I was thinking, why let blurb or any other company do the printing of my book when I can do it myself.
I am considering, if anyone is interested, to make a small edition of hand made books, printed on real rag paper. I think I will limit to 5 copies, since there is very much work involved. I haven’t calculated the cost of materials yet, but off the top of my head right now I would say maybe 60-70USD in production cost. I was not planning on making profit of it, maybe just selling it 10-20$ above the cost of the material. If I decide to go for it, I will bind it in the same style as the book I made two months ago (link here).
It may be a bit more expensive than the blurb alternative, but at least it is hand made, and printed on fine art paper.
Post a comment if you’re interested. No obligations so far. I will do a better estimate on the cost, and find out if I really want to do it (lots of work, but fun).
I also ended up printing my own book although somewhat smaller than yours. I used A4 paper which was then folded making 2 A5 pages. These were further cropped into a square format. My selling price is somewhat less and probably because less materials were used and a more simple assembly method. I used Gallerie Smooth Heavyweight Matte paper double sided paper.
The sewing method looks interesting, I must look it up.
You’re right about the cost, I would probably use an A4 sheet cropped to square format, which will almost double the cost. Since I don’t take the hours spend into account, the assembly method shouldn’t matter much, them main cost is with the paper, then ink.
If you’re interested in sewing books, I would highly recommend the books by Keith Smith (http://www.keithsmithbooks.com/)
Oh, I haven’t really gone forward with this project yet. I decided I wanted to shoot the bridges some more, and considering the work involved, it would seem like a waste of time to make the book before I have finished the shooting.
let me know when you decide to make these books, I will buy one.