(embiggenable) • iPhone
HAVING JUST MADE AND "PUBLISHED" MY first blurb book, I have a few thoughts on the subject.
At the top of my thoughts list, let me write that, after receiving the book, it is a good quality product. Is it the best online sourced printed photo book quality I have seen? No, it is not. While the color is spot on correct, the printing is a little bit light with the black ink. Although, only ever so slightly noticeable on pictures with large areas of dark tonal values when viewed under bright light. Nevertheless, overall it is a good quality piece.
CAVEAT: I did not choose blurb's best paper for this book. It is very possible that the paper I chose is the reason that the black ink appears to be a bit on the light side. To find out the answer to that possibity, I will re-order the book using blurb's best paper. It is also worth noting that the covers-printed on a heavy gloss paper (almost a card weight stock) look excellent. END CAVEAT
Even if my next blurb "test" photo book with their best paper turns out to be of excellent quality, blurb will not be my online POD (print on demand) source. That will not be because of quality, it will be based on my opinion that the only reason for me to use blurb is if I want to "publish" a book using their store as my distribution point. Otherwise, I will stick to my tried and true source.
You may have noticed that I put the word published in quotes. That's because so-called publishing in blurb's store is, iMo, bound to be a rather fruitless endevour.
My reasoning for that conclusion is actually quite simple. If you were to go to blurb's bookstore and select the section for photography, you would link to a section with, as of this AM, 114,193 books. Imagine walking into an actual bookstore (devoted to photography) and encountering 114,193 books. Now imagine that the books are displayed on one shelf that is 114,193 books long. And if that is not enough to discourage browsing, imagine that the books are displayed 1 thru 114,193 based on the date published. In effect, that's what the blurb bookstore is.
My book, which was on the first page on the day it was "published", is slowly, but surely, sinking into the abyss. As are all the books "published" on that date. Eventually, they will end up well beyond the browsing endurance range of most users. While you can search for books by the author's name, that's no help at all if one is just wanting to see what's out there with the idea of finding something new.
If I wanted to go all in on the blurb bookstore, I could blurb print and publish photobooks for some of the picture categories on the WORK page on my site. Then post a link to that book on each of my category gallery pages. If I were to do so, I might sell a few books but the real "winner" in that endevour would be blurb inasmuch as to sell a book on blurb you need to print and buy a book on blurb.
Which is exactly how a vanity press operates.
In my next entry, I'll explain why I make photo books and why I think every picture maker should make photo books.