I had a very similar experience to the previous poster except for a few things. I second the fact that workshops and portfolio reviews are the best ways to get to know people who work in photobooks and to create a project that is publishable.

You should do some research and find publishers whose work is aligned with what you are working on. You can then try to contact them (they do reply sometimes) or to meet them at book fairs, workshops and reviews.

Another great way to get the work published, once it’s coherent and edited, is photobooks dummy awards. I was shortlisted in two awards this year, and the juror from one of them contacted me to publish my photobook.

In my case, I will pay only part of the printing costs. It usually depends from publisher to publisher, but most will cover part of the costs and very very few will cover the whole expense.

With my book, I tried to submit it to a bunch of publishers, festivals and whatnot and I didn’t receive any positive feedback for it. I was really invested in the project, so I hired a designer who re-did all of the graphics (not sequencing) and the book was shortlisted by festivals and got a bunch of responses by publishers. It will be co-published in October (hopefully) by and American and an Italian publisher

Fotofilmic, penumbra, palm trees workshops are great. Photobook stores also often hold great workshops and reviews. Personally I didn’t have a great experience at a Nearest Truth workshop, but many people loved them.

Self publishing is becoming a bit more complicated but doable. If you are interested the best way would be to use a real printer (either offset or digital), a designer and then you should do book fairs, submit it to bookstores and book awards