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Blurb makes it possible for anyone to become a published author and share, market,or sell those books to a wider audience. Blurb produced nearly 80,000 unique titlesin 2007. To put this in perspective, Simon & Schuster publishes approximately 1,800titles annually, and Random House, with more than 100 editorially independentimprints worldwide, published 9,000 new titles in 2006. Blurb s title output isnearly 8x the combined number of titles released by these traditional publishinghouses, and as a result, the company doubled in size every three months in 2007.Compared to traditional publishing, custom print-on-demand books are more personal,economical, green, and profitable for the everyday authors who make them.
The self-publishing explosion is being driven by a dramatic increase in digitalcamera sales, which in 2007 grew twice as fast as the industry expected. 2.1 millionDSLR units shipped in the U.S. last year up 37% over 2006. (Source: InfoTrends).As a result, creative professionals and consumers have enormous libraries of digitalimages ready for bookmaking.
Flickr, the popular photo sharing website, just celebrated its two-billionthuploaded photo in November of 2007, and according to Technorati, 120,000 new blogsare being created worldwide each day. People are writing and photographing likenever before and this fosters an increased desire to create real, tangible thingslike books.
Although consumers are still new to the opportunities of self publishing, the toolsare now in place to help them create high quality books using their own content, said InfoTrends analyst Mette Eriksen. InfoTrends estimates that the photo bookmarket grew by 166% in 2007. This market will continue to grow as more consumersbecome aware of the opportunities that companies like Blurb offer. Blurb send-to-end platform that offers consumers ease of use combined with a high qualityfinished product is one of the drivers for market adoption.
Blurb is redefining how success is measured in publishing, said Eileen Gittins,Blurb s founder and CEO. For some, success is creating a book that helps raisemoney for a foundation, for others it might be selling 25 copies of one s own book,and for still others it might be a marketing piece like an event book or portfolio.Unlike traditional publishers whose economics drive a focus on the best-seller,Blurb is expanding the book market to include books for millions of very small,niche markets.
To create and publish a Blurb book, users start by downloading Blurb BookSmart software from the Blurb Web site. Blurb s BookSmart software is free, runs on a Macor PC, and offers a wide variety of book layouts created by professional bookdesigners. The software enables anyone to affordably make, share, and marketbeautiful, bookstore-quality books. Prices start at 6.95 and authors can order onlyone book or many.
About BlurbBlurb is a company and a community that believes passionately in the power of books:making, reading, sharing, and selling them. Blurb s creative publishing service issimple and smart enough to make anyone an author every blogger, artist, marketer,photographer, traveller, entrepreneur, poet, everyone. Additionally, Blurb sbookstore and online marketing tools let Blurb authors sell and promote their books,and keep 100% of the author s markup. Blurb s community features designed toencourage collaboration and communication are defining social print media. Foundedby Eileen Gittins in 2004 and funded by Canaan Partners and Anthem Venture Partners,Blurb is bringing book publishing to the masses. Blurb BookSmart software is freefor Mac or PC; users pay only when they publish their books. The software isavailable for download at www.blurb.com .
