Blurb : Given your history in traditional art book publishing with Radius Books, what initially piqued your interest in Blurb?

Himes: The power that it places in the artists ‘ & photographers’ hands. It’s one more tool in a big toolbox of ways to fulfill an artistic vision. Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, artists have been masterful at co-opting commercial and industrial materials and products for their own purposes. Blurb provides an amazing platform to creatively play with the print-on-demand process.

Blurb: Overall, what were your impressions of the submissions for the Curator Collection?

Himes: Strong.

Blurb: How many of the submissions contained significant amounts text in addition to the photographs, and how did this influence your judging?

Himes: Not many, now that I think about it. It wasn’t an influencer. In fact, unless the photographer is a trained typographer, text in self-published photobooks often looks amateurish.

Blurb: The initial task was narrowing the submissions to ten. How difficult was that?

Himes: Narrowing it to 10 wasn’t all that difficult. Getting it down to 3 and then to 1 was the tough part.

Blurb: What were the consistencies of the winning books?

Himes: Strong photographic vision.

Blurb: How much of a factor was the design of the book versus the photography and  how well do those ingredients need to blend to make a successful book?

Himes: It was a big factor. I’m not interested in stack of printed pages with photographic reproductions. I’m interested in the artists’ vision applied to every aspect of a book. That means design, typography, materials and binding, as well as the photographic reproductions.

Blurb: Are any of the winning books projects that could potentially work for a traditional  publisher?

Himes: Of course! Although it’s important to clarify “traditional publisher.” If we mean a big trade publisher, then the book needs to be subject driven.

Blurb: As a publisher, do you like seeing a finished, self-published book when someone brings you a project?

Himes: That all depends. Making a book with a publisher, whether big or small, implies a collaborative process. It’ll be as much the publishers book as it will be your book, as the artist.

Blurb: The publishing world is in major transition. What future do you see for photographers and the almighty book? And I would be remiss were I not to add “ebook.”

Himes: The future is so bright, I need to wear shades. Gold ones. Ebooks will be another of the ways that I learn about the world through books….

Blurb: We know covers are important, but just how critical is it for you in the judging process. How quickly can it turn you when it comes to investigating a book further?

Himes: Of course you have to separate content from design. You wouldn’t judge Tolstoy based on his book cover. But having said that, we’re in the art world, right? Bad design will definitely turn me away.

Blurb: I’ve heard you use the word “considered” when it comes to books. What does  that mean and how does it translate into book design?

Himes: Similar to my answer about design, it has to do with considering all aspects of the book as a physical object.

The post What makes a great photo book? An interview with Darius Himes appeared first on Blurb Blog.

Chatting with architects, designers, photographers and the like, we’ve found that our new print-on-demand magazine format and enhanced ebooks are of the utmost interest. A couple of bloggers spoke about their desire to spend time designing a magazine but lacked the funds to support initial inventories – a problem that no longer exists with print on demand. Talking to us inspired them to try out our new magazine format, especially as our online bookshop offers the opportunity to monetize content.

Portfolios and strong visual presentations of creative work were the hot topic when speaking to students, and our ebook format was the product that resonated highly, since audio and video can be added to enrich the product. In a digital age, where technology is moving quickly and everyone’s striving to keep up, an ebook portfolio offers a ton of benefits and can literally put a face – if not video – on your work.

We have one day left to go at Clerkenwell. If there’s a creative project you’re working on, we’d love to have a chat about it and see how you can utilise our platform to achieve your creative results. Stop by the Farmiloe Building on the first floor, room V05. We’ll be there until 9pm and would love to meet you!

The post We’re in full swing at Clerkenwell appeared first on Blurb Blog.

1) Help from small places

Don’t just add photos, create little fill-in-the-blank dad bios for the kids to finish, then incorporate them into the book. It’s a nice way to show dad just what he means to them.

2) Take it easy

Want an effortless, good-looking book? Try our “Designer Collection” templates. Sure, Designer Collection doesn’t sound very manly, but check out our Marfa template with its wood tone backgrounds. Just add 20 photos – even your Instagram shots – and create an easy book online. It’s particularly great for bringing back those moments he was just too sleep-deprived to remember:

3) Bring it old school

If your dad goes back to the days of slides and film, you scan those wonderful analog memories and put them together into a single book. It’s a wonderful way to bring back those sweet Kodachrome times.

4) Show him he’s “Liked”

If dad’s on Facebook, chances are you’ve got all the material for a great Father’s Day book right there. Our Instant Book creator lets you use any Facebook photos that your friends and family have chosen to share with you. Just load up our Instant Book tool, search for your dad in your friend list, and pull in the photos you want (and the comments too).

The post Father’s Day gift ideas: Make a book appeared first on Blurb Blog.

Linda kindly took a few minutes to talk with us about what led her to Blurb and the unintended success of both her cookbooks and ebooks. Take a moment and hear from someone whose self-publishing journey has led to some pretty great places.

Here goes:

Blurb: What was your objective behind publishing your cookbooks via print on demand? Was it to promote your cooking school and build your fan base?

Linda: It’s going to sound strange but the objective behind my books was to reduce business! Unusual, I know.

I own and operate my own organic cooking school and online store. Teaching classes is kind of a three-ring circus between prepping and cooking a four-course meal and then sitting down with the students and enjoying a great feast. It’s fun and my classes were becoming very popular but quite frankly, I couldn’t keep up with demand.

I thought that by putting my menus and recipes – as taught – into a cookbook and ebook, I might be able to slow down on teaching classes as people could just buy the books instead booking a class.

Blurb: How did that work for you?

Linda: Not so well, the book actually boosted business. So I’m busier than ever!

Blurb: Not a bad problem to have! Can you tell us how you came to Blurb?

Linda: A friend recommended Blurb. I checked out other services and actually spoke to customer support teams at a few other self-publishing companies but

I chose Blurb because my book is basically a photo book – cooks buy cookbooks for the photos of the amazing food as much as for the recipes. And no one does photo books better than Blurb.

Blurb: We’re blushing – thanks. You published with our Volume Discounts program. How did you find out about it?

Linda: Easy. I found it on the Blurb site and since I was doing larger print runs of 250+ books, I qualified for custom account management. I worked with a great account manager who talked me through pricing questions and acted as my liaison with customer support on design or ebook questions. I also qualified for volume discounts, enabling me to make more of a profit from each sale.

Blurb: You’ve done two cookbooks with Blurb and both are gorgeous. Can you tell us how you managed the photography?

Linda: I worked with Christine Olson, a local photographer.

It’s worth it to invest in good photography for a cookbook, but it’s also worth it to make sure the printing of your book is equally good. Blurb has that down.

Blurb: How do you market your books?

Linda: I market them on my website, my Facebook page and through my blog – all of which can be found at www.theorganickitchen.org.

Blurb: You also have video tutorials. How do you use those in marketing?

Linda: Yes, those videos are on my site. Down the line, I want to make an enhanced ebook and incorporate those videos into a new cookbook.

Blurb: What about Pinterest? Do you use that?

Linda: I post photos and recipes. You can follow me on Pinterest at the Organic Kitchen. The photos all link back to my site, which also features my book, so great cross-marketing.

Blurb: About how much time do you spend a day or week doing social media marketing?

Linda: I try to do one or two Facebook posts a day – some are recipes, others are just healthy eating tips. I also write weekly (or more) blog posts. Again, some involve recipes and I might add something like, if you enjoyed this recipe, check out these similar ones in my book…At the moment, I’m trying to figure out how to monetize my blog and I’m looking into Blurb’s affiliate program.

Blurb: How about your ebooks? How’s that going?

Linda: Great.

The ebooks have been a great adjunct to my books. Every time I sell one it’s just gravy. There are no upfront costs on my part – no printing, just click and it’s sold. It’s like free money for work already done.

Blurb: Any plans for your books in the future

Linda: Well, a traditional publisher recently saw my books and offered me a publishing deal. I’m now going to be in their spring 2014 line. I’d actually emailed this publisher before and they weren’t interested but once they saw my beautiful Blurb book, they changed their minds. I have no doubt that it was the high quality, beautiful printing and high-end production of the book that made it happen (not to mention that great recipes and my charisma : )

Blurb: We couldn’t agree more. Thanks, Linda. Here’s to you and your great books!

The post The Secret Ingredient for Self-Publishing Success appeared first on Blurb Blog.

We’ve long been Flickr fans at Blurb (after all, you can make digital photo books with your Flickr photos using both Blurb BookSmart and Blurb Bookify ). But Flickr has seen its star both rise and fall a little. Back in the day, it was the most popular photo sharing site out there, and now it competes with the likes of Instagram, Google+, Tumblr, Drop Box, and Facebook for photo-viewing eyes. Today, Flickr (whose owners, Yahoo!, also announced an acquisition of Tumblr) got a little makeover. It now resembles a cross between the above contenders.

A Tumblr-style photo feed shows on the home page. Your page now has a cover image, a la Facebook and your photo stream now shows even larger images. They already took a shot at Instagram this year with a mobile app that includes retro-tinged filters. And the new Flickr has a much cleaner look, like Google+. Like DropBox, you now get a ton of free storage — a free terabyte of space. That’s a huge increase in space for non-paying members.

Other new features include a slicker slide show and more engaging way to show photo sets.

PS: Blurb is on Flickr! And our Flickr group is a nice place for you to display images of your books. Post them there. We’d love to see them!

The post Flickr gets a makeover – you get more space appeared first on Blurb Blog.

Have you ever been to a museum exhibition, looked through the catalog in the gift shop, and thought that surely you could do a better job of putting the images together than the know-it-all curator did? I know I have. And maybe I was wrong, but I would have loved to have the chance.

Well, Australian photo collective Oculi is giving visitors to its upcoming exhibition the chance to do just that. Those coming to the Reportage Festival Hub in Sydney, Australia, on May 22, will be able to edit and sequence their own version of the photo collective’s catalog on site, and have their personally edited copy sent directly to them. The ability to have individually customized catalogs printed is all a part of the magic of print-on-demand digital photo books, brought to you by Blurb.

Lee Grant (Left) Andrew Quilty (Right)

The idea of a catalog that is both individual and universal feeds well into the show’s theme of “Home.” Each of Oculi’s photographers contributed an image related to the idea of home, creating a wide-ranging examination of that most familiar but challenging of themes. According to Oculi photographer Andrew Quilty:

“Home is difficult to define yet open to interpretation. From the heart of home as we most commonly know it: in bed with a lover or nursing a child, a favourite place or one’s spiritual haven; to one’s tribe or place within a broader community: suburbia, a region, a province, a country or continent. The idea of home is as fluid as the boundaries that define us physically and as transient as the human race itself,” said Oculi photographer Andrew Quilty.

So, if you happen to be in Sydney on May 22, pencil in some time to see the exhibition and get a chance to be your own art catalog author.

Event details:

Place: Reportage Festival Hub, Cleland Bond Building, The Rocks, Sydney
Date: May 22, 2013
Time: 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM

Raphaela Rosella (Left) Donna Bailey (Right)

The post Oculi: A museum catalog made by you appeared first on Blurb Blog.