White Glove Photo Books with Photo Book Press

As I did research for my post on photo book publishers, I came across the Web site of Photo Book Press, a photo book publishing house based in Minneapolis. What caught my interest about Photo Book Press is the system they have developed for creating photo books.

Whereas most photo book publishers assume you're starting with a bunch of digital photos you'd like to lay out in a book, Photo Book Press takes a different strategy. If you've got stacks of printed photos and other memorabilia that you'd like to leverage to create your memory book PBP has a novel solution. Their Getting Started guide walks you through picking out the top 200 items you'd like to include in your book. After you finish culling your collection, PBP will send scanning technicians to your home to scan your images/items on-site. Although this convenience and safety comes at a premium, it is a great option if you have heirloom photos you're really not crazy about sending off-site for digitizing.

It gets better. In the next step, PBP sends you a workbook containing all your scanned images. This workbook serves as a journal of sorts - the workbook has space next to each photo for you to jot a caption, description, poem, or quote. You then return your workbook to PBP, where professional designers lay out your book and written material.

After you approve the final design, you'll choose your cover and binding. PBP then prints the books according to your specifications.

Of course, all this hand-holding doesn't come cheap. Based on a comparison chart published on Photo Book Press' Web site, you can plan on spending around $1500 for five books.

It is not clear if PBP offers their services outside of the Twin Cities - a request for additional information went unanswered. Nevertheless, I like their model and feel that PBP fills a niche for those who either can't or won't be bothered with the technical details of scanning and laying out a photo book. Let me know if you find this model compelling or overpriced...