'Nuther Entry in the DIY Book Market
…but this time, the design’s included. More from today’s NYTimes:
When Steve Mandel, a management trainer from Santa Cruz, Calif., wants to show his friends why he stays up late to peer through a telescope, he pulls out a copy of his latest book, “Light in the Sky,” filled with pictures he has taken of distant nebulae, star clusters and galaxies.
Mr. Mandel, 56, put his book together himself with free software from Blurb.com. The 119-page edition is printed on coated paper, bound with a linen fabric hard cover, and then wrapped with a dust jacket. Anyone who wants one can buy it for $37.95, and Blurb will make a copy just for that buyer.
The print-on-demand business is gradually moving toward the center of the marketplace. What began as a way for publishers to reduce their inventory and stop wasting paper is becoming a tool for anyone who needs a bound document. Short-run presses can turn out books economically in small quantities or singly, and new software simplifies the process of designing a book.
As the technology becomes simpler, the market is expanding beyond the earliest adopters, the aspiring authors. The first companies like AuthorHouse, Xlibris, iUniverse and others pushed themselves as new models of publishing, with an eye on shaking up the dusty book business. They aimed at authors looking for someone to edit a manuscript, lay out the book and bring it to market.
The newer ventures also produce bound books, but they do not offer the same hand-holding or the same drive for the best-seller list. Blurb’s product will appeal to people searching for a publisher, but its business is aimed at anyone who needs a professional-looking book, from architects with plans to present to clients, to travelers looking to immortalize a trip.
Interesting. An amalgamation of iPhoto’s book design templates with Lulu’s printing capabilities — available to anyone, Mac or PC.
On the one hand, it’s nice to see a decentralization of the publishing world. Print-on-demand allows all sorts of projects, including academic and documentary pieces, to be published that wouldn’t have been otherwise. So this is another in a long string of Good Things™.
On the other, more people without taste — or a clue — will be able to publish their stuff, cheaply and easily. Perhaps less of a Good Thing.
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Posted by Giles, Thursday, July 20, 2006, at 11:30 AM.
Posted to Book design | Book printers | Printing | Publishing | Technology
