Blurb and the art of Print on Demand: guest post by Chris Chinchilla [08.11.2010]
The world of self publishing and print-on-demand is a rapidly expanding one. It scares the bejesus out of many publishers, with writers and creators flocking to do everything themselves, thus pushing us and our expertise to the sidelines.
That’s one side of the coin; the other is that it gives small publishers the opportunity to take on a low-risk project they’re keen to undertake but in which they can’t necessarily afford to invest too many resources. Up until recently, a few print-on-demand services have worked well for Australian based creators. Now US based service, Blurb, has opened offices in Sydney, allowing transactions in Australian dollars and taking Australian shipping rates into account.
There is one major difference between Blurb and other print-on-demand services. While many other POD services will distribute your books to a variety of on and off line retailers and take a cut out of each of your sales, blurb will simply create and deliver your books, allowing you to do what you choose with them.
As with most print-on-demand services, prices aren’t cheap, starting from $3.50 for a small B&W paperback upwards towards large, full colour hardback with everything in-between. The service is aimed primarily at people creating small, personal projects for family and friends, but there is still the potential for publisher’s projects. Where Blurb excels is in their creation process, with options for everyone from design and layout experts to people who have never worked with page layout in their lives. On offer are InDesign templates, Mac & Windows software, browser based creation and even a panel of (paid) experts to advise should you get stuck. All of this is delivered in a friendly, attractive and accessible package.
Take a look here to find out more or have a listen to the (long) interview with the very eloquent Robin Golderg from her recent trip to Melbourne (complete with some slightly dodgy editing).
Chris Chinchilla has been a ground breaking eZine writer, indie rockstar, solo troubadour, professional geek, activist, street press writer and much more… He believes in not preaching to the converted and breaking open ideas to make them appealing and accesible to everyone. Now as the new publisher at aduki Independent press he intends to do much the same. Watch this space…
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Comments
Emmett Stinson — 08 November at 02:43PM
P.O.D. for academic publishing is already pretty common here, and you’re definitely right that we’ll see more and more of it here for niche publications, especially with the arrival of Ingram in Australia next year: http://www.ingramcontent.com/newsroom_detail.aspx?id=302