I saw a video podcast today that had a short segment about the site blurb.com. This site provides software called BookSmart to download and install on your computer. BookSmart will allow you to create a book in a number of different sizes. Once you have finished creating your book, you can actually have it published and printed in hard-cover of soft-cover.Â
There is the option to keep it private and only for you, or for anyone to purchase. Blurb sets their price, then you name the customer’s price and keep anything higher than Blurb’s minimum. In other words, if Blurb sets a minimum price of $21.95, I could set the price at anything higher than that. If I set it at $28.95, I would be making $7.00 per book sold.
From what I’ve seen, the quality of the book is high. You can actually configure how each photo or text looks on each individual page, as well as the entire cover. I plan to have something published by the end of the year for my family. It will be for us only, but I will definitely post my reaction to the final product when that time comes. Check out blurb.com and let me know what you think.
Great post Brandon.
I thought I would comment since I just downloaded the BookSmart software from Blurb.com myself.
I was initially all set to publish my book on firefighter photography with Lulu.com, until I read so much about Blurb’s superior print quality.
But it’s their BookSmart software that really got me. The ease of use, and ability to quickly layout book pages is so simple a teenager could do it. It reminds me of iMovie in a way, you make a book the same way you’d normally make a slideshow.
BookSmart is very intuitive, incredible software that I think will revolutionize book publishing, and give the power back to the author.
Good luck in your publishing future.
I have created and published 5 books on booksmart and it is incredible!