Walk Three Hundred and Fifty-Four – The Bluebell Wood and a possible book
Quite a few of you have suggested that this one mile from home project might make a good book, and I’ve brushed away the suggestion on the basis that it would be far too expensive. However inspired by Wally Torta and Natalie d’Arbeloff I’ve looked again at the cost of self-publishing and it turns out that in fact Lulu.com is very affordable. Particularly if all I want is one book to give to my dear father who is far too technophobic to actually look at my blog, but would be thrilled to think that his daughter was a published author (even if it is self-published). Anyway this is where you lot can help me. The book would be ridiculously expensive if it was 365 pages so I need to pick probably the best 50 or so pictures. So if you have a favourite post or picture that you think I should include, would you please either e-mail me or add a comment to the relevant post or picture.
230mm x 310mm watercolour on Arches HP
posted by Julie Oakley at Saturday, April 14, 2007
15 Comments:
Julie! What a fantastic idea! But a mere 50??? How could one choose? I LOVE ALL of the ink and wc you did if that helps! Did you check Lulu -- where Cully published his -- maybe less$$? Reserve me a couple, please!
could you put four on a page? I want them all! I think that's part of the appeal (at least to me, with my innate sense of orderliness).
Julie if you publish come hell or high water i will find the money to buy one. I will have a look when I have time but only 50! I love these last few so bright and cheerful with the yellow rape etc. I came home to a maga depressed husband, still no rain and things looking even bleaker and i had been away having fun (and thank goodness forgetting about the pressures back here) Especially i love the one of Xavier on his bike in the lane, will search for its number.
What if you did a combo: Multiple images on some pages, then have certain pages devoted to your faves? This sketch, by the way, would in my top 50 of yours.
Thanks Lin. Yes Lulu is where I've looked. It's colour that is the killer on the price of the book.
Hashi I'd love to do them all (good, bad and indifferent like the blog), but I don't want it to look like a stamp album. Penny I'm glad you had a good break but very disheartening to come back to such pressure.
Karen I was kind of thinking on those lines, but I'll still need to select and cull.
Well, I think THIS one should certainly be one of the choices. The colors are just a knock out! And the idea of book for your dad is a great one, too.
I've done my share of editing and publishing stuff for the local Geelong community and costs can be cut down. Colour is expensive,(and don't have lots of colourful pics next to one another - they fight for attention). Who is your target audience? Your Dad might dislike fields of corn - he might want family focus, or old houses. But if it's for the general public - well, I reckon pics with selective notes, not just pics. If you lay it all out yourself - page ready - and you sure know all of this - it mightn't be costly.
Of course a CD Rom might be the way to go if people don't want to use up trees!
w.
I liked the landscape with the trees - do include that one.
Thanks Linda for selecting a picture. Wendy, the route I'll probably go means that all the pages will print colour (even if I've chosen monochrome pics on some spreads) The book would basically be an edited version of the blog but with the benefit of high resolution pictures inside a real physical book. It won't make any money and might make a slight loss as there is an upfront cost if you want an ISBN number. And yes it will include some text.
Anonymous thanks, but most of the 100 or so landscapes on the blog do have trees!
What a lovely gift! But I hope you'll do more than one, Julie...
And by the way, my favorite--VERY hard to pick one, thank you so much!--is Walk 336. Omigod. Lovely...
Well this one would definitely be one to put in--it's fabulous! I'd likely be one of the book buyers too if you have them printed. One of my favorites was the tryptic (spelling?) the three-part one of golden fields that I emailed you about long ago. When you get closer to being ready to start culling I'll look some more. My mom wants me to make a book for her.
Oops, I just went through the blog and didn't put a comment in the boxes. Anyway, here is a list of my favs!
5, 14, 38, 39, 50, 59, 64, 67, 70, 116, 155, 162, 166, 187, 188, 207, 216, 260, 280, 294, 299, 300, 317, 318, 340 and ALL the Greek ones! I particulary liked the little spotted wellies!
Cathy, Jana and Felicity, thanks for all your suggestions. It will be really helpful in the culling layout process. Cathy the great thing about Lulu is that they just print whatever is ordered, so I can just direct people to the Lulu site and I would be thrilled if more than one is ordered. It's fascinating looking into the whole thing though, because colour print on demand is definitely NOT a way to make money. The discounts that Amazon and booksellers demand mean that if you sold through them you would either have to set such a high retail price that no-one could afford to buy it or you'd have to make a loss and sell books to them for less than it cost you to print! However I'll just be pleased to break even and know that some of my friends have bought it!
You should include "the bluebell wodd" into your book, definitely!
It's so nice!
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