Comments on: Publishing Your Own Photography Book

By: Bookbinding « Nothing to write home about

Bookbinding « Nothing to write home about — Thu, 14 May 2009 09:13:16 +0000

[...] Under normal circumstances, I never would have thought of making this book, but I listened to a podcast that convinced me that under some circumstances, vanity publishing is [...]

By: figitalrevolution

figitalrevolution — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 20:43:16 +0000

Looks like a great service, (fast books) but my only concern is the cost… I checked and a book like my example A New Eden Volume 1 would cost around $130 each on FB where on Blurb it is $37 each….that’s a bit high and will making selling somewhat harder but I will try them on a sample book to see if the there is a way to sell the added features that they have as a selling point for a book of higher quality.

Cheers-
Stephen

By: Greg L

Greg L — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 20:16:23 +0000

I used Fastback Books in NYC (www.fastbackbooks.com) to design and print a collection of my medium format landscape photography. For just a little more than Blurb, I found the quality of the reproductions, material, and construction was superb. Also, they have options for a gloved spine, and foil printing, which makes for a very classy, professional presentation. If you’re looking for a quality alternative to the bigger outfits, check them out.

By: figitalrevolution

figitalrevolution — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 01:12:22 +0000

Did you try the new premium paper…the old paper was junk in my opinion…the new premium paper is much much nice… I would still like a 100% cotton matte sheet but I don’t see that anytime soon. As they use different places to print books quality control could be a problem and it is something I am watching very closely.

Cheers-
Stephen

By: Wayne

Wayne — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 00:57:46 +0000

I’m still not quite sure what I think of Blurb. I made a few books for family members this past holiday season. The first batch I received was not good at all. In fact, I’d say the quality was below that of an older ink jet printer. Nice, sharp photos (that I know are perfect in Photoshop) were blurry with faded, desaturated colors, and odd black specs appeared in some of the photos. I, of course, complained. At first Blurb reps said the problem was my photos, but they soon agreed to reprint the same file. This time the quality was much better, though still had some black specs (in different photos this time). Since it was the identical file printed twice, I think it comes down to their consistency, which could be a problem if you are selling the book to the public.
Wayne

By: figitalrevolution

figitalrevolution — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 15:31:43 +0000

Debra- I’ve seen the quality between the Blurb and LULU with regards to the printing process and they are both good but the new premium paper from Blurb wins in my opinion. I would love to have a beautiful thick matt paper but that I am sure is not going to happen soon. In order to have more control on Blurb I just designed each page in Photoshop using the canvas to match the page size… this way I could design to my hearts content and when uploaded it matched perfect.

Cheers-
Stephen

By: Debra

Debra — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 14:29:29 +0000

I enjoyed listening to the podcast, though I’d like to see a comparison of blurb and lulu in terms of quality of the end product.

I tried lulu to layout a collection of photos, and though it was simple enough it couldn’t cope with my square images. Though one advantage of lulu is that you can upload a pdf, which gives you more control over the finished product.

I’ve yet to download the blurb software, mainly because I don’t want to download yet more software but I have seen some good results from blurb.