To be clear, Bookmobile does NOT produce true, one-at-a-time, Print-on-Demand photo books. But our minimum run is 25 copies, and really, why would you just want one copy of your fine art photo book? Why put an art book (or any book for that matter) through a POD production line that relies solely on bar coding and is never seen by human eyes? With only cookie-cutter standard sizes and papers to choose from, no finishing options, and poor quality control, POD does not serve an art book publisher well. Readers expect more when they order a fine art photo book and are likely to simply return a book with shoddy production.
Young Ideas, a collection of photographs from Eddie O’Keefe published by Bywater Bros. Editions, is a good example. O’Keefe is a filmmaker, and Young Ideas features a mixture of location shots and film stills along with his photographs taken in the southwestern United States over the past five years.
Bywater Bros. Editions produced a small first run of 100 copies of Young Ideas in January of 2015, and they have returned to Bookmobile twice to reprint very short runs of 25 copies to meet demand. Young Ideas is only sold online by Smoke Room, the fine art photo book online shop of Bywater Bros. Editions, and at events. The publisher Roger Bywater, says,
Bookmobile has consistently met all our demands with speed, accuracy, and high productions levels.
Bookmobile’s (Better) Version of Print on Demand Photo Books
Bookmobile provides custom book manufacturing; no cookie-cutter templates or trim sizes to adhere to here. We produce everything in house, and we only produce books. So the collected know-how of our experienced staff goes into every book we produce. Our minimum run is 25 copies—we could not maintain our high-quality standards and breadth of options if we were only printing one copy of a book. From you, we require print-ready PDF files; our Support page will guide you on file prep and our color printing parameters. We provide paperback or hardcover binding, and black-and-white or color interiors (with the option to do a black-and-white interior with color inserts to save on cost). We can produce about any trim size up to 12″ square, landscape or portrait. We also provide many bells and whistles, like French flaps, foil stamping, and embossing or debossing. Browse our Gallery for inspiration, and check out our full list of options too.
Young Ideas is 5-1/2″ x 7″, with 88 pages printed 4-color on on 80-lb. matte-coated white stock at 510 PPI (pages per inch). It’s perfect bound with our PUR binder, with a 4-color cover printed on 10-pt. C1S (coated one side) with gloss lay-flat film lamination. We’ve printed a few titles from Bywater Bros. Editions, including Smoke Room 5, which is featured in our Gallery.
Interested in what Bookmobile can do for you? Contact me!