In 2013, I published a photo album with Lulu. Ten years later the pictures are still sharp and their colours are still fresh.
The problems with such a format are:
1) no ISBN, the book had to remain private
2) a limited number of pages
3) placing a picture in the right position of its frame required some skill
4) no possibility to add a collophon and a foreword
5) on the shelf, it requires to be placed apart from the novels
4) it was expensive
In March 2021, I published a soft-cover, 6-by-9", 128-page (123-picture) colour book on white paper with Lulu.
This format offers several advantages:
1) It has an ISBN, and is globally distributable
2) the possible number of pages is fairly large
3) the quality of the pictures is very close to that in the album, and a year later after printing, it is still the same
4) I could give the pages the background colour of my choice
5) I could start it with the usual collophon followed by a foreword
6) the book easily shelves among novels
7) the price was quite reasonable