In a Flickr, self-publishing service Blurb expands to Europe
San Francisco-based Blurb, a site that enables users to print as few as one copy of a book on demand, on Wednesday announced plans to expand its business to Europe.
The company plans to begin printing books in the Netherlands in three weeks. Europeans can now order books with a shipping time of 5 to 7 days (instead of 7 to 10 days) at a lower shipping rate.
Prints in Europe are set to maintain U.S. size standards: 7x7 inches, 8x10 inches and 13x11 inches. "We're going live with American sizes and see what the market prefers," said Eileen Gittins, CEO and founder of Blurb.
The Blurb team is now touring Europe--traveling to Berlin, Paris and London--to promote its self-publishing service to potential customers. Team members are tagging along with a tour group from Yahoo photo-sharing site Flickr, which is promoting its community-contributed 24 Hours of Flickr book of 122 photos.
The book, printed through Blurb's service, is now available online and is expected to soon hit bookstores worldwide.
The whole point of writing books is to get them off the shelves and into the hands of readers, a sometimes daunting task for the self-published writer. Commercial publishers sometimes can count on newspapers, magazines and online publications to offer reviews, but these are avenues rarely open to the self publisher, no matter the quality of the book. The Book Snob will provide profiles, news and reviews from the world of self publishing, hoping to correct that inequity.
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4. Books will be reviewed fairly but honestly. If you can't handle the criticism, don't send the book. Sending your book to me is your agreement that you will accept the publication of the verdict.
When submitting your book, please, include the following: your name, address, phone number, email address, book length and genre. If you have a great story to tell about your publishing experience, send that along, too. I likely will not be able to review every book I receive, but I will try my best.
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The Book Snob is a professional reviewer and self-published author with more than 20 years' experience major metropolitan newspapers and national publications.