Tom Carpenter - Self-Publishing - The Triumphs, Pitfalls and the In-Between

Tom Carpenter

Self-Publishing - The Triumphs, Pitfalls and the In-Between

At an online event last year, I asked a photographer if he would talk about the process of self-publishing a photo book. I was met with the rather abrupt retort: ‘‘it’s an arduous money pit, and I wouldn’t recommend it’’. I was a bit taken back by the response and a little surprised, because I’d heard others describe it as hard work, but often very rewarding. This got me thinking, if it’s such an arduous process, then why are so many photographers taking steps to self-publish their own photo books?

As someone who hasn’t stepped into the world of self-publishing books, I’m not the best person to offer insight on the subject. So, I got in touch with a couple of photographers who have quite recently done just that, and asked for their thoughts.

From the offset both of the photographers referred to “having greater creative control on a project” as being an important factor in pursuing self-publishing. Let’s face it, the chance to have the creative control from start to finish of something, either excites or terrifies the life out of you. However, when you’ve lived with the work as long as some photographers have, it’s not easy to leave it in the hands of someone else.

Another aspect that came up was the chance to be able to earn some money, albeit a small amount, from the sale of the book.

Photo books, taken by Tom Carpenter, 2021

Doesn’t seem unreasonable right? For me, it speaks volumes that photographers would rather take on the responsibility of doing everything rather than approach a publisher, who nine times out of 10, will ask for a substantial payment towards production costs. A substantial payment is fine for a select few, but what about those who are often working one, maybe two jobs just to be able to support their creative practice? It’s easier to see why the idea of taking it all on yourself would be the preferred way to go.

So, the advantages and disadvantages are something you have to weigh up when it comes to choosing whether to self-publish

a photo book. Yes, you have creative control, yes there is a chance to make a small profit, and yes it can be an incredibly humbling experience. But on the flip side, you have to find the right place to print, you have to heavily market it and finally (probably most scary of all), you have to face the wrath of the post office when you arrive at five o’clock with 50 books to post out. You could argue that the avenues to explore self-publishing have never been more openly available to people. With crowd funding sites like Kickstarter and social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter, you have a way to quite quickly build up an audience for your creative practice, in a way that wouldn’t have been possible 20 years ago. However, just because it’s more accessible doesn’t mean it’s easy.

For me, there is something quite lovely about a self-published book. When you sit and look through it, you subconsciously have a greater appreciation for the amount of work that has gone into creating the book. Knowing that many a late night and stolen moments were utilized to the max to see the work come to fruition, is something special.

Like most things in life, there are advantages and disadvantages to self-publishing, does one outweigh the other? That’s hard for me to say. As self-publishing photo books in photography continues to flourish, it’s hard to see a prosperous long-term future for the more established publishers out there. Self-publishing for some is an arduous money pit, but for others it’s the biggest learning curve of them all, which if done right, can be humbling and very rewarding.