Does My Book Have Too Many Photos?

Maryn said:

I suppose it's a matter of personal taste, but for me, that's too many pictures. The ratio of image to text means I can't get into any flow of reading because I'm being interrupted after--literally--one or two sentences by a photograph showing exactly what was in the sentences.

My recommendation might be to scale back the number of photographs, and to be selective, making sure they don't show what you just said. Choose those which add to and supplement the text.

Maryn, repeating that this is just one person's opinion

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Make that two people's opinion. One of the major points that gets made in many university communications courses is that visual aids should be a supplement to the presentation of information, whether verbal or textual. They shouldn't rehash what has already been expressed.

You can reduce your file size of your photos a lot by going to black and white (does the Kindle display colour yet? I'm not current with where the technology is at.) That, of course will decrease the charm of a lot of the photos, but maybe there are some where it wouldn't hurt much?

Honestly, the ratio in this makes it feel less like a book than an annotated photo album of your trip. There doesn't seem to be a narrative (it's a short excerpt, so maybe I'm missing something), or anything but 'here's a pic of the moon, here's a pic of my wife in a cap looking like Bernie Madoff, lookit these caterpillars...'

To me, and again, I'm only seeing this excerpt, and some people may like the format, I dunno, it's like some people's photos, as if a coworker handed me their phone over lunch and was narrating as I flipped through. So, er, yes, I think it's too many pics and I don't think they're likely an important part of the story, but I'm not sure what the story actually is.

PianoAl said:

My problem is that with all the photos, the book is too large for the 50 Meg Kindle size limit. So I have three choices:

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Get an outside opinion on what photos are actually interesting. With photos in particular, it's hard for the photographer to prune the number. You are personally attached to each one, even though a reader might say, 'screw the photos and get on with the story'.

400 pixels wide will actually reproduce fairly well. Try 600, 500, 400 to see where you come under the 50 meg limit. Night or dusk photos can tolerate reduction in size better than daytime ones. If they're in color, consider making some of them B&W.

I'm going to have to go with the those that are saying it is too many photos. It really depends on your audience though. As has been pointed out, there is no narrative here - although it is a really short excerpt, so I'm maybe not seeing the whole picture. If this is the style of your book all the way through, then it seems to me that you're basically publishing what you would normally have shown in a slideshow of your vacation, which means this is meant more for friends and family rather than finding a wider audience. If that is the case, then the more photos and inside jokes the better! It seems like others have given you good advice on what you can do to make the file size smaller.

I also just want to mention that I would be really careful about publishing that photo of Madoff unless you took the photo yourself, have permission from the photographer to use it or took it from somewhere that gives express permission to use the photo for whatever means you wish to use it for. (It's highly unlikely to be an issue, but I'm usually firmly in the better-safe-than-possibly-sued camp.)

Far too many pictures, in my opinion. I completely agree with Maryn's comment above about the ratio of image to text.

Just my perspective!

Too many pictures, and, I think, too many pictures that simply aren't needed, and add nothing to the book.

PianoAl said:

Thanks guys -- great advice!

I've stripped out most of the photos -- I set a limit of 1-2 per chapter. It's much better this way. I tell the readers that there are photos on my blog if they want to see them.

JA, thanks for the digital rights advice. I'd considered that, and was on the fence, but then decided that the Bernie Madoff thing wasn't that funny anyway, and I scrapped it.

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One or two pictures per chapter sounds like a nice balance.