Book By Its Cover

5.21.08
Self-Publishing on Blurb

This year I didn’t do Surtex- the big trade show for textile designers at the Javits center in NYC. Instead I decided I could approach companies I want to work with at the other shows- ICFF and Stationery Show which all happen at the same time. I needed an easy way to show a lot of work and decided I would try and make a book to hand out. I remembered reading about all the self-publishing websites that have become popular and decided to give it a whirl. I signed up with Blurb. They have you download a program to your computer called BookSmart. It sort of looks like iPhoto and happened to be really easy to use. I opted out of any of their ugly templates and just picked full bleed photo pages for every page in the book. I uploaded all my pre-sized images and just had to drag them to the spread I wanted them to be on. My book wound up being 126 pages which was over a standard amount so I wound up paying for each additional page. The grand total for each 7×7in book came to about 25 bucks- a lot more than I had hoped (so I wound up being very picky about handing them out).

The books arrived earlier than they had predicted and on first glance seemed super professional and perfect with a nice glossy cover. Then upon closer inspection I noticed all the colors on the interior were really muted. Also I had put some photographs of pillows in there and I guess I didn’t account enough for the bleed because somehow all four corners of every pillow got a tiny bit chopped- just enough to make it look extremely awkward. The other thing- I left the spine empty in the BookSmart application thinking that meant it would be white. Instead they made it Blurb’s blue color. They also put their own end page in with their logo so I carefully cut out that back page with an exacto so my own info would be the last page. I do think this was really easy to use, came out fairly well and just needs a little tweaking to get right. So if you can’t find a fancy publisher to get your work out there- this is a great option to consider. Also could be a good way to present your mock-up to a publisher-there’s a bunch of other formats available including a hard cover.

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20 Comments
05/21/08  1:05pm
Craig Atkinson wrote

lulu.com are good, far from perfect but colours seem better than Blurb - maybe worth a go. Also, more sizes available.
Great blog btw
Craig
05/21/08  1:38pm
Patricia wrote

I think that they turned out fantastic.
05/21/08  2:37pm
Alea wrote

They look really nice, but i understand what you mean by giving them a closer inspection. I totally see what you mean about the awkward pillow cropping, so strange ;)

Thanks for sharing this!
05/21/08  4:44pm
anthony groen wrote

the book looks great, but yes, the biggest problem with self-publishing sites such as Blurb and Mpics is that when you exceed the page limits it costs quite a bit. i don’t know if LULU has page restrictions, but comparatively, i’d say the printing is better with blurb, than lulu.
05/21/08  8:19pm
sarah laws wrote

thank you so much for sharing… it looks beautiful, but i totally appreciate your very real experience of something I am also looking into (self-publishing a coloring book of my illustrations for the renegade brooklyn craft fair.) I also loved your repeat pattern post on design*sponge. Thanks so much for sharing all you know so, and your work is so creative and truly an inspiration!
05/21/08  9:46pm
elizabeth Schuppe wrote

i think your book looks great! i’ve used blurb before, and did a lot of research to find out what other users had to say. that was totally helpful. overall, the images are dark and you need to brighten/contrast them. on the website they do tell you about the bleed but it’s not easy to find. also, you can pay to remove their logo. but an x-acto is much cheaper! so i suggest just doing a bunch of research before you do your book. i love the full bleeds. and the spine happens to look great!
05/21/08  10:47pm
anthony groen wrote

have you set up your “bookstore” on blurb? if you’ve bought your book, then you can make it available for purchase on blurb’s website. i would love to purchase this!
05/22/08  8:58am
janis wrote

Thanks for the info Julia. It’s always helpful to hear about others experience working with self-publishing sites and the problems they come across - it’s very helpful and much appreciated…
From here your book looks great!
05/22/08  4:05pm
yasmine wrote

that’s a wonderful compilation of your work julia.
05/23/08  4:16am
antonia wrote

I’ve been dying to do a blurb book too. Thanks for sharing all the inside information… besides, the book looks gorgeous.
05/23/08  6:14am
samantha hahn wrote

I’ve used blurb for photo albums. One of these days I’ll get around to doing my wedding album on there.
05/25/08  8:16pm
jessiegirl wrote

i hope you find a way to work out the publishing/color issues because i would love to own a copy your book. I searched for you in the blurb bookstore and it’s not there.
05/25/08  11:55pm
sosser wrote

as always, such beautiful work and helpful info, julia! i’ve been curious about this and your very descriptive observations are greatly appreciated. i’m with anthony… i would love to buy your book, too! thanks :)
05/28/08  3:13pm
Oakland Pete wrote

As a seller of art books, I have seen some great book made by blurb and other “print-on-demand” companies, but it is also important to understand that these books are only cost effective as samples or books you intend to sell directly to a consumer. The retail price of a publication should be AT LEAST 4 times the cost of publishing (remember, wholesale and distributers buy books at 40 to 50% of retail). Would this $25 book be able to sell for $100?
This being said, it is great that there are these services where you can get full-color printing done with low minimum quantities.
Great blog!
05/29/08  7:08am
julia wrote

thanks for all your comments and suggestions. I don’t think I would sell this book- I only made it as a portfolio to hand out. It would be too expensive for everyone especially for what it is- it makes me uncomfortable. Hopefully one day I will get a real publisher to work with me on a book project! I am going to try Lulu too to see how it compares.
05/29/08  7:29am
Book By Its Cover » The Small Print wrote

[…] of self-publishing, I ordered this book from Frank Chimero’s Lulu shop. I’m a huge fan of Frank’s […]
05/29/08  8:54am
Nikko wrote

Looks great Julia! What a wonderful way to present your work!
05/30/08  5:01pm
Lesley wrote

That is such a great idea, and the designs are fabulous! I want one!
06/1/08  1:17pm
Janet wrote

Your book is lovely!
I’ve tried both Blurb and Shutterfly photo books and found Shutterfly to be better quality overall. The paper is nicer and slightly thicker and the reproduction is more accurate. I like your cover however and that wouldn’t be possible with Shutterfly. It’s probably more practical for books with less pages. I’m sure you’ll have a fancy publisher knocking at your door soon anyway! Thanks for sharing your experience.
09/16/08  7:55am
shauna & stephen wrote

we want one of yours! we just had one made of all our inspiration images… it’s the perfect way to archive all our favorite things.
shauna & stephen

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