To celebrate the launch of FotoMarket, the first ever crowdfunded photobook store, we got in touch with some of the best photobook publishers throughout the world and asked them a few questions about the photobook industry, their approach to photobook making, and what photographers should consider when looking to make a photobook. Sign up to our newsletter to be sure you don’t miss any of the interviews in the Publisher’s Insight series.
Today the Publisher’s Insight spotlight is on Gordon MacDonald, co-founder with Stuart Smith of London based publisher GOST (follow this link to read all the interviews we’ve released so far in this series).
Hello Gordon, thank you for this interview. How would you define the photobook as a medium?
Photobooks have come to be the dominant physical output for photographers, and probably more important than the exhibition space to many. They are far-reaching and the form is malleable enough to work with almost any mode. Books have become a central part of the initial conceptualization of a project for many photographers.
What qualities should a photographic project have to pique GOST‘s interest in making a photobook out of it?
We should be able to imagine the project as a photobook for it to work for our imprint. Sometimes we turn away projects that go on to become successful photobooks, so we are not always right. But if we cannot imagine it as a photobook, we cannot work with the project, no matter how good.
Can you describe GOST’s approach to photobook making?
We work collaboratively with the photographer/artist to bring our skills and experience to their project. GOST is made up of an editor and a designer, with many people bringing the other skills necessary to produce, market and distribute a book. We work as a team of 3 initially (artist, editor and designer) and all have an opinion on each element. We work this way to ensure that everyone is happy with every aspect of the project before we go to press.
What advice would you give a photographer looking to make a photobook?
If you need advice, then it is probably your first book – the learning curve is quite steep. If it is your first book, be open to other people’s opinions and accept others’ skills as an asset to your project. Don’t consider it a moneymaking proposition, and be prepared to market and push forward with the book as a career step. The career step will do you more good in the long run and will repay you if you get it right.
What are the most recent books in your catalogue, and what upcoming titles we can look forward to?
We have recently published The Prospect of Immortality by Murray Ballard and just released Swamp by Chloe Sells. These are both first books for the artists, so have been extremely exciting to work on. Both have their particular feel and style, but both are completely different. This is also what we define GOST through – strategic inconsistency.
Can you share any figures about how many copies GOST sells per book on average, and which sales channels have proven more successful for GOST?
1,000 to 2,000. We sell through international distribution. For us, it is important that they sell well, but for the photographer it is most important that they get in the right hands. You could sell or give one copy and change an artist’s career…
Photobooks are often costly to produce and scarcely profitable. Is this the case for GOST, and if so, what financial strategies do you use?
We create a different financial strategy in consultation with the artist. Some artists are with galleries, some not. Some have institutional backing, some not. Some are willing to make applications for prizes and funds, some not. So it is really different each time. We have to guard ourselves financially of course, but our main aim is not to loose money – making money comes a distant second.
What other limitations or flaws do you find in the photobook market? What do you think the industry needs to grow?
The photobook market can be very insular and appeal to the same crowd time after time. I like photobooks that are both interesting as photography and as subjects: this way you bring people from outside of photography to a book and to photography. The interest outside of the current photobook market needs to grow even to sustain current production, as everyone seems to want to be a publisher nowadays.
Does GOST accept submissions? What should photographers do to reach out?
We do accept submissions. No dummies, as they tend to limit our imaginations. Just jpegs and a statement to info@gostbooks.com.
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