Picturia Press - Creating Books authored by you -->

Marjorie's Table: Material and Instruments of Art as Art is the fourth book done with noted artist Jerry Gotkin. As usual, we were very fortunate to work with some beautiful images and we also had the benefit of being familiar with the artist's previous work.

This was a unique book to create in that it examines the work table, palette and the instruments that an artist uses to create. The materials - brushes, paints, canvases, vases, flowers and all they other items a painter would use - all displayed and seen as their own expression of art.

Jerry comments, "What I tried to do, in preparing the images and formulation, was a painful exercise. I saw that it was lacking a point of view and cohesiveness but I was at a loss to either recognize or articulate it. When I presented it to Suzzanne, she hit the target as soon as I sent her my ideas. It was a clarion bell. This book would not work if we were merely going to display the images as individual pieces. This had to be a conceptual book organized to convey a central theme. She knew what I wanted to do; I did not. I cannot express the clarity that came with her direction."

We're thrilled to bring to life another book of artistic work by Gotkin Arts Studio. We look forward to working on their next project with them. Click here to view the book.

When we did this book, I wasn't aware of what "Leaf Peeping" was and how extremely popular it is in New England. Apparently the leaves are only visible for a limited number of weeks and annually draws huge visitors to view and photograph the breathtaking fall foliage.

Hiking is the perfect way to experience the change of the seasons. These images were shot during a hiking trip on the Appalachian Trails in and around Rangeley Lake, Maine.

Such a fun book to create. Just under 50 pages and a 7 x 7 book, this is a wonderful way to take your vacation photos and turn them into a priceless memory book. These photos would probably have resided on a computer and sat for years waiting for something to happen. But now it is a treasured memory book that everyone on the trip will be receiving as a gift.

Click here to view the book.

While Picturia Press continues to create new books (three more in the works right now....) we wanted to take a moment to let all our new and existing customers that we are excited to be offering a 10% discount on all book orders placed on or before December 1, 2008. If you would like to take advantage of this offer, please reference the code: BB1201OLB.

Lots of books to create for the holiday season. Avoid the holiday rush and get started on your book project now. Picturia Press wishes you all the best during the upcoming holiday season.

Click here to view the book.

Today, we just finished our third book with noted artist, Jerry Gotkin. This was an exciting project for us to work again with Jerry on creating a showcase of his wife Marjorie Gotkin's "Still Life/Florals" watercolor and gouache. It is always a pleasure to work with Mr. Gotkin, and these were some incredibly beautiful images to design and layout. We recently published his Tall Ship Series and the Hospice by the Sea Gardens books.

Both Marjorie and Jerry Gotkin have been successful and well-known painters and artists for many years and some of Marjorie's works are in the Smithsonian Institution American Art Museum/Portrait Gallery Libraries. So it was an honor to help create this book for them.

Click here to view the book.

This is quite a unique book and although it took a very long time; it was a wonderful project to work on. Picturia Press was contacted by a book group in Des Moines, Iowa that had been meeting once a month for over 20 years! During that time they had read and reviewed over books and wanted to share their book list with friends and family. But also during that time, this book group, called the Decem Doctae, or "ten learned women", have been meeting at each other's houses to review the books and to share a delicious lunch prepared by their host for the meeting. So in addition to sharing their recommended reading list, they wanted to share some of their recipes they've collected over the years. Additionally, one of the ladies from their group is a photographer, so naturally, our clients also wanted to include images of their beautiful city.

It took some time and management to collect all the different images, bios, book lists and recipes from 14 different women belonging to the group over the period of 20 years and then editing the book so it was cohesive and consistent. Let's just put it this way... everyone writes a recipe differently.

The end result is a book we love and are sure the client will love also. Click here to view the book.

What a week it has been...and it's only Tuesday! We were thrilled to complete this new photography book, "Cuatro: Four Continents and Four Years", by photographer Angel Herrero de Frutos from Sitges, Spain.

The difficult task for this project was choosing which photos to use from a selection of Angel's work; all his images were so visually stunning. It was difficult at best to only pick a few of them. This is a photography book about his journey through four different continents in as many years. Places like Spain, China, France and Inda. We were very happy to work with Angel Herrero on this piece and wish him continued success in showcasing such fine work.

Click here to view the book.

Today, we finally finished part 2 of a set of 2 books on a mothers blog journaling her daughter's first year. Whew, it was a big one. The second book coming in at 425 pages. Again, very grateful to Blurb for their "slurping abilities - which allowed us to pull down all the entries including the images. If we weren't able to grab all the text and images that way, my client's child would be graduating college before we finished this book!

My client is not only creating a book to save and share with her child when she gets older, but is gifting the book to all the relatives and friends that they have all over the world. It's going to be a very special gift to all of them.

Click here to view the book

This was a wonderful book to work on, simply because it serves such a higher purpose. I was contacted by my client on behalf of the Metta Institute to create a book reflecting the journal writings of Mr. Frank Ostaseski. The founder of the Metta Institute, a teacher and a wonderful man who recently had several heart attacks and is now on the road to recovery. They plan to use the book as a gift to donors who attend the Journey of the Heart benefit for the Metta Institute in late September.

Although there was very little imagery, we worked with the text and used typography to call-out important or emotional points in Frank's journal and used color for more impact in delivering the overall message. This was a very quick turn around in order to make the deadline for the client, but it was a real pleasure to work with them and hope we can create more books for them in the near future. We wish them great success in their fundraising efforts.

Click here to see the book.

I am very happy to say that things have been quite exciting around Picturia Press lately and we are growing daily. It's been quite difficult to get to the blog and post any updates when we have been so busy. But, we want to keep you updated on our work.

Currently Picturia Press is designing and finishing up seven (7 )new books! Here's just a sampling of images from some of the books that are getting ready to go to print soon.

The first one going to press hopefully by next week, is a lovely cookbook we've been working on for a Des Moines Ladies Book Group. While crazy and challenging to work with 14 ladies on one project....we are finally getting it done, and it will be a beautiful book when it's completed. In fact, I am ordering a copy of this book for myself, since the recipes are so delicious! Look for it to be published soon.


We are also finishing up and putting the final touches on a beautiful photography book for a wonderful artist, Angel Herrero de Frutos, from Barcelona. (http://www.pinopic.com). His work is stunning and elegant and we were really pleased and honored to be working on this portfolio for him. You should see a sampling of this book within the next week or two!

Still more to come out next week will be a beautiful book we have been working on for the people at the Metta Institute (http://www.mettainstitute.org) for a fund raising event. Beautiful people doing such great work in the hospice care field. It's an honor to help them create something to further build awareness of this cause.

And of course, it is our privilege to be working with Jerry Gotkin again in producing another photography portfolio of his wife's work of florals. This will be our third book for Jerry and we always enjoy the beautiful art work and the friendship that has grown out of working together so much. This book should be out within the next three weeks.

So as you can see, it's been quite hectic at Pictura Press, but all of the projects we have are so great to work on and we are happy to play a part in each and every one of these wonderful books!

It's always wonderful when we have the opportunity to work with a client on another project. Today, we just wrapped up and published a second book for our client, Jerry Gotkin. If you recall, we worked with Jerry to publish "Gardens of Hospice by the Sea".

We worked with Mr. Gotkin to create a artist portfolio of work created by his wife and noted artist, Marjorie Gotkin. The Tall Ships Watercolor and Gouache is a beautiful book showcasing over 150 of Marjorie's pieces in her Tall Ship series.

Even more works to come as we again work with Jerry to produce another book on Marjorie's floral series. Click here to view the book.

Today, we completed a new book design for one of our clients. The book is going to be a surprise gift to my client's girlfriend on their upcoming vacation. He plans to propose to her and wanted to put together a book commemorating special moments in their life and of course ending the book with a marriage proposal.

My client knew exactly what he wanted to say and even had selected a majority of the images before the book production began. We worked with our client to find additional images and put together a beautiful book that I am sure his soon-to-be fiancé will greatly appreciate. Our congratulations and best wishes to them both.

Click here to view the book.

Just finished designing another beautiful book for our client, Bob Barancik of Creative Ledge Studios. The book, Wabi Sabi Dreams | Water, Weather and Time, is a compilation of Bob's paintings and photographs that follows the wabi sabi technique.

What is Wabi Sabi? According to Mr. Barancik:

The best answer that I can express with words is that wabi sabi is a Japanese aesthetic that reveres the imperfect, incomplete, and impermanent. Although wabi sabi is often associated with Zen Buddhism, the Western eye can readily appreciate the beauty of deeply worn and roughened elemental surfaces. The green patina on a bronze sculpture, rusted farm tools, fallen leaves and apples, paint peeling off an old brick wall or an abandoned wooden rowboat, a barn or garden falling to ruin — somehow makes us feel somber, serene, and autumnal.

We are also happy to be working with Mr. Barancik on other projects coming up in the near future.

Click here to view the book.

Hau`oli la Hanau!
That's Hawaiian for Happy Birthday.....Picturia Press is pleased to have just finished publishing another new book this weekend that was very fun to design. My client recently had a wonderful Luau themed 40th birthday party in San Francisco. She had many pictures taken of the event from her own collection and from others who were at the party.

We sorted through quite a few images and managed to work with the client to capture the "essence" of her party. Which was all about fun and friends. We hope she enjoys the book as much as we enjoyed making it.

Click here to view the book.

Today, we finally finished part 1 of a set of 2 books (yes, 2 books!) we are creating for a mother's blog on the first year of her daughter's life. It took us about two months to complete it and all I can say is that I am eternally grateful for the "slurping" abilities at Blurb.com. Their software has the capability of pulling down all the text and images from where they are stored online and importing them directly into the application. I seriously doubt we could have done this project as effectively and as quickly had we not had that option available to us.

This is my client's first child, so there you can imagine, there were quite a lot of pictures and copy to be used. To give you an idea, the first book was roughly 370 pages! When you get to that size book, it becomes increasingly difficult for the client to review the pages and make changes. We broke it up into phases so we could review and modify the pages within each section thereby avoiding my client getting overwhelmed.

I believe the end result was a great success and now that it's in print, we're ready to start on the second book. Click here to view the book

Just the other day I had a customer inquire as to how they might go about preserving their new book. Although not every customer needs to store their book for safekeeping, some clients, such as photographers who may have portfolio pieces, or clients who have had a wedding album designed, do want a presentation box or folder to keep their book clean and well protected.

We looked around and found a company who creates personalized photobook boxes. They actually appear to be quite nice. Made of thick fiber carton and with velcro corners. The interesting things is they also offer engraving on the box covers. The "ouch" factor is that the company is in Denmark, so the shipping is pretty steep ($23 for up to 2 boxes) and in fact is close to the same price for the box itself! The good news is that the boxes will work with Blurb.com's large size 13 x 11 and also with MyPublisher's classic size 12.25 x 8.75.

I'm ordering a box next week to see and touch one for myself, so I'll keep you posted.

It's been a very hectic summer at Picturia Press, we actually have six books going to press within a week of each other! All of them amazing and different and with their own great stories.

We are happy to be working with Mr. Jerry Gotkin again (see the recently released book "Gardens of Hospice by the Sea") on producing a portfolio of work on his wife Marjorie Gotkin's Tall Ships. Along with that book releasing soon, we are also working with renowned artist Bob Barancik on his book showcasing his Wabi Sabi artwork that I think is going to be really wonderful.

In final production this week is a mother's blog on the first year of her daughter's life. This is actually going to be two books, with the first one being roughly 350 pages! Another exciting book in progress is a very unique cookbook for a ladies' reading group which I'll be sharing more with you later.

Finally, a really fun 40th Birthday party book and a gentleman who contracted us to design a surprise "Will You Marry Me?" wedding proposal book for his girlfriend.

Look to see the inside of these books and the project details soon. More exciting releases from Picturia Press!

So you’d like to produce a book. Regardless of whether it is a portfolio of your work, an event or wedding album, a blog, a cookbook, or a novel, the first decision to make is should you do it yourself, or should you hire a professional?

The most important thing to consider is the time and effort put into creating the book versus the desired outcome of the finished product. Time is always something we are short on, and trial and error in designing your own book can be time-consuming, costly and frustrating. Hiring a professional book designer can simplify this process for you. This way you work with a designer to establish the look and feel of the book, and the designer then implements and/or enhances your vision.

Professional designers do this for a living and therefore understand the technology and the graphic design layout process a book requires. If your desire is to create a professional portfolio, or a book that is personal and emotive, a designer will know how to convey your concept.

Additionally, their skills in designing allow them to provide creative input such as use of color, use of design elements, typography and photo editing. All of these skills not only add to, but enhance the look of your finished book.

In preparing a quote for a client, it isn’t as simple as quoting a set price and going from there. There are many things a professional designer will need to know from you in order to establish a base cost. Let's review some of the things you'll need to know about designing your book before you hire a designer...

Take some time to think about your book before selecting a designer. This process will really help you establish what exactly you want to create and will also enable the vendor to give you a quote based on your true needs and not on a “guesstimate”. And keep in mind that hiring a vendor to design the book does not in most cases include the cost of purchasing and shipping the book. Be sure to verify that with any vendor you hire.

What format shall my book be in?
Blurb.com has several book size selections to choose from as follows:



Blurb books come in soft cover, hard cover with a dust jacket and hard cover with an image wrap. (An image wrap allows you to print an image directly on the front and back of any hard cover book.

Deciding right away on the size of your book is important to begin the design process. You may already know what you want, or you can consult with your designer to determine the best size suited for your project.

Blurb offers great flexibility with ordering your book when it is completed, you have the choice of either soft covers or a hard covers. However, for design purposes, you will need to know if you want the book to have the option of a hard cover with a dust jacket or a hard cover with an image wrap. The reason for this is the designer will need to “lay out” the inside flaps of a dust jacket, and will also need to meet specific design parameters if the cover is to be image wrapped.

How big will my book be?
This can often be a question you find hard to answer and the book designer understands that. However, you may have an idea of how many pages you would “like” the book to be, or you know how many pictures you have or pages of text. This will help enormously when asking a vendor to give you a quote.

What are the elements in my book?
This is important to know for the designer to determine the needs and time required for designing. While your concept can change, a basic understanding of what materials will be included will help the vendor determine pricing.

Most importantly, know what is the content of your book – is it photographs, text, or a combination of both.

Photographs
Know approximately how many images you have.
Can the vendor use a selection of the images, or must they use them all.
Indicate if the images are in digital format or printed format.
If not, will you require them to be scanned by the vendor.
Do the images required editing (such as color enhancement, editing background).
How many of your images require editing.

Text
What format do you have the text in now. (i.e. a Word document)
How much text will you have. (Is it captions for the photographs, quotations, dedications, or the entire book consists of text.

Timeline
It is important as a client for you to convey any deadline for your project. In most cases this determines if and when a vendor can take on your project. Do not assume that because the vendor is a professional, your book can be completed in two days. Be sure to allow enough time for the designer to create a design for you to review and revise and deliver a polished finished product. Most vendors can and will work with you on your timeline but may need to charge you a “rush” fee if it falls outside of the normal time it takes to design the book.

OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
Not all vendors offer additional services, but here are some to consider.

Additional Design Elements
Enhancing your book to complete your vision may require additional photography, illustration, or text. For example, you may wish to add quotes to the book, or customize a front cover. You may desire specialty design treatments, such unique backgrounds or typography. These things require additional time and services from the vendor.

Color profiling. This assures your images will get a truer contrast and more accurate color consistency in your printing. For most individuals, this is not a service you will require. Usually, a professional photographer wanting to assure absolute color consistency would use this process.

ISBN Code.Will you require as ISBN Code. If you are unsure if you need an ISBN code or not, please read my post. If you need an ISBN Code for your book, you can either do this yourself or ask if your vendor can perform this service for you.