Blurb...practical or not?

[slackercruster]

Anyone try making their own photo books to sell with Blurb?

http://www.blurb.com/

Is it a practical thing to do or not?

Thanks

[Frank Petronio]

Sure, buy one of mine, I'll make a couple million bucks: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/2589826

The books are decent quality for the price. You can spend more or less elsewhere but Blurb is a good middle-ground, and they will reprint anything they mess up and they have consistently improved over the years. If you are a graphic designer they allow you submit InDesign PDFs if you know what you are doing, otherwise the online Blurb app works OK. The B&W images often have some sort of metarism but they all do, it's the process.

[slackercruster]

Not looking to make any $$. Looking to pay for printing cost. Never made a fudging dime for my pix taking...just love it.

How much is a 75 page book with mostly BW and possibly a few color pix?

Was thinking of selling on Amazon. Maybe $25 a pop? Call it 'Hollywood 1970's'

Can I break even if I print up 50 copies at a time? Just looking to memorialize some of my pix. most of us are getting old. Sad if our lifes work gets thrown in the trash when we are gone.

Here are some samples. (The Holllywood stuff is at the beginning of blog.)

http://slackercruster.tumblr.com/

Don't know if i want to use my name on it though? The pix were from 40 years ago. Most people are dead, but maybe a few alive. Got some Nazi devotees as well. But may block their face some. Not one model release in the lot.

Would use slackercruster as author...maybe?

[Mark Sampson]

Well, if you buy one of mine, perhaps I'll make five bucks.
http://www.blurb.com/my/book/detail/2274116
Frank's comments above are right on. I'm sure he's sold many more copies than I have but part of that is down to our differing subject matter.

[Frank Petronio]

Most people buy Blurb books from Blurb, by the time you ship them to yourself and deal with Amazon the $35 book becomes a $55 book and who wants a little 75-page self-published digital on demand book for that much money? Even $35 is a stretch.

I'd look on the Blurb site for prices and more answers, they have a community forum and you can check out other books deemed successful and get a better idea of what is reasonable to do.

Of course you can publish books with people's photos without model releases. Just don't sell the photos as advertising - art and journalism are fair use.

I'd use my real name for anything or not do it at all, but that's my values.

I've sold about 50 copies of my book and marked it up a couple of bucks just for kicks. Really though, it makes a nice inexpensive portfolio and is a good exercise in editing your work. It's also a good trial to see if any real publisher might be interested?

[slackercruster]

Good for you Frank!

If I sold 50 copies I'd be very happy to get some pix out there.

Sure, if Blurb sells them that is even better. I'd really like a turnkey deal better. If blurb wants them for free they make the book, they do it all, I will just send them some pix. They can keep all the $$. I'm too busy shooting to screw round with that other stuff.

On a different topic, but still book related. Have any of you ever talked with Aperture for publication of your pix? How did that work out? Or is Aperture just for the high and mighty of us togs?

[Brian Ellis]

Good for you Frank!

If I sold 50 copies I'd be very happy to get some pix out there.

Sure, if Blurb sells them that is even better. I'd really like a turnkey deal better. If blurb wants them for free they make the book, they do it all, I will just send them some pix. They can keep all the $$. I'm too busy shooting to screw round with that other stuff.

On a different topic, but still book related. Have any of you ever talked with Aperture for publication of your pix? How did that work out? Or is Aperture just for the high and mighty of us togs?

I've learned to accept all the hunting terminology used in photography - shooting, shot, captured, etc. I can even almost tolerate someone calling developer "soup" or "souped." But "tog" for photography? Please, no.

[vinny]

Togs AND hdr, I'll stop there.

[Frank Petronio]

You're all a bunch of bloody togs!

[retnull]

I tried Blurb about two years ago, and personally, I found the quality of printing inadequate for photos. It wasn't awful, but I don't think many people would mistake the book for something from a bookstore. (Not referring to design or layout, just reproduction quality.)

[Frank Petronio]

SlackerCruster - you do understand that you only pay for the books you want, one at a time, right? I will order one $35 book and that's it, it is printed just for me, as orders come in. It's not like traditional publishing where you have to print a quantity for a significant amount of money to get the unit price down.

And no, you can't really make any money at it, the unit cost is still high compared to traditional publishing so there is no room for the distributor's mark up, etc.

Print quality - they aren't fine art books, you get what you pay for. Go to a place like http://www.booksmartstudio.com and drop a grand and get good print quality ;-p

[slackercruster]

I've learned to accept all the hunting terminology used in photography - shooting, shot, captured, etc. I can even almost tolerate someone calling developer "soup" or "souped." But "tog" for photography? Please, no.

Sorry, but unless it violates the law or you want to be my personal secretary and type my posts...I must go with tog. Oh, tog if for phot tog grapher not photography.

[slackercruster]

SlackerCruster - you do understand that you only pay for the books you want, one at a time, right? I will order one $35 book and that's it, it is printed just for me, as orders come in. It's not like traditional publishing where you have to print a quantity for a significant amount of money to get the unit price down.

And no, you can't really make any money at it, the unit cost is still high compared to traditional publishing so there is no room for the distributor's mark up, etc.

Print quality - they aren't fine art books, you get what you pay for. Go to a place like http://www.booksmartstudio.com and drop a grand and get good print quality ;-p


OK, thanks Frank. I'd like to see the pix quality first.

How is the binding? Glued? Do the pages pull out or are they solid?

Thanks for the booksmart, will check them out.

[slackercruster]

Togs AND hdr, I'll stop there.

What is wrong with HDR? You realize when you dodge and burn you are doing 'basic' HDR?

Oh well, read what you like. That is what I do.

[Frank Petronio]

Buy one and see, there are thousands to choose from. The bindings are good, sometimes a bit loose on the hardcovers.

[vinny]

What is wrong with HDR? You realize when you dodge and burn you are doing 'basic' HDR?

Oh well, read what you like. That is what I do.
What?
Dodging and burning isn't a fad. Bad dodging and burning looks aweful, kinda like 99% of hdr work in existence.