Some moments in an artist’s life deserve to be fixed in a way that a social media post simply cannot achieve. A long tour. Recording an album that took years. The creative process behind a show that defined an era.
A book changes the nature of what it documents: it stops being a memory and becomes a work.
Why a book (and not a photo album or a video)
Social media lives in the present. A story lasts 24 hours; a post survives a few days. A book exists tangibly: it’s held in hands, it can be signed, gifted, sold at the merch table alongside the record.
But the most important difference is emotional. When a fan receives or buys a book, they perceive a level of commitment and professionalism that no digital publication can convey in the same way. And for you, as an artist, it forces you to look back with distance and choose what truly matters.
Two situations where it makes complete sense
The tour
A tour naturally generates material: backstage photos, each venue’s set list, travel anecdotes, technical mishaps, faces in the crowd, conversations with promoters. The problem is that all this material gets scattered across five people’s phones and never gets organised.
A tour book can be many things: a visual diary with brief text, a journalistic chronicle written by someone external, a collection of photographs with minimal captions, or a combination of all three. What matters is that someone decides from the outset which book you want to make and starts gathering material with that goal in mind.
The album recording
The studio is one of the most interesting places an artist can be, and one of the least documented. Listening sessions, arguments over arrangements, moments of creative block, decisions that seem small and end up defining the sound of the record — all of this disappears without trace if nobody captures it.
A recording diary can accompany the album launch as a special edition, as a reward for crowdfunding backers, or simply as a standalone object that documents the creative process as a work in its own right.
What to capture (and when)
The material for a good artist book isn’t collected at the end — it’s collected throughout the process. A few things worth keeping in mind from the start:
- Photographs with editorial intent — not phone snapshots, but images conceived for print. A photographer who joins a week of touring or a studio session is an investment that makes a visible difference.
- Notes written in the moment — brief notes written immediately after a concert or a session. Memory quickly betrays the details that make a story interesting.
- Documents and ephemera — venue tickets, set lists, production notes, lyric sketches. What seems irrelevant is often what surprises readers most.
- Testimonials — collaborating musicians, technicians, producers. A couple of quotes from people who were there add dimension and context.
Format and price
An artist book doesn’t have to be expensive to produce or sell. The most functional formats tend to be:
- A5 or 21×21 cm — comfortable to carry and to read, suited for merch
- 64–128 pages — enough to have substance without feeling heavy
- Softcover or hardcover — hardcover increases cost but significantly improves perceived value
- Short run — 100, 200 or 500 copies. Digital printing makes any print run viable
The typical selling price for an artist publication ranges from €15 to €30, depending on the finish and print run. At this price point, a book is affordable for any fan while still generating real margin.
The small details that make the difference
The gap between a publication that looks professional and one that feels improvised isn’t found in budget — it’s in editorial decisions:
- A considered photographic sequence (not just good photos in chronological order)
- A consistent typographic approach from beginning to end
- A title that is the book’s title, not the album’s title with “the book of” prepended
- Paper suited to the content — a photography book needs different paper than a text diary
- A narrative thread, however minimal: the reader should feel that someone is telling them something
How 112Books can help
At 112Books they work on the conceptualisation and production of printed publications for artists: from defining the format and editorial design through to printing and delivery. They work on short runs (from 100 copies) and in formats that adapt to each project’s budget and objectives.
The coordination of photographs, texts and design can be managed directly by them, or they can work from material the artist already has. Get in touch to explore the possibilities for your project.