Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Artist Books - Blurb.com
A friend just sent me a link to a book publishing company called Blurb.com. They allow you to create your own book or exhibition catalog at a very reasonable price, and you don't have to order hundreds of copies to make it worthwhile. You can just buy one copy if you want.
Leith's email sold me on the idea, so I'll just share some of it..
"There seems to be a lot of artists there (and photographers etc) self publishing on good quality paper and binding at reasonable cost. A lot are just doing it for themselves or for friends/family or even as a professional looking hard back portfolio. Anyway, check it out.. might be worth looking into down the track.. the software (free download) is really simple to use and everything about the site, forums and the software itself seems good quality to me. I’m thinking of doing a book for myself and/or galleries."
Here's their pricing page to have a book published. There's also some examples of artists that have published their own art books here (in the Fine Art category). After you click on a book, click "Book Preview" to see inside it.
Here's a few books that I liked..
A Decade of Painting - by Shelley Mansel
Christine Brennan Paintings - by Christine Brennan
Joseph Adolphe Paintings - by Joseph Adolphe
Has anyone used Blurb.com to have a book published? Or are there better book publishers out there? ¶ 3:51 AM
Leith's email sold me on the idea, so I'll just share some of it..
"There seems to be a lot of artists there (and photographers etc) self publishing on good quality paper and binding at reasonable cost. A lot are just doing it for themselves or for friends/family or even as a professional looking hard back portfolio. Anyway, check it out.. might be worth looking into down the track.. the software (free download) is really simple to use and everything about the site, forums and the software itself seems good quality to me. I’m thinking of doing a book for myself and/or galleries."
Here's their pricing page to have a book published. There's also some examples of artists that have published their own art books here (in the Fine Art category). After you click on a book, click "Book Preview" to see inside it.
Here's a few books that I liked..
A Decade of Painting - by Shelley Mansel
Christine Brennan Paintings - by Christine Brennan
Joseph Adolphe Paintings - by Joseph Adolphe
Has anyone used Blurb.com to have a book published? Or are there better book publishers out there? ¶ 3:51 AM
I have used Blurb to self-publish a book of my sculpture, and was VERY happy with the result:
- easy to use (they give you the software and tons of templates)
- high quality paper, and great color quality. Looks like any professionally printed hardcover book you'd buy in a store.
- quick turn-around time. Got my book in 5 days.
- easy to sell from their site.
Great service, no down sides at all.
- easy to use (they give you the software and tons of templates)
- high quality paper, and great color quality. Looks like any professionally printed hardcover book you'd buy in a store.
- quick turn-around time. Got my book in 5 days.
- easy to sell from their site.
Great service, no down sides at all.
I haven't tried blurb.com, but their prices seem good. I know some artists have created Mac books with My Publisher. I worked on two books for artists using Viovio.com. Here is a link to the book my photographer friend Jenny Gummersall and I put together called Horse Dreams.
VioVio Link
These are great tools for artists for promotion. But can get very costly when you begin giving them away.
Leanne Goebel
VioVio Link
These are great tools for artists for promotion. But can get very costly when you begin giving them away.
Leanne Goebel
I have created a book with the softward from Blurb.com. It's pretty clunky software, but with patience, I could mostly get it to do what I needed. Now I want to upload it to Blurb for printing, and there's some technical problem. Communicate with Blurb about the problem? Have to rely on e-mail. No phone number. Takes them a day to return an e-mail. Very frustrating.
# posted by 
: 6:31 PM
: 6:31 PM
Jud, Your Book looks good. Thanks for sharing your experience with them too. It all looks great online but I was still wondering what the finished product would look like in real life.
Viovio looks good too Leanne. Giving them away is such an "artist" thing to do. It's something I would have trouble with..lol.
Viovio looks good too Leanne. Giving them away is such an "artist" thing to do. It's something I would have trouble with..lol.
This is very handy if you only want a few copies of your book. It's good that they let you promote your book on their site too.
I think if you wanted vast amounts you could probably get them a bit cheaper at another publisher- depends on the exchange rate as well.
I think if you wanted vast amounts you could probably get them a bit cheaper at another publisher- depends on the exchange rate as well.
Our local film developer offers such a service from a kiosk. You upload your photos, and you can add text if you like, and in an hour you get a hardbound book that's quite impressive for $30. I have to admit I haven't used it, but my neighbor showed me a book she made, and it was impressive.
Hi,
Although I've never used their service or a similar one, I know of some artist coleagues who have and say that they are quite satisfied with the result.
I don't know about how easy is the setup and all the process.
Another well known publisher in the same line is Lulu. I believe that is more well known than Blurb, but I don't know how it compares to Blurb.
If you want to know more opinions, you may ask at the Wetcanvas forum which is an artists' community.
Then we have the other publishers, but those are out of the league of most of us.
Of course that books published through Blurb or Lulu become relatively expensive, but one thing is publishing 1 or 5 books and another is puiblishing 10000.
Have a nice weekend and 4th of July,
José
Although I've never used their service or a similar one, I know of some artist coleagues who have and say that they are quite satisfied with the result.
I don't know about how easy is the setup and all the process.
Another well known publisher in the same line is Lulu. I believe that is more well known than Blurb, but I don't know how it compares to Blurb.
If you want to know more opinions, you may ask at the Wetcanvas forum which is an artists' community.
Then we have the other publishers, but those are out of the league of most of us.
Of course that books published through Blurb or Lulu become relatively expensive, but one thing is publishing 1 or 5 books and another is puiblishing 10000.
Have a nice weekend and 4th of July,
José
I like the option where they allow you to sell it too Helly. I can't imagine it would make any artist rich but its a nice way to share your art.
Lulu looks good too Jose.
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Lulu looks good too Jose.
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