Now anybody with a home computer can produce a professional,
high-quality, hardbound book with a full-color dust jacket for less
than $30, thanks to Blurb.com’s revolutionary online book-design software.
by John A. Parks
Now anybody with a home computer can produce a professional,
high-quality, hardbound book with a full-color dust jacket for less
than $30, thanks to Blurb.com’s
revolutionary online book-design software. “This truly is an empowering
service,” says Bob Barancik, a painter and veteran graphic designer who
has already made several books using Blurb. “It allows artists the
opportunity to make a catalogue or book that looks as good as a
publication from the best galleries or art publishers. It’s a wonderful
and revolutionary promotional tool.
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Examples of the various subjects and styles
Blurb.com users chose in designing their own books. |
A Blurb book comes in an 8"-x-10" size with high-quality paper and a
nicely bound spine. It is indistinguishable from a mass-printed volume,
and its color quality is first-rate. The online interface is fairly
easy to use and will not present problems to anyone who has worked with
consumer-level software. Blurb.com offers a selection of templates and
design styles that allow the user to focus on the content, while the
website’s software takes care of the basic design issues. More
adventurous users are able to customize features for more distinct
looks. Although choices of typeface and book size are currently
limited, the company plans to broaden its offerings in the future to
include several new book sizes, which will be available early in 2007.
According to Eileen Gittins, the
founder and CEO of Blurb.com, making a 150-page book shouldn’t involve
a huge time investment. “Art books are usually 90 percent image
content, with perhaps a text introduction and captions,” she says. “If
page layouts are individually selected and images dragged and dropped
in, it shouldn’t take longer than five to six hours to complete.”
Gittins notes that Blurb.com also offers auto-flow software that allows
users to let the computer drop in the pictures in a predesigned
fashion. “Making a book this way takes half the time,” she says. “Once
the book is uploaded to the Blurb site the author can expect the
finished book to be delivered in seven to 10 business days.”
Obviously, much depends on having
digital images of artwork available. Otherwise, “People do not need any
special kind of equipment,” says Gittins. “Any modern digital camera of
three megapixels or higher will produce high-enough resolution images
for a full-bleed image. Some people do use photo-editing software, such
as Photoshop, but it is by no means required. The concept behind Blurb
is that regular people should be able to use their normal tools to make
a fantastic-looking book.”
Prices start at $29.95 for a
hard-covered book of 40 pages or fewer, and soft-covered books start at
less than $20. A 160-page hard-covered book costs $39.95, and the
prices go up to $79.95 for a 440-page book. There are modest discounts
for orders of 25 copies or more, and, of course, there are shipping
fees. “If you think about it,” says Barancik, “one of these books costs
less than a good set of slides, and it’s a much more impressive product
to give to a gallery or a client. Because Blurb.com allows you to have
as few as one book at a time delivered, you can use the book as a
highly directed promotional tool.”
Blurb.com enthusiasts include art
collector Gregory Peterson, who used the service to make a handsome
catalogue of his ever-growing collection of contemporary realist
paintings. “The response has been extraordinary,” he reports. “It gives
me the opportunity to show my collection to people in a way that’s
somehow more authoritative than just having it on my website. If people
want a copy for themselves, they can order it directly from the Blurb
website, and a single copy will be printed just for them. And, because
I can print as few as one copy at a time, I can even customize the book
or change the cover for a particular individual. If I acquire another
painting, I can simply add another page to my book the next time I
print one.”
In addition to printing services,
Blurb.com is working on marketing tools for people interested in
selling their books. “You can market and distribute your books in your
own bookstore on Blurb.com,” says Gittins. “And soon we will be
announcing a very attractive royalty payment program whereby Blurb
authors can set their own prices, and we will send payments against
orders received. People are already buying their own ISBN numbers,
placing them on the backs of their books, and offering the books
through distribution channels, such as Amazon.com. In the future,
Blurb.com will facilitate this with a premium marketing-service
upgrade.”
“This is a great example of how
digital technology can empower individual artists,” says Barancik. “By
cutting intermediaries, such as book publishers and gallery owners, it
allows artists complete control over how their work is presented, as
well as providing a means to reach their public directly.”