Blurb.com Gets Book Smart
By Jeff MacIntyre| Also by this reporter
02:00 AM Aug, 30, 2006
Those who can't publish, blog. It's one of the enduring knocks against the blogosphere. But what happens when any blogger, or blog reader, has one-button access to cheaply printing a neatly bound, customized slice of Kottke.org?
Blurb.com, a self-publishing startup, will invite 600 bloggers this week to test out its new service by creating a free bound copy of their blog. It's a fresh shot across the bow to traditional publishers in an industry already facing disruptive changes from digital giants Google and Amazon.
Blurb CEO Eileen Gittins wants to position Blurb authors at the forefront of an increasingly digital publishing landscape, where a high Technorati rank is as important as a place on The New York Times bestseller list in traditional publishing.
"Increasingly, content is becoming structured," she said. "We're working to allow people to read and publish from tags, for instance. Blog is just one flavor of content we will slurp. Distribution in the publishing industry is becoming all about making a book discoverable across the web, increasing its visibility to potential readers." Gittins likes to point out the emerging markup language standard for cookbooks, RecipeML.
The blog-to-book feature isn't cheap. An 8-by-10 full-color, hardcover book with custom dust jacket costs between $30 and $80. But it's part of a larger attempt to nip at the heels of its better-known competitors including Lulu and iUniverse by offering features they don't (others include extensive customization options, an e-commerce storefront, and forthcoming tagging and metadata add-ons). Blurb executives are also making the conference rounds, from last year's PopTech to this spring's Maker Faire, as well as this November's Web 2.0 Conference, where Gittins plans to create a bound conference compendium on stage in 10 minutes.
Some observers are counting down the minutes to publishing's Napster moment. But others aren't so sure.
"The role of a 21st-century publisher is making books available offline and on," said Brian Murray, group president of HarperCollins, which announced nine months ago it would digitize its entire library and offer tools like browsing as well as audio and video to compete with Amazon and iTunes. HarperCollins is, far and away, the most digitally progressive traditional publisher.
HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman says self-publishing is little more than a vanity press. "A good book will get published," she said. "Self-publishing is denying that fact. The filters of agent, editor and publisher are still essential."
Pundit Jeff Jarvis, who has written extensively about the future of book publishing, disagrees. "Every author I know says the publishers don't get the job done on marketing -- they end up having to do their own. As for a middleman, you can sell enough books on Amazon now to make it worthwhile."
"The face of publishing will change," he said. "As for who wins, the big guy or the little guy -- I have no idea."
One example, Jarvis said, is the college textbook. In the near future, they'll be sold by print-on-demand subscription. Updates and community wiki features will be available online as well as in a hardbound version.
Academic journals are another publishing niche, he notes, widely recognized as on the precipice of major transformation.
"Everyone knows that if you don't recognize the digital space you'll be left out in the cold sooner or later," Murray said. "But for us, there's no point in being fearful."
Gittins realizes the big houses are dismissive of her efforts. But the company must be doing something right -- it has been the target of two recent acquisition offers by technology companies. (Friedman said HarperCollins isn't interested: "To me, you're just buying more books.") Blurb also has sports licensing and a travel publishing deals in the works.
Increased attention aside, it's still too early to determine whether the company's approach will shake up the publishing industry.
"Blurb is additive; it might become disruptive," Jarvis said. "The whole biorhythm of publishing has to change. And it will."
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