Commercialise your book with Matt Parker

Small group (max 8) Interactive training

10:00 to 14:00 (UK time zone)

If you have made a book or zine using Lightroom's excellent book module and want more affordable copies, this workshop is for you. Many of the topics and techniques may be relevant if you have made books using other software such as Word or Pages and want to turn them into commercial products. Adrian has printed thousands of books using the techniques we will share. Matt has trained professional print buyers in specification and paper choice for many years.

We will be demonstrating specific formats suitable for uploading to Mixam, an affordable publishing business with offices in the UK, US, Canada and Australia. There are a number of steps and choices to make and we will explain their meaning, in order to smooth the way for your first experience. While we will use Mixam for our demonstrations, all the issues raised can be applied to other commercial printers.

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This workshop is aimed at:

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• Artists who have made one or more Blurb books and are looking for a more cost effective route for low volumes e.g. to make copies for friends and family

• Artists who want a cost effective book/zine to support their other activities, e.g. Exhibition, Open Studios, Book Fair

• Artists who want to start selling their work in book/zine form and make a profit

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In this workshop we will cover:

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• How to specify your book for a commercial printer

• The right settings to use when exporting an existing Blurb book

• Key post processing steps before sending to a printer (we will use Mixam)

• Special considerations for Black & White book printing

• Other commercial considerations when making books for profit​

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At the end of the workshop, you will receive a video that you can download and play as many times as you like.

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Matt Parker Bio:

Matt Parker is a photographer and digital artist based in Wiltshire, UK. As well as buying commercial print professionally, he has also been selling online products for many years and understands the commercial issues around publishing your own work.

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Pre-requisites:

• You can simply watch the demonstrations and take part in the discussions or follow along using an example book you have already made.

• If you want to follow along, we suggest you make a small demo Blurb book with a few pages as some of the steps may take time to complete on a large book.