Creating a Book About Your Art

by Garry McMichael

Garry McMichael. Crossing Over. 2018. Acrylic on Canvas, 15"x30".

Have you ever thought about creating a book about your art? A real printed book filled with photos of your craftsmanship?  In this world of computers and the internet, you can create it and it’s easy.

Garry McMichael. Kanab Cairn. 2018. Oil on Canvas, 12"x12".

I created a book last fall to exhibit my painting series called Mystic Cairns. The book consists of 28 inside pages and a four-page glossy, heavy stock cover. I was able to place 49 photographs in the book with a small amount of copy. On the first inside page I explained what cairns are, my fascination with them and why I was inspired to paint them. On the rest of the pages I would show one to four paintings along with the artwork information, title, size and medium. On a few pages I added brief explanations. In all, I purchased 24 books for $17.40 each. I considered that a very small price to pay for holiday gifts for family and close friends. I even had a couple left over to sell. If I were to buy in higher quantities that price would have gone down.

Garry McMichael's Mystic Cairns book, front cover & first inside page.

How to Create Your Own Art Book

To make book publishing easy, there are several websites that offer this service, Blurb and Shutterfly are the ones I’m most familiar with. Start by doing a little research. Using your computer, start by doing a search for reviews of “Print on Demand Book Services”. There must be at least a dozen companies offering these kind of services. Thanks to my friend artist Sandy Brooks, Academy of Nature and Wildlife Arts, she suggested two companies that she really liked, and that made my search a lot easier. She suggested Shutterfly and Blurb, and I narrowed by reviews to these two On Demand Book Services. Another place to see reviews is YouTube.com. There are numerous reviews and comparisons on these companies. Also, while on YouTube, watch a few of the videos on how to create your artbook using theses services. I found neither services very difficult to use, but watching the YouTube videos made the learning curve much faster.

Garry McMichael's Mystic Cairns book, inside spread one.

Since I was down to two choices, I signed up for both, then experimented with both programs. I made some basic choices such as 8.5"x11" vertical format before starting and then started designing the book in each. It doesn’t cost anything to start a book. You only pay when your book is finished and after you select such things as paper quality, cover stock/style and how is the book bound. You can get vertical, horizontal or square books, big square books or small diary sized books, you can get hard cover or soft cover books like mine. You can get a standard bound book or books that lay flat when open (great for double page spreads). There are dozens of choices, but my suggestion is to keep your first book design simple and cheap. After experimenting for a few hours with each program, I selected Shutterfly. I have to confess my decision was not because one was easier than the other, but because Shutterfly was offering a big price discount at the time. I have since learned these On Demand Book Services are always offering big discounts in the 25% to 50% range. Once you get on their mailing list they keep you informed of their discount sales. Rarely do you have to pay full price.

Garry McMichael's Mystic Cairns book, inside spread two.

Once I started designing my book, I found I could choose between pre-designed pages or build my own custom pages. The pre-designed pages already have a layout that you simply drag and drop your photography and copy into. You can still make choices on things like type and its style. With custom page design you add the photo boxes and the type boxes where you want and you can move and adjust everything to fit your needs. You can crop and resize the photos as you see fit. I chose the custom design and personally think it was easier to tweak the pages. Warnings pop up whenever you do something wrong such as drop the photo over the copy block or get something too close to the edge of the page or in the gutter. One of the nice things about these programs is it’s easy to move pages around or add blank pages wherever you want. I have never found a web-based program (for websites, blogs, direct mail, online galleries or book design) that didn’t have a few idiosyncrasies. These programs are no different, but once you use them for a while, they become second nature.

Garry McMichael's Mystic Cairns book, inside spread three.

Despite the learning curve I designed my first book in about 20 hours. That does not include thinking time, time writing copy and time taking and prepping the photos. Once I ordered the books, it took eight days for Shutterfly to print them and about four days for shipping. Time can vary according to the extras and the season, but Shutterfly kept me informed. Yes, you can get them quicker, but you will pay for the rush.

Garry McMichael. Building Trust. 2018. Oil on Canvas, 24"x40".

Planning Your Book in Advance

The most important part of creating an art book is the advance planning. Decide what you want to say and what you want to show. Decide the order in which you want to present your art and how you want to show it. You can design the book to show different art styles, or maybe you want to show your art in a chronological order to show how it has changed throughout the years. Making these decisions in advance will save you hours reworking the design.

Start by creating an outline or a “story board”. I like a story board concept using index cards. I can lay the cards out in the order I want the pages to appear. I can experiment with the look of the book just by changing the order. Storyboards don’t need to be fancy; just a few words to jog your memory and perhaps a list of photos for that page.

If you want a successful book, you need good sharp photos, properly exposed and in focus. If you are photographing 2-d art make sure the artwork is centered and square. You can take the photos yourself, even using a smart phone, but don’t get in a hurry, shoot lots of pictures and edit carefully. For an art book, photography is everything. Whether anyone actually reads your book is a guess, but everybody will look at the pictures and judge you by them. Put the necessary time into your photography. If you are not up to the task, find a photo enthusiast friend to help or hire a professional.

Write your copy in advance. It is a lot easier to write your copy in a writing/editing program such as Word or Pages. These programs check both your spelling and grammar. You can write in the book design software, and they check spelling, but editing and or rewriting copy is not as easy. Write it in advance then copy and paste.

Finally read, reread and proofread everything. Ask someone who is good writer to read everything. My wife is an excellent writer, but I can’t tell you the number of times we have argued, sometimes for hours, over whether or not to use a comma in a sentence. Proofreading is the single best thing you can do to improve a book. One more thing; no matter how many times you proofread a manuscript, when the book is printed you will find a typo. My wife and I take delight in seeing who finds it first.

There are a lot of good reasons to create a book about your art. It gives you the opportunity to express your appreciation and love for your art. It is an excellent way to see how your art style grows and changes over a lifetime. A book can be a great sales tool to help you find markets and sell your art. It is the best way in the world to share your art with friends and family. Writing a book will give you a better understanding of why you are an artist. We won’t live forever, and through the generations we will become nothing more than a distant memory or a name in a family genealogy. By writing a book you might create a life that lasts centuries.
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Garry McMichael is a St. Louis-based artist whose drawings, paintings and photographic artworks have been featured in exhibitions and art fairs throughout the region. In addition to his art photography, Garry has been a commercial photographer for decades with works published in national periodicals & publications. Garry presents artist workshops and how-to seminars. He is also a long-time member of Art Saint Louis, Greater St. Louis Art Association, and is past President of Gateway Pastel Artists.