On Demand publishing

In a quandary about the best way to go about producing this book. There are so may things that can go wrong between scanning a negative and holding the book in your hands. My issue with on-line publishing is the lack of control and the lack of physicality to the process. But with self-publishing I'm not sure of the best way to actually get the photos on the paper- I worry about precise registration. Conscientious has a good collection of experiences about these issues to learn from.