How to Self Publish a Photo Book Calendar

iPhoto is the way to create an awesome Photo Calendar. Self-Publishing is the next step.

Why pay someone to publish your work for you? You created it, you can PUBLISH it too! Here are some easy steps to take and you will see all the PROFITS as well.

Things You'll Need

• Digital Camera
• Macintosh computer
• iPhoto (iLife Suite)
• Internet connection

Instructions

1. Pick a theme and take lots of pictures. Dog photos, sunsets or pics from your favorite sport.
   Upload to your Mac with iPhoto from the iLife suite of applications.

2. 

   Click on calendar and get to work using one of the many templates available. Assemble and arrange photos into the proper months. You can make a 12 month calendar or longer if you like. For self-publishing, 12 months is fine.

3. Once you are happy with the calendar you can make into a PDF file to send to an online printer. Go to file, print, pdf and put onto desktop ready for uploading to a vendor of your choice. Many are available.

4. 

   One self-publishing site is DigitalRoom.com. They upload PDF, Photoshop and Illustrator files and offer quotes and proofs before ordering. They have a 250 minimum on up and do nice work with a number of products beside calendars.

Tips & Warnings

• You can make one copy using Apple's ordering process right inside iPhoto to give you an idea of how it will all look.

• If you sell them yourself you can determine mark-up and keep all the profits yourself.

• If you know your market, this could be a money maker!

• The calendar sales market is tough. If you have a place to sell for yourself, great, otherwise finding an agent may be the way to go.

• You will have to put out the cash upfront to print the calendars, which could be cost prohibitive.

• More and more people try self-publishing because they can. It's a cruel and competitive world out there! Good luck!

Resources

• Anne Z on the Web