Coffee Table Books for Professional

[igpenguin]

If its reasonably priced, it will definitely have a market!

Can u imagine how many photographers out there are dying to have a coffeetable book of their own showcasing their own styles, specialities and photos?

Of cos, there's money to be earned as well where doing the wedding business is concerned. But do take into consideration private printers who'd like to do just 1 or 2 books instead of a couple of hundred.

The possibilities are limitless.

Hi jsbn,

I can relate to your comments - There's a special quality about the book format that makes it very appealing. I myself have tried various coffeetable photo book printing services based overseas, and even tried to DIY one myself going to Bras Basah for the printing and then Queensway for the binding.

Over the years I have been working with a arts group and documenting their concerts and rehearsals. Recently I made a coffeetable photo book out of the photos as a portfolio. The responses have been very encouraging.

The most appealing thing to me about the venture is about reaching the individual photog (though Winson is telling me to focus on wedding photogs first ). Print on demand technology makes short-run books much more accessible to all. You don't have to be a famous photographer or writer to make your own book!

 

[igpenguin]

Is this for a single copy? Or batch print of how many copies? At this price point, non-pros like myself would definitely be interested too. I mean, whoa!! :thumbsup:

The days of labs printing 4R, 5R are numbered. That's the sort of thing you'd do at home on your selphys and photomates. Labs would be the place to go for these kinds of books and other products. We've all done our little travel albums in the stick-on pages... Dying to be able to do them digitally now. Remember when "desktop publishing" was new and revolutionary? Now, it's so ubiquitous, it isn't even a term anymore. You just layout and print stuff, duh!

Is there a market for this? Heck, yeah! :lovegrin:

This is for a single copy. We are making single book printing accessible. Winson has some ideas about offering packages, which may be of interest to the working photographer reselling books to their clients.

Personally I have also done the manual mount it, stick-on albums. Not my cup of tea, though I think real photos mounted on pages will still retain its allure for a group of people.

Funnily, before I actually learnt Photoshop or even photography I learnt Pagemaker and Quark. Before I became a photographer I was working in print and magazine publishing. Guess all this have come in relevant for me

 

[Winsonapm]

I’m very happy on the interests and feedback, many emails and PMs of which I could not answer one by one.

To answer some questions as to why we start with professionals, we’re looking at B2B, professionalism, and partnerships to get started. The needs for design, high-res files and knowledge are beyond the average consumer. Almost all the high-end production company focus on professionals and not end-users, they do not publish their prices on their sites. Professionals spent time to design and need to mark-up for profits.

I'm positioning A&P Coordinator to be the best in this region, producing for trade professionals from USA, Europe, Japan, Australia, etc. A trade shop has to focus on production, quality and delivery. Sales and Marketing is a totally different game. There's also a conflict of interests if we start to sell to consumers. We do not have to develop our website, get marketing staff, talk to individual buyer one by one, etc. No extra overheads, no headache (different, if any), hopefully a steady stream of business from trade professionals.

My objective is to be the best in prices and quality in the market and to create value for the trade and end users at the same time. Focus on the pro first, followed by the hobbyists and amateurs later. When we've done covering the pro market. We’ll be targeting the "Limited Edition" needs, printing 5, 10, 50 and 100 books market. With limited resources, we need to concentrate on volume in a niche market.

The general idea is to offer a “no-brainer”, create the design in one size to produce 3 different books. This could be a first in the industry/market. 10 working days to delivery will be the norm. Surcharge for urgent work, maybe 2 to 5 working days if required.

I think we’ve created the biggest sizes possible in the industry/market. Maximising on the technology, possibilities and reducing wastages.
The finishing is hand-stitched and hand bound 1 by 1, the binding is unique. (Mike, you should shoot some pic and post it online)

The sizes are final, standard 40 pages for content.
1) Grand - 12.25" X 17.75" (landscape or portrait)
2) Classic - 8.5" X 12.25" ( " )
3) Pocket/Mini - 4.25" X 6" ( " ) (giveaway as gifts)
4) Square – 12.25” X 12.25”
- 8.75” X 8.75”
- 5.75” X 5.75”
5) Calendar - 12" X 17"
6) Poster - 24" X 36"
7) Additional cost for more than 40 pages, personalisations, leather cover, slevees/dust cover, slip-case, etc.

Mike and I will be organising a small group of 8 to 10 photographers to visit our factory over a few Monday evenings starting from 7th August, to view the production facilities and printed samples and to understand the technicalities. On the day of visit, we'll provide info, brochures, pricing and spec guide. Better interaction and feedback for a small group too. My meeting room is small and not very classy. Need RSVP.


Cheers

Winson

 

[jOhO]

pls keep me in the loop. i regularly need such services and it'll be great to have a few suppliers that i can rely on.

 

[TrailsofLife]

If the print last and quality is good. Would like to find out more too.

A guy named Mike contacted me about a month ago regarding coffeetable book too, wondering if its the same Mike.

My concern is only durability and quality.

 

[Winsonapm]

If the print last and quality is good. Would like to find out more too.

A guy named Mike contacted me about a month ago regarding coffeetable book too, wondering if its the same Mike.

My concern is only durability and quality.

It should be the same Mike, we strike off very well on our first meeting.:thumbsup:
We were trying very hard "to con" each other into providing this service in the next few meetings.
We finally con ourselves to get started on the fun but not on the funds. I'm still working on how we can make money:nono:

The HP Indigo is the best digital offset press printing with ink that money can buy.
Unlike most ondemand prints are printed on xerography (electrostatic-transfer) with toner.
Prints 175 to 205 lines per inch, like traditional offset presses. It can duplex 4C X 4C and on just one sheet. Just like printing a duplex proof.

For our ondemand coffee table books offerings, we use 200GSM Lumi-Silk coated Art Paper (Acid-free), it should last 50 to 100 years. (without direct exposure to sunlight)
A&P Coordinator prints for the most demanding ad and design agencies in the region, won many print awards internationally. Quality assured.

Cheers

Winson

 

[uncleparty]

This sounds good to me too! I agree that your likely immediate market would be wedding photographers, since coffee table albums is one of the items we regularly sell. What I like about this is the paper - it sounds to me like I can finally do away with lamination (yay!)Getting quite sick of seeing the occasional bubble at the scoring line over extended time.

I think what we need to know is how you intend to position this alternative option to the consumer market - as a cheaper alternative to our current methods, or would you be pricing urself much higher than $89 for the consumer market (and maybe even higher than the conventional methods). Then we can work this new material into our own pricing/options structures.

My of-the-head worry is getting people used to the 200gsm paper. I think most couples are used to having thicker boards, so they might view this as "less glam" haha.

Please do keep me updated on this, and how I could make or view some samples.

 

[Winsonapm]

This sounds good to me too! I agree that your likely immediate market would be wedding photographers, since coffee table albums is one of the items we regularly sell. What I like about this is the paper - it sounds to me like I can finally do away with lamination (yay!)Getting quite sick of seeing the occasional bubble at the scoring line over extended time.

I think what we need to know is how you intend to position this alternative option to the consumer market - as a cheaper alternative to our current methods, or would you be pricing urself much higher than $89 for the consumer market (and maybe even higher than the conventional methods). Then we can work this new material into our own pricing/options structures.

My of-the-head worry is getting people used to the 200gsm paper. I think most couples are used to having thicker boards, so they might view this as "less glam" haha.

Please do keep me updated on this, and how I could make or view some samples.

Ther was this very good writeup by Nick Goh on the differences, trend and on coffee table books. http://forums.clubsnap.org/showthread.php?t=204502

Will keep all of you posted.

Winon

 

[TrailsofLife]

It should be the same Mike, we strike off very well on our first meeting.:thumbsup:
We were trying very hard "to con" each other into providing this service in the next few meetings.
We finally con ourselves to get started on the fun but not on the funds. I'm still working on how we can make money:nono:

The HP Indigo is the best digital offset press printing with ink that money can buy.
Unlike most ondemand prints are printed on xerography (electrostatic-transfer) with toner.
Prints 175 to 205 lines per inch, like traditional offset presses. It can duplex 4C X 4C and on just one sheet. Just like printing a duplex proof.

For our ondemand coffee table books offerings, we use 200GSM Lumi-Silk coated Art Paper (Acid-free), it should last 50 to 100 years. (without direct exposure to sunlight)
A&P Coordinator prints for the most demanding ad and design agencies in the region, won many print awards internationally. Quality assured.

Cheers

Winson

Will the print come off when touched. Things like sweat, grease, dirt, is these taken into considerations?

 

[drumma]

cool!! i'd like to know more!

 

[TrailsofLife]

HP indigo is a plotter(large format inkjet printer), right? Not a offset machine.

Just wondering lah. Correct me if I am wrong.

 

[knoxknocks]

HP indigo is a plotter(large format inkjet printer), right? Not a offset machine.

Just wondering lah. Correct me if I am wrong.

it's a digital offset machine, not a plotter (and nowhere near the price of one :bsmilie: )

 

[knoxknocks]

pls keep me in the loop too! great to find alternative suppliers

 

[nostalgia]

I am interested...do keep me informed.

 

[enivre]

please keep me in the loop, interested in B2B concept...

 

[zoossh]

well, would love to know more when the option opening up to hobbyist. i dun possess knowledge regarding the field of desktop publishing and printing but i find my own experience of trying to make my own book is that cover is often of low quality or ugly designs and binding options are limited. i prefer the binding to be of 2 kind - either the japanese format of 30 hole per A4 length ring binding or those sewn type where the pages can opened up widely and easily (some pages are rigidly bound to the spine and the left and right page are difficult to open up to 180 degrees.)

 

[Winsonapm]

HP indigo is a plotter(large format inkjet printer), right? Not a offset machine.

Just wondering lah. Correct me if I am wrong.

Bought them 2 years ago at $750,000 for HP 3050, $450,000 for HP 1050, being producing great work since. Offset, dot to dot, bet you can't tell the difference between a print from Indigo and Heidelberg. I must conduct this contest on the factory visit, bring your loop or magnifying glass to check. That's how our customers check their work.

High investment and high maintainence need a lot of work to survive. We need a production team of 6 just for digital print and a team of 12 for conventional offset presses, running on 2 shits for 16 to 24 hours operation and an army for binding and finishing. I wasn't too keen on printing just one book for one, until a couple of USA and European players contact us to produce photo albums for them for the Asian market. Getting very positive feedback from this forum and Mike Lee also helped.

Sure hope it's intelligent offering this service.:nono:

Cheers

Winson

 

[XC Pictorial]

I would like to join in the visit to your factory in the event one is organised.
Very interested in the service.

 

[Cheesecake]

yeah, count me in! :thumbsup:

 

[Hobbesyeo]

I'm keen to visit the factory also.

Just wondering.. what quantity print-runs do you consider to be "trade"?