I've Been Published

I've Been Published, originally uploaded by alexdpx.

I've been told a few times by friends, "You should publish a photobook." Yeah, right. Like that's cheap. Also, I don't think anybody would be interested to buy them so it's just gonna be an expensive worthless exercise. But I do wonder how my photos would look like printed on premium publication type paper as in magazines and books. QOOP has an affordable solution. It provides printing services to flickr users (and other photosharing websites as well) in various formats. Posters, minibook, photobook, calendar, branding merchandise (t-shirts, caps) or just simply professional quality prints. Well, here's my chance so I ordered for a photobook on-line. The Process is step-by-step easy and offers a few options. Of course you need a flickr account (free account will do) and authorize access for them to organize your photobook.

Here are the order details: Perfect Bound Book (2-sided) = US$ 12.99 (QR 47.41/PHP 663.79) Minimum 20 Pages US$ 0.40 (QR 1.46 / PHP 20.44) each additional page. Total no. of pages = 50 Cost = US$ 24.99 (QR 91.21 / PHP 1,276.99) Shipping (USPS Int'l 1st Class Mail) = US$ 10.71 (QR 39.09 / PHP 547.28) Total Cost = US$ 35.70 (QR 130.30 / PHP 1,824.27) Order Date: 30 June 2006 Shipping Date: 5 July 2006 Delivery Date: 23 July 2006 (23 days from order date, 18 days from shipment date) I'm happy with the quality of prints. Brilliant! They matched perfectly with the colors as I see them on my computer monitor. I ordered for a 6-photos per page layout to keep the number of pages to an even 50. There is also a 20-photos per page layout but my photos would be really small. That would also mean too few pages which I think defeats the purpose of printing a book. I would have preferred a 4 or 2-photos per page layout but that would mean more pages and more cost to pay. It is expensive. However, seeing my photos in a book (although it's a personal book) feels very rewarding. Will I order again? Oh yes - next year for my 2nd year with flickr. If I do decide to publish a book for distribution, this is definitely not the service I would go to. I'll have to look elsewhere.