We’re working on some new features here at blurb.com and want your feedback! We know how much you like to comment here on the blog, but what about commenting on books? Love it, hate it? Get the full details and let us know what you think over here.

There’s just one week left to submit your book to Photography.Book.Now! To have your work reviewed by an internationally renowned panel of judges and a shot at $25,000, submit your book by July 16!

Where do you find inspiration?

Creation.
Nature – an endlessly unfolding process.
People - lit up with passion and commitment.
What man makes in participation/ collaboration/communion with nature – respectfully.
Acts of compassion and conscientiousness, whether random or not so random.
Wonder – shared.
Inspiration is inspiring – however it’s demonstrated.

You can find out a lot more about what I find inspiring by reading my Artist’s Statements and you can even hear me speak about it on my website - johnpaulcaponigro.com.

What particularly inspired you for this project?

This exhibit was something my alumni wanted to do. So we did it. It’s been a source of growth for all of them individually and for the community as a whole, and for me individually as well.

My alumni inspire me. I’ve had the most sustained and longest contact with these individuals. Their progress gives me undeniable confirmation that I’ve made real contributions to all of my alumni’s growth. It’s been a privilege to be a respectful catalyst and a guide for them as they’ve gone through their individual and collective creative lives.

The book features the work of 23 artists from your Next Step program - could you tell us more about it?

At the request of a small group of alumni from one of my workshops at the Maine Media Workshops, John Paul Caponigro’s Next Step Alumni group was started. I invited and guided the current members to create a community of diverse members who share common interests dedicated to advancing both their own creative lives and the lives of others through collectively sharing their feedback and knowledge with one another in constructive ways.They have met collectively and privately for almost 10 years in private workshops and online forums. The membership has grown to 75 members.

The members collectively set the goal of producing a group exhibit. This exhibit is their achievement. 23 members are currently participating in the exhibit. Entry criteria were rigorous. Each artist produced a thematically cohesive body of work, artist’s statements, book, and website. The resulting work is as diverse as the individuals, ranging from documentary journalism, editorial, still life, floral, nude, landscape and abstraction.

The exhibit premiere’s at the Maine Media Workshops in Rockport, Maine - Tuesday, July 7, 2009. We’ll begin seeking future venues for the exhibit after this event.

How did creating Blurb books fit into the process of the Next Step Alumni Show?

Gallery spaces can’t physically handle the number of images produced by these artists; more than 12 images from 23 artists or over 254 images. The Blurb books become supplements to the exhibit. They add more images. And they add supporting text. In the Group Book viewers can read about alumni experiences and insights. In each alumni’s individual book, viewers can read about each individual’s vision and process - and see many more images.

Much of this content is also supplemented by websites - mine and each alumni’s website. None of the galleries exhibiting this work have enough computer terminals to reference all those websites for every visitor. Perhaps some visitors will browse the artist’s websites on their mobile devices. But, I’m sure that all of the visitors will pick up more than one Blurb book during their visit. They may even purchase them online to have in their homes.

And, of course, while not everyone can attend the exhibit, everyone can get a copy of the Group Book and even the individual artist’s books.

How do you see self-publishing influencing the artistic process?

Books have been essential ways of sharing work for artists. Without them a majority of artists’ works would have remained invisible. Only a few people would have see them, not larger audiences. Even with the advent of the world wide web, books remain important communication and marketing tools. Printed matter offers focussed, localized, persistence while the web offers diffuse, transient, ubiquity. Books can also be the final product, special things in and of themselves.

While I will continue to work with major publishers, print on demand solutions are becoming essential tools for communicating and marketing my own work - specifically Blurb. Stay tuned to johnpaulcaponigro.com for many new Blurb books from me in the near future.

If you could bestow one bookmaking tip on the world, what would it be?

Learn more about the form of the book. Blurb’s CEO, Eileen Gittins, moderated an excellent panel on the form of the book at the Palm Springs Photo Festival last May. It’s easy to think about books in very simple terms without understanding all the components involved, the possibilities that exist for many different structures, and the decisions that are necessary to successfully create a book. You can be very creative with books! Learn more about books and you’ll learn to love them even more than you do now.

InStock is a conference for self publishers, taking place July 18 at Hotel Monaco in San Francisco. Speakers include successful self publishers, marketing pros, and executives from the traditional publishing industry, who will be teaching you to think strategically about your books. There are a series of panels that will address marketing your book, finding your audience, publicity tactics, pricing your book and more.

We have 3 tickets to give away to lucky blog readers, so leave us a comment by 11:59 PM PST on Thursday the 9th about why you think self publishing is the way of the future, and we’ll select and announce 3 winners on Friday the 10th!

This July we’ll be in Australia hosting two meet-ups! Want to meet other bookmakers, check out Blurb books, and learn about BlurbNation? Join us in Sydney and Melbourne for our first series of meet-ups down under!

Sydney Meet-up @ the Fringe Bar (Birdcage Room)
Thursday, 16 July 6-9 PM
RSVP here

Melbourne Meet-up @ the Match Bar & Grill
Wednesday, 22 July 6-9 PM
RSVP here

PDF to Book has arrived! We know many of you have been clamoring for the ability to make books using the design tool of your choice, and upload directly to Blurb. We got the message, and after a herculean effort from the team, PDF to Book is all yours, bringing you complete creative control in the application of your choice.

Here’s how this works: we provide you with our pre-made templates for Adobe® InDesign®, or you can use our pre-determined guidelines and specs for all our book sizes and cover types in other programs. Design your book from cover to cover in CMYK and use any native file formats (TIFF, EPS, PNG, etc) for stunning text and image quality. With PDF to Book you can also wrap your cover image, or add an image, to the spine of your book. Did we mention this is complete creative control? Rich colors, sharp text, full flexibility – PDF to Book is unlike anything Blurb has offered before.

That said, we know PDF to Book isn’t for everybody, and don’t worry – BookSmart isn’t going anywhere. In fact we’re already cranking on the next release. And whether you use BookSmart or PDF to Book, you’ll still be able to share, market and sell your book using our online Bookstore and marketing tools. If you act quickly, you can give PDF to Book a spin for your submission to Photography.Book.Now, and a chance to win $25,000 (deadline is July 16).

To get the nitty gritty details on templates and upload specs, visit our PDF to Book page, and for those of you currently attending the HOW Conference in Austin, swing by our booth to check out some books made using PDF to Book!

The HOW Conference is just around the corner (June 24) and we’re gearing up for a great week in Austin. For those of you attending HOW, we’ll be hosting a meet-up on Thursday, June 25, from 7-10 pm at Union Park. Join us for free drinks, appetizers and a whole lot of conversation around book design and the future of publishing (and where is really the best place to eat in Austin). We’ll have a bunch of books for you to check out at the meet-up (and at our booth @ HOW), and will have a special little something for any of you who bring your Blurb book to the party.

But we’ll be honest here, we’re meeting up for more then just hanging out with everyone in Austin. We’ll be celebrating a HUGE announcement happening the 24th from Blurb Headquarters that we think you’ll flip over. So check back here on the 24th for the announcement and help us celebrate at Union Park!

Union Park
612 West 6th Street
Austin, Texas 78701
7 - 10 pm