Spirit Vision Photography Loc: Behind a Camera.

Hello

For those of you that have self published (POD, print on demand), which company did you use and why? Whom do you recommend?

Thanks

cyclespeed Loc: Calgary, Alberta Canada

Apple because I have over 2 dozen on my bookshelf from the past 11 years and the ones that are holding up best in terms of book construction and photo fade are all Apple books.
As usual they might not be the bottom of the price range but you get what you pay for.

cameraf4 Loc: Delaware

Do you have a Hyper-Link for this?

wds0410 Loc: Nunya

adoramapix. I've done three books with them. All top notch. Easy interface and lots of options to customize. Cost was in the $175 range for a 50 or so page leather bound book.

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

I use Blurb for photo books and I've used Amazon for printing an actual published novel. Amazon software was easy to use and there is no cost until you order the books. Here is the Amazon KDP link:
https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/.

Morning Star Loc: West coast, North of the 49th N.

I used Blurb for the first photo book I ever made: About six years ago, of our granddaughter's wedding. It is still holding up well, no fading or damage to the pages from use.
Used Blurb several times since then, and am still very happy with the results, as are the recipients of these books.
I have just started on a new book for our sons: my "life story". This will have as much text as it will have photos. As I did before, I will make full-bleed pages with Photoshop Elements.

I don't know if other companies offer this, but for a few dollars more, I can also order a .pdf file of the book. As two of our boys prefer to read stuff on the computer, they appreciated the .pdf file of previous book more than the book itself! (Their wives did like the paper book, though!)

petego4it Loc: NY

For mainly word based books, with a few pics included, I used iUniverse. They're owned by a real publisher, Random House I believe now; they did a fine job for 3 books. It was some years ago now. They are POD but do have ties to actual bookstore promotion/distribution and Amazon too if you have aspirations for broader sales. I would however not use them where pics are the key.

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

I use Shutterfly, but I wait until they have a sale, usually 50% off, free extra pages and free shipping.
They do all of my wildlife books that I sell at my shows. They do a really good job and are very professional.

artyjoe

Originally Create Space but they sold out to Kindle set-publishing -pretty much the same except for a change in cover templates. Between the two companies in 3 years I self published 12 books now on Amazon (they go right to Amazon upon approval -pretty cool no monies spent until I order copies with an author discount. I have painting books with my art printing fantastic But my B/W collection is bland printing at best because it doesn't go into depth for that printing but it suffice for my legacy so to speak. Your color isn't a problem. Of course color brings the cost of the book up and makes your residual count low.-Bob Van Lindt

mizzee Loc: Boston,Ma

Blurb primarily because it’s hooked up to Lightroom. They also offer a wide variety of papers, sizes, & bindings. Shutterfly gets good marks as well, but I’ve never used them.

TGanner Loc: Haines, Alaska

Definitely Blurb .... great product, good customer service. Self publishing aint cheap, but Blurb regularly has sales that bring the price down to authors.

Al Beatty Loc: Boise, Idaho

Hi Kiron Kid,
My wife and I have published 13 books through Amazon (11 were ebook/POD books and 2 were eBook only). They do an excellent job with printing and fast delivery of books to the author or to customers buying from them. As already mentioned above, you can set an account for free on their site (https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/). After your book is formatted and uploaded, Amazon checks it for mistakes like spelling errors, covers (front & back), and illustration/picture formatting. After they approve your book, design, and formatting, you can purchase up to 5 "author's proofs" at a very reduced rate. After final approval, you book goes live for sale to the public (an to you, the author at a reduced rate). The royal check shows up in your bank account every month like clock work. If you are interested, we've written a book named "The Self-Publishing Encyclopedia." It covers everything you need to know regarding self publishing eBooks, print books, audio books, YouTube videos, etc. It's available as an eBook or a POD print book on Amazon. Just type the book's name and our last name in Amazon's search engine if interested. Take care & ...

DebAnn Loc: Toronto

My recommendation is Blurb. Beautiful work. I have done several linen-bound books with jackets. There's a wide choice of paper and they have page templates if you want to use them.

FM Loc: near Syracuse, NY

I didn't think Apple was still doing book /photo publishing. I used them for a photo book a year ago
and was pleased with the result, also Lots of Photo greeting cards- But then I got a thing saying they no
longer did this???
FM

Brian S. Loc: Oak Park, MI

It believe that Apple no longer directly prints photo books. See the following just copied off the Apple web site.....

It’s easy to make high-quality photo books, cards, calendars, framed prints, and more right within Photos for macOS Mojave. Third-party project extensions offer an expanded selection of services from partners like Motif, Mimeo, and WhiteWall, letting you create a unique gift for someone special or for yourself.

My wife and I like Shutterfly. We have done over 30 different books from our vacations.