I can’t tell you how many people have signed up for our 1-month-old Set Your Price program. What’s even more impressive is how these Blurbarians are generating sales above and beyond their Blurb bookstores. They’re creating pages on their sites or writing blog posts that link directly to their book detail page in the Bookstore.
For those of you looking for ideas on how to market and sell your books from your Web sites and blogs, here’s a bit of inspiration:
Janet Zinn’s photography books of Brazil, Peru, and Rome, all available for purchase through her Web site.
Photographer John Thawley’s Exploring Speed and Light book, smartly highlighted on the American Le Mans site.
Francesco Gallarotti describes his first photography book via his blog.
Kohjiro Kinno and his Kendo Team book sold via a dedicated book page on his site.
And one of our perennial favorites — Nick Wilson’s Mendocino in the Seventies — which has sold over 300 copies.
Hats off to the Blurbarians who are selling their books and making a profit.
Post examples of your own bookselling tips as comments or send emails to our blog.
8 Comments
Well, thank you for citing me here! Now, next question would be obviously how did you find my site? Do you monitor every book publication on Blurb.com or did you use some search Engine (Google maybe?) to find everyone who is talking about Blurb.com?
Also, to let you know, this weekend I will expand that review with some other interesting information about Blurb’s customer service and about the softcover version of the book.
It would be much easier to generate sales of our books if your international shipping prices were not so ridiculously expensive. Why does it cost more to get the book shipped than it does to get it printed? You really need to investigate lower-cost shipping options.
Otherwise, I love what you’re doing. I just can’t afford to use you because of the shipping costs.
Hi Francesco – We’re always on the search for what users our saying about Blurb. I like to troll Technorati and Google for Blurb mentions a couple of times a week … and that’s how I came across your site.
Matt – If you peek at our Brilliant Suggestions post, you’ll notice some talk about international shipping. We’re doing our best to evaluate the situation and hope to have improvements over time. Until then, let us know what shipping methods you prefer by posting to the Brilliant Suggestions post. Thanks.
Hi Kathy, thanks for featuring my site! I’m truly flattered. Looking at my sales report page it occurred to me that it would be really great to know who is buying the books, would be nice to be able to aggregate a mailing list of folks so I could let them know when something new is published, for instance. Any chance of including buyers emails on the sales report?
Hi Janet – Thanks for the great feedback on our Set Your Price program. Your suggestion is on a long list of specs we’ll be considering in the future. We’ll continue to monitor this and other suggestions from program participants. Thanks!
After five years, it doesn’t appear any progress has been made in terms of ridiculously expensive shipping. I sense Blurb recognizes this as cash cow profit sector.
Hey Michael,
I understand your frustration with shipping prices. We actually do not making any money on shipping. Companies like Amazon can take deep cuts in shipping because they get huge wholesale discounts on the products they sell. Since every book we make is unique, we can’t do that. But we do try to offset those costs as much as possible with special offers.
best,
Kent