“For me, photography ebooks open up my work to a variety of people who might otherwise not be able to experience the story or project I’m working on. I see a marriage between print books and ebooks where both options work in tandem to provide the publisher with a variety of avenues to reach the widest possible audience. Ebooks can be sold at a lower rate, which potentially allows a wider, and more far-flung demographic to experience the work.”
-Dan Milnor, Blurb Photographer At Large
Blurb ebooks are now available for any book made with Blurb BookSmart® or Blurb Bookify™ (with PDF to Book support coming soon). And we think this is pretty big: Full resolution, beautiful versions of your books on Apple’s iOS® devices for a fraction of the cost of the printed book. And while much of the ebook market has focused on novels, here we’re focusing on something else: ephotobooks.
For artists, putting out a collection of work has typically been a balancing act between aesthetics and economics. Hard copies cost money to make. Yet using the web to show work has meant free distribution, with limited ways to monetize that work.
National Geographic photographer Michael Nichols recently switched from using his website to showcase his work to using an iPad app because he “just couldn’t give it away anymore.” Not that no one wanted it, but he wanted people to value it. Meanwhile photo book maker Michael Mack has gone the app route because of his disappointment with the collector’s market. So it’s a shift already in progress.
Of course making an app is an expensive undertaking, requiring a developer. A Blurb ephotobook that runs on the iBooks app, however, presents artists with an entirely disruptive format for distribution. Everything becomes more affordable for the bookmaker:
1) Cost of production: Right now the base price of an ebook is just $9.99, cheaper than our smallest Black and White book option — it’s also significantly less than what anyone else charges for ebook conversion (which can cost up to $10 per page).
2) Profits: Our Set Your Price program means that how much you make on your book is up to you. Blurb takes a simple 20% commission on each ebook sold (unless, of course, you’ve set your price to 0.00).
3) Distribution: No shipping costs, no waiting time for delivery, virtually no geographic boundaries.
4) Scalability: You use the same tools to make an ebook as you do a printed book on Blurb, so there’s no time lost going from one format to another, and no cost for different tools.
And the aesthetic experience doesn’t lag either. With a backlit screen, the ebook more closely mimics what the bookmaker sees on screen. The images are full resolution too. So with ebooks, it’s not a balancing act. It’s more of a perfect union of aesthetics and economics.
And what about the relationship to printed books? We believe there’s a place for both. As beautiful as the iPad is, it’s not the same as our [ProLine Uncoated paper].
Ultimately, we don’t know if ephotobooks will enjoy the same privileged place on the bookshelf as Robert Frank’s The Americans, Lee Friedlander’s America by Car, or William Eggleston’s Guide. But there’s tremendous opportunity for many more photographers to release their work for a lower cost on a medium that’s gaining increasing popularity.
As Darius Himes, lead judge for Photography Book Now 2011 has said, “Both illustrated ebooks and printed, physical books… I’m sure certain artists will thrive in one arena or the other, whereas the rare individual will utilize both platforms to launch amazing projects.”
64 Comments
As a photographer, this development is extremely interesting, and I am truly pleased that Blurb has moved in this direction.
However, I am finding more in-depth information hard to come by, and am not certain as to who to contact for questions. For example, how do we go about getting the ISBN number that was mentioned? Does Blurb do this? And to see our books on iTunes, what needs to be done?
Any insight or help is appreciated!
Hey Tamara,
I’m glad you’re excited. We’ll be making a more detailed announcement soon.
best
Kent
This is very exciting news! Being a pro photographer, and book designer, I can’t wait to make ebooks for the iPad. Thanks for developing this new option in your book publishing services!!
I’ve just bought my own book, and it is pretty easy – I was hoping it’d be possible to get it into Apple’s store too, though.
Some more info at the checkout stage would be useful (i.e. what to do with it next), and some advise on getting the metadata correct – my name didn’t show as the author, for example.
That all being said, I’m very impressed, and look forward to pushing this pretty hard when it gets a bit more polished!
Great news. Is it possible to simultaneously publish a printed version AND an ebook?
Quick question. What type, if any, of Digital Rights Management (DRM) will be avalable to protect our ebooks?
…..Tony
Sounds great, though being new to ebooks I’m not sure if this allows or prevents people form using your book images for their own purposes?
What about distribution of the e-book? Does blurb publishes on the iBooks section of iTunes? Or do we need to do the publishing ourselves by submitting the e-book to iTunes Connect?
Hey Jossi,
We will have support for selling on the iBookstore soon.
Best,
Kent
Hey Marc,
Absolutely. You use the same bookmaking tools. You’ll see the option to buy as an ebook or a printed copy right in the bookstore.
best
Kent
Hey Mark,
Thanks for the feedback! Support for the iBookstore is coming.
If you didn’t see your author name associated with your ebook, feel free to drop a line to our support team: http://bit.ly/jr06Fj
Thank you for making your ebook with Blurb.
Best,
Kent
Hey Cally,
We think it provides bookmakers with a pretty safe way to distribute their books. While possible, it’s harder for people to take images from an ebook than, say, from a website where images are posted.
best
Kent
Hey Tony,
Right now, we’re not implementing any DRM. On the balance of things, we think openness is the way to go, since DRM often makes legitimate sharing difficult for the content creators. Also, the more layers we add, the more it drives up the development cost . Still, we always want to hear your feedback.
best
Kent
Will there be an eBook version for the Android operating system?
Including books created with the PDF to Book option would be much appreciated. It’s a little disappointing that it isn’t available now. Any information about when we might expect it to become available, even in terms as general as quarter 1 2012 or next month?
Is it possible to make previously published books available as an ebook?
I just downloaded six books to my iPad. The photo image quality and layout is superb, but there was no retention of the fonts used for title and text. Are there plans for support of custom fonts?
Hi,
I see that you will have support for selling ebooks on the iBooks store but what about amazon.com? Also, will these ebooks be compatible with the Kindle?
Thanks,
Elisabeth
Hi Kent, my concern was how easy would it be to illegally copy an ebook and obviously create a black market for photographers work.
I created a book with Bookify last year — how can I get it in an ebook? When I go to my book settings I am not finding any option for that.
How will prices of e-books compare to printed fine art photo books, which are always very expensive? For example Kindle wants them to be $9.99 or less.
what about support for the Kindle?
especially for the new Kindle Fire thats coming out….
Hey Patryk,
I can’t make any promises, but we’re working on a number of ways to get Blurb ebooks into more people’s hands. Of course, much of this has to do with formats, and the openness of different platforms, which isn’t something we can control.
best
Kent
Hey Fred,
The launch price for our ebooks is just $1.99. Printed book prices start at $5.95 (for a color book). So it’s considerably less. Of course, bookmakers can set their own prices for their books, so it’s not possible to give you an absolute price.
best
Kent
Hey Donna,
You should see the option to order it as an ebook from your book’s page in the Blurb Bookstore. You’ll see it right above the printed book options. You can make it available to others by going to the “Seller Options” on your book details page.
best
Kent
If I make an ebook, how does Blurb get paid?
Hey Elisabeth,
Naturally, we’d love to see Blurb ebooks everywhere. We’ll be making a number of improvements to distribution methods, but I can’t make any specific promises about platforms or formats.
best
Kent
Hey Melinda,
That’s fantastic. The images do look nice, don’t they? As for fonts, this has to do with issues around font licensing. Simply put, there are millions (just estimating) of fonts in the world, and each has to be paid for, which would drive up the cost for everyone. But our goal is to make every book look fantastic, so we’re constantly looking for ways to improve this aspect.
best,
Kent
Hey Ted,
Yes, any book you made with BookSmart or Bookify can be ordered as an ebook. Just log in, go to your books in the Blurb Bookstore, and you’ll see the option to buy as an ebook right above your printed book options.
Best
Kent
Hey Mark,
I totally understand your disappointment around that. PDF to Book is a bit more complicated because there are infinite ways those books can be made (whereas BookSmart and Bookify are much more standard). It will be early 2012, but no exact date that I can announce.
best,
Kent
Hey Deronda,
No specific plans for that yet, but we’re certainly seeing some requests for it. Thank you for letting us know it’s something you want.
best,
Kent
Hey Neal,
Our base price for ebooks is currently $1.99. You can set your price on top of that, and you keep all of that markup. Our Bookstore handles all the details. If you have more questions, check out our Set Your Price page.
best
Kent
Hi Kent — not seeing it on this book. I did see it on the other one just as you described it.
http://www.blurb.com/my/book/detail/1767840#share-pane
Hey Donna,
Not sure what’s going on with that. Go ahead and drop a line to our Support Team, they can help you out: http://bit.ly/jr06Fj
best
Kent
thanks!
Hey Chester,
It’s a valid concern, but even DRM is no guarantee against piracy. It’s always a trade-off, but we think most people will support the bookmakers they like by purchasing the ebook. Still, it’s good feedback, and something we could consider if demand is strong enough.
best
Kent
Wonderful, wonderful and wonderful. It was I was waiting.
Great
Examples on the Blurb website show much of the iPad screen wasted. Can we make ebooks in 1024×768?
This is great! Many thanks. Any plans to add the capability of viewing our books one page at the time in portrait mode. Would be easier to read with my old eyes.
I find it not so good looking that when you acces the book from ibooks, you get a left page ( white) next to the cover, is there a way to only show 11 page at the beginning and the end?
But I do like the rest of the book!
Thanks,
Saskia
Hey Saskia,
Glad you like it! Unfortunately, we don’t have control over the cover issue, as it’s part of the iBooks format. But if Apple ever makes any changes around that, we will bring it to our ebooks.
best
Kent
Hey Bill,
I’m really happy you like it. The page-at-a-time option is something we hope to add in a future release.
best
Kent
Hey John,
We developed ebooks in this way so that people who’ve made printed books could convert their books without having to change their book layouts. However, if you’re looking to make something specific for the iPad, our Standard Portrait book size is pretty close to occupying the full screen.
best
Kent
Kent: I’d like a Blurb app where I can download my books (purchased of course) directly from Blurb in epub format for my Android device.
When the iPhone hit the market, it was the only thing like it out there but now there are dozens of Android phones taking a significant market share.
In a similar fashion, there are many Android tablets poised to hit the market. You will be leaving out a large audience if you do not develop something that works on the Android platform. This would include Kindle, Nook, or Overdrive versions since those apps all run on Android.
Hello C Gardner,
Ebooks has been a big project for us, and we’re certainly not done yet. I can’t make any promises on formats and devices, but we’d love to see Blurb ebooks everywhere anyone wants to read them. Stay tuned for more.
best
Kent
Hey Kathy,
I definitely hear you and your feedback is great. We’re starting with Apple right now, but obviously we’d love to see our ebooks everywhere. I can’t make any specific promises about platforms, but I can say that we’re certainly not done with ebooks.
best
Kent
Very, very cool! Can you also add hyperlinks in the e-book?
Hey Lise,
Glad you’re excited. Right now we don’t have that functionality. But this is just the beginning for the humble ebook.
best
Kent
Just converted two of my books to iPad to see how it worked. At first I thought that it was a mess, because my epub reader is Stanza. It looks TERRIBLE in it. I opened it in iBooks and it works just great in there.
I think it would be important to highlight that a bit more.
One thing that has me worried is the security. In the order email I got the two hyperlinks to download the epub. That means that I can download the file as many times as I want or that I can share that link with anyone and they can download the file, no?
I’d like to see a feature that limits the number of downloads on a file, both by date and by number of downloads. I have bought other ebooks, and they say that the link works for 7 days after the purchase OR after XX number of downloads.
Is this something that could be considered?
Hey Juan,
Yep, right now our ebooks are iOS optimized. So they’ll always look better on an idevice. I’m glad you like how it looks in iBooks.
As for download limitations, it’s something we could consider. In general, we favor openness because too many hoops can make it difficult for bookmakers to legitimately share or re-download their work. We do require anyone downloading an ebook to register with Blurb, so it’s not as easy as just clicking a link. Still, we’re always listening to our customers.
best
Kent
Plans are on the way to publish my first ebook and am glad that I found this topic.
Hey Jose,
That’s fantastic. We think it’s a pretty neat way to get your work out there.
best
Kent
Hi Kent, just received my first book from Blurb..followed all the instructions on your site and I am using a calibrated system, yet my book was printed way too dark. Any comments or advice and do I have any recourse.
Hey Chester,
Thanks for writing to us. You should contact our Support Team. They’re a great resource and they can help figure out what’s amiss.
best
Kent
Repeat from another poster:
Anything in the works to enable Android ebooks? In particular, ebooks for Kindle Fire?
Hey Barney,
We want to get Blurb ebooks on every screen imaginable, so stay tuned for future developments.
Kent
Hello,
I have just made my blurb book available as an e-book.
Will it automatically appear in I-tunes bookstore index ?
And if there is an ISBN number allocated where can I find out what it is?
I don’t have access to I-pad/phone to check.
Thankyou.
Hey Rennie,
Currently we’re busing tuning up the iBookstore submission process to make sure it runs smoothly for everyone. So, for the moment, you won’t be able to submit. Once we’ve brought it back, you will be able to get an eISBN number.
So, hang tight and watch our blog for details.
best
kent
This is awesome, I’ve already made two ebooks,
I’m just wondering when your PDF to ebook option is becoming available?
And also if we are going to get the option with
A isbn bar so they can be sold automatically on amazon etc?
Kind regards anton
Hey Anton,
We’re working on PDF to ebook. I can’t give you an exact date, but hold tight. We know it’s something people want.
As for ISBNs, it’s something we’re thinking about. But the feedback is really appreciated.
best
Kent
Any news of when it will be possible to make ebooks for Kindle?
Been “promised” for a while, but seems a long time coming :-(
Hey Morag, I wish I could give you some concrete dates on this. It is high on our list, however. We’ll let you know when it’s coming.
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[...] $1.99 iPad eBook Publishing Service October 18, 2011Online book publishing service Blurb today launched a new way to publish collections of photos – as an eBook for the iPad. The new eBooks come in [...]