published ebook version looks exactly the same as what’s created in iBooks Author. There’s one caveat, the iPad must have iOS 5 or later and iBooks 2.0 or later to view ebooks created with iBooks Author. Even though those are free upgrades, I’m sure many iPad users haven’t upgraded and that locks them out as potential customers. Note that iBooks Author ebooks aren’t the same as Apple’s other more-widespread EPUB format. But iBooks Author ebooks are far slicker than EPUB when it comes to displaying photo-based ebooks, and has more interactive features.

If you’re on a Mac platform and content to stick only with iBookstore, then this is probably the absolute most cheapest and easiest way to self-publish. The software is free and the only expense is the ISBN number, if you choose to include it ($125, or $250 for ten numbers; go to: http://www.myidentifiers.com). An ISBN was previously mandatory for iBookstore, but now is optional (Amazon likewise). You can still publish in Amazon, but you’ll have to laboriously transfer all the ebook contents over to Word and maintain two sets of files (and trust me, that’s a real pain in the neck). Apple’s submission process is longer than Amazon’s since they go through a higher quality screening level. My only complaint is, even though the entire submission process is typical Apple-friendly, there were a few convoluted steps when submitting a revision. To get started, download iBooks Author from the Apple App Store (Lion or Mountain Lion required). To publish on Amazon, go to https://kdp.amazon.com to get set up. To publish on Barnes and Noble, go to: http://pubit.barnesandnoble.com.

One last topic that’s everyone’s favorite subject: money. Now as I stressed before, you shouldn’t be doing this for the money. That said, don’t be surprised that after realizing all the work it took to create your book, you’ll think it’s worth $30 or $40. Well don’t—it’s worth only what someone else is willing to pay. Amazon and Apple both encourage low pricing by providing the greatest royalty percentage at under $10. If you’re thinking to write more than one book, consider offering the first one for free to build a future customer base.