Self Publishing
My first entry is a review from my own experience about the various offerings for those that want to self publish. I should have done this awhile ago but now that we have a real project it may be helpful to the FB group to know at least one person's experience with several platforms.
BLURB is the proverbial 600 lb gorilla for self publishing. They have all the bells and whistles when it comes to creating your book. That has to be offset by the fact that this comes at a cost. It all depends on what your plans will be for this book. For a group project like this one paying $100 for your copy may not be a big deal. They frequently have 20-30% discounts available. I have some projects that I sell to the general public and need to have the lowest cost possible without sacrificing quality. One of my projects Prairie Madness had a goal of donating 2/3 of the profits to non profit organizations and because of that I needed to keep cost down. This is how I learned about other outlets.
You can create a BLURB project on software they provide- this option gives the user many different layout but it is not endless. Various publishing software platforms like Adobe InDesign can be used. Other platforms like Affinity Publisher work as well and are less expensive with a not so steep learning curve. Use of design software gives you the most freedom in terms of photo and text placement.
Blurb offers a portal to get your book into sales so if that's of prime concern you can do that easily. ISBN numbers are also available.
MAGCLOUD is a much less expensive alternative to blurb. Little known secret is that their product is printed by the same folks that do Blurb. The downside is that you can't order a hard back version of your book. They only offer soft bound alternatives. They also offer significant discount to the author so you can get proof versions without breaking the bank. This is not possible with Blurb. They accept PDFs that you upload to get the process started.
LULU is another lower cost option . They do offer hard bound books. Their quality is good - depends on the options you select. So for most projects you need to select the premium color even if some of the photos are BW. Lulu also has some options for selling your product.
Barnes and Noble Press. High quality printing with tools to get your book into the hands of 3rd party sellers. Their price point for books is better than Blurb.
MIXAM is another publisher that does a nice job. I stumbled upon then when I entered the world of 'Zines - short for magazines. This is a whole different world for people who are doing down and dirty small volume, small size publishing. They offer many options in terms of size, binding, etc. Their website is not the easiest to navigate as you start the process of uploading and paying for a book(s).
The bottom line is that one will need to look at each one and decide for youselves the pros and cons of each publisher. Other than Blurb the rest require that you make your design on software that you own. If you find that you will or have been doing this for other projects then having this software is must.
ISBN - ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number. It's a unique 10 or 13 digit number assigned to books and other publications. ISBNs help identify a book's edition, publisher, and physical properties. Many of the publishers offer a free ISBN though sometimes it lists the platform as the publisher and you as the author. If you want an ISBN listing you as both publisher and author you may need to pay for your own unique ISBN.