Blurb book authors come forward

[Bob Kerner]

I don't want to poach Arca Andy's post so I've opened another thread. Have any of the members here published a Blurb book of their photography? I'm looking for a nice example of a BB that I can present to the folks I work for as an example of self-publishing.

No smut please! Sorry, Frank.

I work in a health care setting as a teacher and have been making photos of our clients, trying to make some art out of the experience. I made a half-assed joke about publishing a "Kosmo Kramer" coffee table book of images and to my surprise was told to run with it. Seeing Arca Andy's post made me think a BB might be the right vehicle but I'd like to get my hands on a nice one to see what the quality is like.

I'd rather not pick a random one from the BB store if I can also support a member here. So if you've made one, please point me to it. Remember, no smut.

Bob

[Scott Walker]

I did one about a year ago as I was getting back into LF photography just as a project to set myself some goals. The images were mostly silver prints scanned on an HP Scanjet 4850 which is of course less than wonderful but the end result was much better than I had hoped for. The option for their premium paper is important, I initially ordered 1 premium and 1 standard and there is a huge difference.

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1153198

[Robert A. Zeichner]

I did two books and you can find the links here: http://web.mac.com/razeichner/Robert...phy/Books.html

[David Hedley]

Bob - I published my first book, riverrun, earlier this year using Blurb. I've been very pleased with both the quality of the printing, and the fast delivery times.

[Nicholas Whitman]

David - riverrun is a handsome series!

Does the printing do the finely crafted images justice?

At $88.95 the price seems high to me. It is a Blurb book with 38 images. Perhaps from a high end printer on especially fine stock this would be a competitive price. Then again it is a Blurb book. You can do what ever you want. It doesn't need to sell to repay the upfront investment - as is the case in conventional publishing.

[eddie]

My brother has a few books two I think. This will get u close:

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1678632

Eddie

[Richard M. Coda]

Just did my first one. Actually I'm doing a limited edition (with a print) via Edition One, and a regular edition (hard cover and soft cover) via blurb for the on-demand convenience. Not LF, though, but I have a few more I am working on that are LF.

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1746882
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1746893

[photographs42]

Around two years ago we (members of this forum) published this book: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/257631 .

Each person was allotted two facing pages. There are 73 members represented and most contributors submitted 2 images. There is some excellent work represented here. The book is sold without mark up.

Please take a look.
Jerome

[David Hedley]

David - riverrun is a handsome series!

Does the printing do the finely crafted images justice?

At $88.95 the price seems high to me. It is a Blurb book with 38 images. Perhaps from a high end printer on especially fine stock this would be a competitive price. Then again it is a Blurb book. You can do what ever you want. It doesn't need to sell to repay the upfront investment - as is the case in conventional publishing.

Thanks, Nicholas. I'm pleased with the quality, which is similar to that of a Taschen book. I'm thinking of having an exhibition in 2011 (my first), with this book to support it. That was part of the thinking behind making only a 'premium' version to be available, which does come at a certain price. I might try a smaller and cheaper version at some point, if that was also of high printing quality.

[dewsweeper]

I'm glad you asked the question, because now I know about "A Larger View", and I'm looking forward to seeing that book.

I've published three books using Blurb. Two are publicly available, and one is private. (The links are below, and you can preview both public books online, although that won't give you a sense of how the books feel, which is wonderful.)

http://www.blurb.com/my/book/detail/1097464
http://www.blurb.com/my/book/detail/1098902

I think Blurb's pricing makes it difficult to resell books, but the quality has been gorgeous. Because I like heavily saturated color, the premium paper option seemed worth the additional cost (no bleed-through or ghosting). The covers are linen, and the library binding has been solid.

I did have printing problems with my first book. I sent Blurb customer service a link to photos of the problems. Blurb was very responsive, and rapidly reprinted the books at no additional cost.

The printing process is a traditional four-color process, not a giclee or photoprint process, so the books are like professional bookstore books, and not "photo books". I recommend you use the Blurb-provided ColorSync ICC profiles for soft proofing your book, as they do not offer a low-cost live proof.

(I'm a new member of this forum, and this is my first contribution. I hope it helps.)