Easier wedding books....

zoomer

Does anyone have a book supplier that has an easy to use format for putting them together.

We are currently using Black River and my assistant showed me how to do one yesterday.....I need something easier/faster but still very good quality.

I don't have a bunch of time to spend on doing books but feel I need to continue to offer them.
I am even considering farming them out.

My assistant is moving at the end of this summer and my photography world is going to get very complicated...

Any steerage would be appreciated.:scratch

Qarik

what do you do now? Are you looking for templates to just drag and drop? is turnkey desgin in house an option for you? Please be more specific so we can HELP you Zoom!

zoomer

That's just it I don't do anything with books now

My assistant has been doing all the books.
She has the client pick the photos then she custom designs each page, customer tweaks, then she finalizes and sends her design in to Black River who then print the book. They make a very nice book.

She spends several hours on each book, I just don't have that kind of time. I am too busy taking and processing photos.
She has been trying to teach me but I am not good with that kind of detail work.

My options are to stop offering books, find a nice book that can be put together more quickly/less degree of difficulty, or farm the books out..
I am investigating options, thanks.

Qarik

I see. I think most the quality books guys have turn key solution where they can design for you (or use vendors to design) though it appears Black River doesn't do this. But Black River has preset design where you can drag and drop photos.

To farm out design check out:

happyfish
lavalu
kobo
wilow album design

zoomer

Thanks Qarik,
Just what I needed!

smurfy

Zoomer,

I just signed up with Forbeyon, http://www.forbeyon.com/index.php,
and they have a per side or per images design option. The product looks beautiful, and seems to be reasonably priced for the quality level.

But just wondering... could your assistant design from afar? If she needs a job when she moves, it would be the same as you outsourcing the design to a company, without complicating matters as much. She obviously would loose that face to face contact, but most of us are probably communicating electronically with clients already when we show them album previews or find out their favorites. Personally, it's very rare that I go over designs in person. Tried it once, and the couple stayed four hours! Don't get me wrong, they were a lovely couple, but e-consultations are so much more efficient time-wise.

Anyway, I'm a big fan of your work, and hope you find a solution!

zoomer

Hi Smurfy,
We are playing with that idea, her deal is she has two small babies and her husband does not like her spending all the time she spends on the wedding stuff for the amount of money she makes at it.
She, like me, just does it cause she loves doing it...we sure are not getting rich at it.
Having said that the part she likes is talking and working with the people face to face......not doing the books.

I agree with you completely, this is certainly something that she could do anywhere if she wanted to.

I have been trying to talk my daughter into doing them, not getting very far with that .

mercphoto

Forbeyon does indeed produce a great product and they also have the benefit of having graphics designers for-hire in house. Asuka Book also has a great product and they partner with Red Boot Design for their for-hire book design services. Also check out Pounds Photo Labs (poundslabs.com) and see if they also offer in-house page design for you. They have press books of nearly identical quality to Asuka at lower prices, and they also partner directly with Forbeyon as an added plus.