The rules
When is Solo Photo Book Month?
SoFoBoMo uses a "fuzzy month". You pick a 31 day period that starts no earlier than May 1, 2009, and ends no later than June 30, 2009. In other words, if you start on May 1, your month ends on June 1. If you start on May 15, your month ends on June 15.
Why not have everybody start on the same day?
Having everyone do it exactly at the same time would be nice, because it would allow for maximum sense of camaraderie, but everyone has different schedules and this fuzzy month plan provides some flexibility.
How many photos do I need for the book?
At least 35 - large enough that it can't be flung together from a single afternoon's photography, short enough to be doable. I understand that for some folks 35 is big number. For the folks who have been running photo-a-day photoblogs, it's child's play. 35 is a reasonable compromise. It's the number of photos in the book The Gift of the Commonplace, a book of photographs by Ruth Bernhard. If it's long enough for Ruth Bernhard, it's long enough for us. Of course, you can have more that 35 photos if you like.
Can I include photos I've already taken prior to the start of my 31 days?
No. All photography, editing, graphic design, copy writing and layout must be done during the month.
Can I use ideas or plans I had ahead of time?
Yes. In fact, planning ahead is highly recommended. Figure out what you're going to shoot, get hold of equipment or software you plan to use, and learn the skills to put together whatever book-like thing is the final result. Just make sure that you take the photos and write the text in that one month.
What qualifies as a completed photo book?
The goal is a nicely formatted PDF with the photos in it, which can be made available on sofobomo.org. That means the book might range from just a PDF assembled with the automated PDF merge in Photoshop all the way to a Quark Express or Adobe InDesign document ready to send off to the print-on-demand publisher.
So I don't need to actually finish with a printed copy of the book?
Nope. A PDF file will do.
How do I sign up?
Go to the registration page to pledge to take part.
How do I prove that I completed my book in the 31 days?
When you finish your book you can upload a PDF to the sofobomo.org site.
That's it? Won't that make it easy to cheat?
Yes, it will. This is like playing solitaire - the satisfaction is almost entirely in winning, and if you cheat, you only cheat yourself.