Sticky Notes Blog

A blog of writing news, tips, and inspiration from Fat Plum

How to make a pretty book

I've been exploring Blurb, a self-publishing system that helps you create hardcover books.

To publish with Blurb, you compose your book in their custom software, BookSmart. BookSmart includes a number of design templates and starter text. The focus is on books neavy in pictures: coffee table books, travelogues, cookbooks, family albums, and the like. There's a pre-designed template for blog books, if you want to preserve your online musings on paper. Text-only templates aren't yet available but are coming soon.

The software is a little slow -- at least on my Mac Powerbook G4 -- but it's intuitive to use and flexible despite being template-based. At it encourages you to stick to a consistent design style, which helps the final product be polished and high-quality.

Once you've composed the book, you send it to Blurb and order however many copies you want. At $29.95 each for up to 40 pages, and more for longer books, they're not cheap. There are discounts for bulk orders, but even so this isn't the way to write yourself into a retirement nest egg.

This isn't the cheapest self-publishing option, but I'd recommend it for small batches of gift books -- a family album or cookbook, baby shower gift, anniversary gift. The convenience is striking.

I haven't seen a finished book, and of course that's the proof of the pudding. But if I create one soon -- maybe a holiday gift? -- I'll report back here on the results.

Have you had personal experience with Blurb or any other self-publisher? Share your story in the comments.

Posted by Cindy on October 09, 2006
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