Update on my Light at the Edge book project - Or, who NOT to use for book publishing.
Now that my “Light at the Edge” project is pretty much completed, at the beginning of 2025 I decided to start working on a short-run coffee table book featuring some of my favorite images from the series.
My initial goals were the following:
Hardcover
30-40 pages
Square format, somewhere between 10” and 12” in size
Short print run total of around 200 copies
8x8 signed print included with the first 50 copies
Selling price of somewhere around $50-$60 with enough room for a little profit for me after printing, shipping supplies, and shipping to the end customer
After doing a bit of research, it seemed that the biggest hurdles are the square format, small print run, and target selling price. There aren’t many book printing companies that offer square format, and those that do charge a premium.
OptimalPrint
Last year I found OptimalPrint, and used them to print my 2025 calendars. The print quality was good, and the price was fantastic. I joined their “Plus” club during that project. For a $25 annual fee, I get free shipping on all orders, 10% credit back, and deep discounts.
So when I checked out their book capabilities, they ticked off all of my needs. I designed and ordered a single book as a proof, and it arrived in about 10 days. The only small complaint I had was that it stated that it was a 12” x 12” book, but in reality it was really closer to 11” x 11”. But print quality was good, binding was good, and the price was spot-on for the project. So with that, I ordered a short print run of 25 books and then got started on purchasing shipping materials/labels, setting up the ordering page on my website, and printing the 50 prints that would be signed and included with the first 50 book copies. I only ordered 25 books initially to start just to gauge interest once the website was turned on, and after that I could decide on the size of the next order.
The first order of books arrived, and once I opened the box I found the shoddy packing job that OptimalPrint did. They used a thin, single layer bubble wrap around a set of 5 books each, so that there were 5 bundles of 5 books in an oversized box with no other protection. All of the books had corner damage, and then when I opened them to review, they all had spine binding issues where the pages were falling out. This wasn’t good.
I contacted them immediately via email to express my concerns, and to their credit they did get back to me the same day stating that they were sorry for the issues and that they would print another run free of charge, and that the binding and packing issues would be corrected with the new shipment.
The replacement order arrived about a week later, and when I saw the box sitting on my doorstep when I arrived home from work I knew things weren’t good. The box looked like it had been handled by Jim Carey’s UPS guy from Pet Detective - ie, drop-kicked and dented. It had been taped back together in several places. When I opened the box I saw that they had used the same exact packing method as before, and all of the books were damaged.
At this point I was just done with OptimalPrint. I asked for a full refund and received it in a few days. It remains to be seen if I will use them again for my calendars later this year. Maybe they are good if you are just printing one book for yourself or your family, but if you need to print more than one book - avoid them at all costs. As it is I now have a pile of 51 books, 50 of which are damaged and unsellable, and I guess I have one nice copy for my coffee table at home. So I got that going for me.
Zno Print Lab
A friend of mine recommended Zno Print Lab to me to try out after my OptimalPrint debacle. Zno appeared to be well-regarded by a lot of photography professionals, with many wedding photographers using them for albums, books, photo prints, and canvas prints. When I decided to sign up with Zno for their professional services, they asked for my website address to verify I was a “pro” or working photographer. After I passed their test I was in and ready to order!
Unfortunately they were more expensive than OptimalPrint, but I had a high level of confidence that the quality would be better. I had to adjust my expectations down to a 10” x 10” softcover “Press Photo Book” that came in slightly over my targeted cost, but if the quality was there I was going to be OK with that. This is what the website says about the product.
Sounds pretty good, right?
So I used their online book design program to lay out a book, and placed an order for one as a proof. The book shipped after about 10 days and arrived at my house in a very robust box, so my concerns about packing issues with this new vendor were immediately alleviated.
Once I opened the box, however, it became a different story. The book cover was very curled, and was actually thinner than the pages inside of it. I’ve only seen paper curl this bad at the end of a roll or if it was exposed to high humidity. What I received looked NOTHING like what they show or promote on their website. On top of that, the printed images inside had white dots all over them that appeared to come from the ink popping off.
This was completely unacceptable.
I can’t imagine any wedding photographer sending something like this to a client. I took images and sent them an email regarding my concerns, and what I got back was the following reply:
That automated response told me that a human didn’t actually read my email, or if it was a human they didn’t care. I didn’t send any video, and there was no mention from them about the ink that popped off leaving white dots everywhere. And they basically victim-blamed me for ordering a crappy cover, which was NOTHING like it is said to be on their website. I responded back to them stating that they didn’t even address the ink issue and that the cover didn’t live up to their website description, and this is what I got back.
I told them to just refund my money as I’ve lost confidence in them being able to supply a quality product, and am still waiting for the refund to show up on my credit card.
In the meanwhile, I am on the hunt for another printer for my book. At this rate I hope to have SOMETHING before the end of the year, but who knows?
Thanks for reading, and stay away from OptimalPrint and Zno.
Jeremy