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Publishing an Astrophotography Book

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Mupanga MwanakatweJohn Hudson
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Mupanga Mwanakatwe avatar
Mupanga Mwanakatwe avatar
Greetings.
I am a very keen amateur astrophotographer living in Zambia, Southern Africa.

Our skies are relatively pristine, especially in the remote rural areas, so I am truly privileged in this regard.

I have been taking various Astrophotography images over the past three years and feature some of these on Astrobin.

I would very much like to publish a book of my astrophotos sometime in the near future.

I am looking to do a large-format coffee-table type book, that will feature my high-quality astrophotos as well as explanatory text.

I am seeking advise as to how I can find and engage a suitable publisher who can work with me and help me realize my dream in a cost-effective and efficient manner.

I would like the book to serve as an inspiration to would-be astronomers in Zambia and Africa in general, so they the are encouraged to enter into this fascinating hobby and help to protect our beautiful African skies.

I thank anyone able to assist and guide me in advance.

Best regards and clear skies!!

Mupanga Mwanakatwe
Lusaka, Zambia
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John Hayes avatar
John Hayes avatar
You are likely to struggle to get a publisher interested.  You might start by producing your own book.  There are a lot of self publishing sites on the web where you can produce your own coffee table book.  Here's one such company:  https://www.shutterfly.com/photo-books/.  My wife has used one of these services and the image quality was outstanding.  Look around.  There are a number of companies that you can use.


John
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Oscar avatar
Oscar avatar
I heard good things about Blurb BookWright

I wanted to use that website to make my own photo book in the future (for my own use)

idk about publishing though
Olaf Fritsche avatar
Olaf Fritsche avatar
Hello, 
I am not familiar with the African book market, but I have published around a dozen non-fiction books in Germany with major publishers. However, no illustrated book was among them. Maybe my experience will help you anyway. 

The usual procedure is as follows: 
1. you have to look for publishers yourself who have similar books in their program. No publisher for travel books, for example, will be interested in a book with astrophotos. 
2. you write a synopsis. This contains: 
a) A pitch of one to three sentences about what your book is about. 
b) A brief introduction to your book (maximum half a page). 
c) A table of contents.
d) An assessment of the target group (who will buy your book).
e) A few sample photos and texts. 
3) Send the synopsis to the publishers and wait. 

Unfortunately, the chances of a publisher wanting to publish your book are slim. Publishers are commercial enterprises and only publish books that they think will sell well. This is rarely the case with astro books. It is mainly US publishers who venture into such exotic topics as astrophotography because English-language books sell worldwide. 
Then there is the question of quality. Don't be angry with me, but your photos at Astrobin are rather average. If a publisher wants to make a book with outstanding astrophotos, it would be easier for them to select and print a series of Hubble photos.

I know these are not encouraging assessments. Perhaps it would be more promising if you played the regional card: 
- Magazines and websites that are published in Africa might be interested in your photos because you are from Africa. 
- Tourism companies could use your photos to advertise your clear night sky. 
- An instruction book on how to take your own astrophotos in an African language would certainly be another niche market. 

I'll keep my fingers crossed that you succeed in one way or another!

Clear skies
Olaf
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Mupanga Mwanakatwe avatar
Mupanga Mwanakatwe avatar
Thanks for all who have responded, thus far.

I think that I was unclear in my initial post.

I am not looking for a commercial/professional book publisher.

To begin with, my astrophotos are far below the necessary (Hubble) quality worthy of publication by a commercial printer.

Secondly, the market is very finite in Africa and the book would invariably be a commercial flop.

Rather, I am looking to self-publish and do a very small print run (say 100x) and then sell the books myself. 

I am therefore looking for a company that can assist me with the design and layout of the book, and thereafter do a small print run, which I would pay for in full.

I have a basic knowledge of Word but don’t think that this is good enough for me to self-design the book layout. 😅

Apologies for the misunderstanding, and I look forward to further advise and guidance.

Regards,
Mupanga Mwanakatwe
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Carastro avatar
Carastro avatar
I did my own artwork for my own book.  I used a software called Serif.  I think some of the more up to date versions of Word might work, but I only have an outdated version.

Microsoft Publisher might also work.  

Doing your own artwork will save you a fair amount of money.
David Moore avatar
David Moore avatar
I self published a Blurb book of storm photos.  However it would have been too expensive for anyone to consider buying, costing far more than typical coffee table books.
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Tom Boyd avatar
Tom Boyd avatar
I heard good things about Blurb BookWright

I wanted to use that website to make my own photo book in the future (for my own use)

idk about publishing though

I’ve used them and would recommend. You download a word-like application to create your book and then transmit it back to Blurb for publication. Application is very flexible and easy to use. I’ve been really pleased with the results.
Gilmour Dickson avatar
Gilmour Dickson avatar
David Moore:
I self published a Blurb book of storm photos.  However it would have been too expensive for anyone to consider buying, costing far more than typical coffee table books.

I do a book every season for our small safari lodge (Mupanga and I are the only astro photographers doing deep space in Zambia. Okay, there is another guy with a seestar).  

I use Blurb as it is integrated into Lightroom, but of course you can download their own "bookwright" software.  The quality of their products is very high.  I constantly get guests asking if they can buy a copy, but as you point out, the costs are high.  But you can keep costs down with small format ones.  

Overall I have found Blurb to be really good.  And once it is with them re-prints can be ordered, which I am going to have to do at some point as the earlies ones (I started in 2015) are looking a bit ragged.  And last year my motivation levels dipped and I haven't completed it yet.  I will though!
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Liam Jones avatar
Liam Jones avatar
Mupanga Mwanakatwe:
Thanks for all who have responded, thus far.

I think that I was unclear in my initial post.

I am not looking for a commercial/professional book publisher.

To begin with, my astrophotos are far below the necessary (Hubble) quality worthy of publication by a commercial printer.

Secondly, the market is very finite in Africa and the book would invariably be a commercial flop.

Rather, I am looking to self-publish and do a very small print run (say 100x) and then sell the books myself. 

I am therefore looking for a company that can assist me with the design and layout of the book, and thereafter do a small print run, which I would pay for in full.

I have a basic knowledge of Word but don’t think that this is good enough for me to self-design the book layout. 😅

Apologies for the misunderstanding, and I look forward to further advise and guidance.

At university, I had to research African culture and daily life. I went through all the websites and books in the library. I also used various discussion platforms like https://essays.edubirdie.com/essay-editing-service to broaden my knowledge. Now, I can confidently say that there isn't much literature on this topic, especially about the skies in Africa.

Regards,
Mupanga Mwanakatwe

While the quality of the astrophotos is a factor, the unique African perspective can be a significant selling point. They can create a more authentic and engaging narrative by highlighting their local knowledge, cultural insights, and personal experiences related to astrophotography in Africa. This can differentiate their work from generic astrophotography books and appeal to a wider audience interested in African culture and science.
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bengii avatar
bengii avatar
Liam Jones:
Mupanga Mwanakatwe:
Thanks for all who have responded, thus far.

I think that I was unclear in my initial post.

I am not looking for a commercial/professional book publisher.

To begin with, my astrophotos are far below the necessary (Hubble) quality worthy of publication by a commercial printer.

Secondly, the market is very finite in Africa and the book would invariably be a commercial flop.

Rather, I am looking to self-publish and do a very small print run (say 100x) and then sell the books myself. 

I am therefore looking for a company that can assist me with the design and layout of the book, and thereafter do a small print run, which I would pay for in full.

I have a basic knowledge of Word but don’t think that this is good enough for me to self-design the book layout. 😅

Apologies for the misunderstanding, and I look forward to further advise and guidance.

At university, I had to research African culture and daily life. I went through all the websites and books in the library. I also used various discussion platforms like https://essays.edubirdie.com/essay-editing-service to broaden my knowledge. Now, I can confidently say that there isn't much literature on this topic, especially about the skies in Africa.

Regards,
Mupanga Mwanakatwe

While the quality of the astrophotos is a factor, the unique African perspective can be a significant selling point. They can create a more authentic and engaging narrative by highlighting their local knowledge, cultural insights, and personal experiences related to astrophotography in Africa. This can differentiate their work from generic astrophotography books and appeal to a wider audience interested in African culture and science.

This is an excellent point - the unique perspective. A much lower cost to try the market AND sharpen your message - perhaps consider creating a website where you offer a selection of your images for licensing - there will be a large number of firms who wish to use genuinely sourced and tracable information and research when they are publishing their work. Setting up a portfolio website with a shopping cart is a LOT easier than publishing (my own book is out end of Oct 2024). You can then use very targetted ads on facebook/ google etc to spread your message and educate people about your journey - perhaps even turn it into a 'diary' type site which features how you have learned and grown over time? There are also stock photo sites like Freepik.com where you get paid everytime someone downloads your images for their own use. Keep going and travel well 🙏
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Andre van der Hoeven avatar
Andre van der Hoeven avatar
Nice to hear your idea! I did more or less the same in 2015 (look here to see the result: https://www.astro-photo.nl). At first I thought about a publisher also, but that didn't work out. There is just not too much interest. So I decided to self-publish. 
What I basically did is the following:

1) Talk to a local print company and discussed with them details like colours, printing ideas and got a cost estimate.
2) Start a crowdfunding campaign to get my book sold before going into printing at high costs. I succeeded in funding printing 1000 books without risking getting into debts because of this.
3) When the printing was funded I send all the books to my backers and too some sites like space.com and universetoday that published reviews. 

In the end I sold about 900 of the 1000 books and now I sell every once in a while some of the last stock when I give a lecture or through web orders.

I would really advice to consider crowdfunding to see if you can get enough people interested.

I used adobe indesign to do the book layout. Nice thing is it generates files that go straight to the printing company.

Good luck! It's really a nice project to start...
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John Hayes avatar
John Hayes avatar
Andre van der Hoeven:
Nice to hear your idea! I did more or less the same in 2015 (look here to see the result: https://www.astro-photo.nl). At first I thought about a publisher also, but that didn't work out. There is just not too much interest. So I decided to self-publish. 
What I basically did is the following:

1) Talk to a local print company and discussed with them details like colours, printing ideas and got a cost estimate.
2) Start a crowdfunding campaign to get my book sold before going into printing at high costs. I succeeded in funding printing 1000 books without risking getting into debts because of this.
3) When the printing was funded I send all the books to my backers and too some sites like space.com and universetoday that published reviews. 

In the end I sold about 900 of the 1000 books and now I sell every once in a while some of the last stock when I give a lecture or through web orders.

I would really advice to consider crowdfunding to see if you can get enough people interested.

I used adobe indesign to do the book layout. Nice thing is it generates files that go straight to the printing company.

Good luck! It's really a nice project to start...

Your book looks very nice Andre!

John
Jason Livingston avatar
Jason Livingston avatar
Have you looked into Amazon publishing?  This is where I'll be publishing my astrophotos.

Unfortunately, they don't have coffee table sized books available but on the other hand it won't cost you anything in inventory.  My wife has a couple children's books published on Amazon and you can order author's versions at a discount.  It may not be the best quality, but it's an inexpensive start.  You can always pull the book if you find a publisher.
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Steven Fanutti avatar
Steven Fanutti avatar
There are some options if you want produce a book for yourself only. One is to develop your images in large format such as 8x12 and store them in plastic sleeves in a photo album. Photo prints today when properly stored can last for decades and will outlast your technological devices. This is exactly what I have done, in addition to developing photos in 4x6 and 5x7 formats. It is quite expensive if you are developing many photos, but we'll worth it in my opinion. Some photo developers have the option to develop your photos into photo books. I don't know anything about publishing though.

A comment about another user calling your photos "average". The value of an image is much greater than aesthetics. Aesthetics is fine, it's eye catching, but long exposure images are not good ambassadors of visual astronomy. Have your shown someone a deep sky object in a telescope and have to explain to them WHY it doesn't look as bright, colourful and glorious as in images? I'm not criticising deep sky images, but whenever I see long exposure images on AstroBin, my first thought is "Looks good, but I don't see that." Great for the web and books, but I don't find those images relatable, meaning that I cannot connect the image with real experiences. I have decades of observing experience with various instruments and I can truly say that.

The point of what I mentioned above is to know your audience. There are LOTS of deep sky images on this site alone and the web as a whole. They are common and normal now. This is also increasingly true for solar Hydrogen-alpha images. Ask yourself this question. Knowing this, would you buy your own book? In my judgment, there are just so many images out there and I wouldn't buy a book just for the pictures unless it's from an exceptional source such as the Hubble Space Telescope or James Webb Telescope. But would I buy a book with yet another image of the Orion Nebula or Whirlpool Galaxy taken by an amateur astronomer? Probably not. However, if you get it published and find a market for it, then go for it!

A final thought. Maybe give LibreOffice Draw a try instead of Word. I have used LibreOffice to create my own star charts. You have nothing to lose, it's a free download and if it isn't up to the task, no harm done.

Just my opinion,
Steven
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GiffS avatar
GiffS avatar
I am interested in doing book for my grandkids so I appreciate all the advice in this thread. Never heard of Blurb before, I will check them out. My vision is an image and on the opposite page or underneath a description of the target, acquisition information and some personal thoughts. 

What I really am looking for is a layout that I can work with to build content over time so when I am ready I can do final edits and send it to a the printing company.
John Hudson avatar
John Hudson avatar
I'm doing one using Blurb.
Jim Case avatar
Jim Case avatar
My wife, who is a photographer,  has asked me to make a non-commercial coffee table size book of my Astro photos each year for the past 4 years  as a holiday gift to me. One year she also ordered copies for my two sons.  I have used the composition tools in Shutterfly, mentioned above, and have been happy with the tools, printing and customer service.  It probably would not work if you are seeking a commercial publisher with a small printing run, but for just a copy or two of the printed version it was well done. I have made a PDF of the final I can distribute to friends, and it also works well. Focussing on the cultural dimensions in your publication is a fascinating idea, and I encourage you to pursue your project!
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John Hudson avatar
John Hudson avatar
This is what I made, if anyone is curious  

https://www.blurb.com/b/12480843-a-year-of-the-sky#
GiffS avatar
GiffS avatar
John Hudson:
This is what I made, if anyone is curious  

https://www.blurb.com/b/12480843-a-year-of-the-sky#

That’s really nicely done! Congrats. It gives me some good layout ideas and for that I thank you for sharing your work.
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Jim Case avatar
Jim Case avatar
John Hudson avatar
John Hudson avatar
John Hudson:
This is what I made, if anyone is curious  

https://www.blurb.com/b/12480843-a-year-of-the-sky#

That’s really nicely done! Congrats. It gives me some good layout ideas and for that I thank you for sharing your work.

thanks!!
Sam Badcock avatar
Sam Badcock avatar
Just adding my 2 cents worth

Awesome idea Mupunga and I really wish you the best because as you said this is a fascinating hobby and can be very rewarding as much as it is challenging!!

Just a suggestion, have you considered displaying your work at community events maybe not for profit but purely to get this hobby in front of more people??

Where I am in New Zealand we call them trade schools/polytechnics and you can study a wide range of things that are at levels between high school and university!! I’m not sure what an equivalent is in Zambia but could you approach something similar where they have something like a career day?? Again you may not sell anything BUT you may just be the reason a young kid either joins this hobby or goes on to higher education and becomes an astronomer …….. this would fulfill the “would be astronomer” and “protect our skies” points you made!!

Not many …. If any people are that interested in the sky these days!! I not only post my Astro images, comet and asteroid observations on my Snapchat story for my friends and people who know/know of me to see but also general information regarding things happening up there!! For me personally, if one person is genuinely interested or fascinated by the things I share on my Snapchat story’s then I’m happy!! 

Slightly off topic in the last paragraph but I do wish you the best in what you do regarding this mate …… bloody awesome idea
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Mupanga Mwanakatwe avatar
Mupanga Mwanakatwe avatar
Good evening Sam,
I trust that you are well out the in New Zealand.
Thanks very much for your most thought-provoking and encouraging message.

Sadly, I too have come to the conclusion that there is a very small and finite market for astrophotos in general, and even more so in Zambia 😩.

i still continue to labour with the book project as I take images to prominent southern hemisphere targets. I hope to have a good representation by the end of next year.

As fate would have it, I have already followed your advise in reaching out to young minds.

A month ago, I made a long presentation on Astrophotography to a top A-level STEM college in Lusaka, and it was well received by the students and staff. Hopefully the seed planted will germinate in a few of the neascent astronomers!! I hope to do further outreach.
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