This is not a great book. The only distinguishing feature is that this was the first. The first of my over three hundred Blurb titles. Uploaded on January 29th, 2007. A test book. Let me hit you with this again, just to be sure. A TEST BOOK. Blurb was new, unknown to me. I didn’t know the software, the upload process, the paper or cover types, nor did I fully understand the functionality of the backend bookstore. I was flying blind. My wife returned from New York with a flyer. “Do you know this company, Blurb?” she asked. “Never heard of them,” I replied.
I stopped what I was doing, downloaded the software, and made the book you see here. Total time, roughly thirty minutes.
I was a full-time photographer during this period, and I was also a bookmaker. Had been for over a decade, but Blurb was something new, something different. I didn’t realize at the time that Blurb would change the course of my life and career. A week or so later, the book arrived, and I made a quick inspection. I’d included both color and black and white images, work from a multi-year, ongoing project about the North Shore of Oahu, because I wanted to see how the company responded to a variety of image types. I lacked the training to include much text, and my design was nonexistent.
The book was good. I’d seen better, but the better books were extremely limited and extremely expensive, and I had no way of selling the better books because those brands didn’t have a bookstore or any other marketing tools. To sell the better books meant I was marketing, shipping, receiving, etc. I was living in Los Angeles, and anyone who has ever been to the post office in Los Angeles knows how troubling the experience can be. I once walked into my local post office to see a man beating his child who had crawled into an abandoned cardboard box in an attempt to avoid the blows while another man peed in the corner. On a tiny television screen high above, a nature show played out with a crocodile ripping apart a wildebeest. I vowed never to return.
I made a book for a client, and when she came to the house to pick up her book, I showed her the finished Blurb book and a finished better book. She handled them both, then looked at me and said, “You can probably see multiple differences between these books, but I can get ten of the Blurb books for every one copy of the other, and I can send my clients to the bookstore to buy more. From now on, print me Blurb books.” And with that, my life changed.
The next 120 books I completed were sold to clients.
Every shoot I completed was finished in book form without the client being asked. I made the edit, the sequence, designed the spreads, branded the book with my studio logo and contact info, and then reached out to the client to let them know the book existed. The most common reaction was relief. Yes, relief. Clients aren’t photographers. They don’t edit, sequence, and design for a living. Clients are busy. Making a book is daunting. I solved this for them, and in doing so, found a way for clients to pay for my marketing materials.
I was also making my books. All my documentary projects were printed in Blurb form. I sold stacks at trade shows and photo festivals. I made over a dozen edition-of-one art books. Curators began asking about collecting these strange little artifacts, so I started a new series titled “Artifacts,” and continued to dream up new one-off titles. I was approached by multiple publishers to do traditionally published photography books, but I said, “Thanks, but no thanks.” A loaner at heart and practice, Blurb was my perfect companion.
Blurb was and is an engine running in the background of my life. I tell stories. That’s what I do, and what I will, most likely, always do. When people ask what I would do if I won the lottery, I always respond the same way. “I’d be doing the same thing I’m doing now, only a lot slower.” I’ve been working for Blurb for fifteen years, and the company is rapidly approaching its 20th anniversary. What a ride it’s been. For fifteen years, I’ve continued to make books and zines and everything in between, but more importantly, I’ve assisted thousands of other people in the telling of their stories. This makes me intensely happy. I don’t have children, but in some ways, Blurb customers are my kids. You might have had fun in Little League, but watching your child hit a home run is far sweeter than hitting one yourself. That’s how this feels.
Even after all these books, I still see myself as a novice, a rookie making rookie mistakes. I dream about books more than I make books. Designs play out in my head as I move through life. Reaching for gluten-free bread at Trader Joe’s and suddenly I’m a million miles away, wondering what typeface would pair nicely with a certain image. I dream of time, mostly. Time to do more, to go deeper, to get better. Time to make better photographs, so I can make better books. Our species is intimately tied to the telling of our story, and I see Blurb as a small part of continuing this tradition. From the cave wall to the HP Indigo to your front door.
Comments 23
Congrats on 20 years with Blurb- they are fortunate to have such a multi- talented inspirational creative and awesome human on their team!!
Author
Robbie! Very kind of you. I’m just squirrel trying to find a nut. (Stolen from a friend of mine.)
Every customer would be blessed to have you as their guide in book making and storytelling journey. I don’t think there is any better human being for this role in Blurb!
Author
Geez, nice of you my friend. You are being kind. I’m a C-student at best.
I use Blurb books to tell my kids and grand kids where I came from, how I got here, what things were like before they could remember, and record the world around me. My major theme is “Where you are now, I once was. What I am now, you will become.”
Good Job, Dan
Author
Well said Wayne. Those kids are lucky to have you.
I love being able to pull a book off the shelf and leaf through photos and memories, without having to use a computer. I’ve done 13 books through Blurb. 6 are big hard covers with 4 of them being lay flat. I dithered about that choice, but when you’re talking lovely landscapes of Yukon or New Zealand, the phrase go big or go home rang in my brain. The other books are smaller softcovers done for various purposes. I’ve got another on the go, and you just gave me the idea of doing a book for an event I’m shooting at the end of the month. Should be fun, though editing down from a thousand or more race photos is going to be tough.
Author
You are a Blurb Pro my friend. Thank you for the support. And congratulations, you are in the top 5% for doers. Lots of people talk, lots watch but few take action. Your comment about editing is spot on. It’s an equal player to the work itself.
Dan, your writing and overall encouragement has helped me overcome my tendency to try and make a perfect product before letting anyone is allowed to see it. As a result, I use to just get too frustrated and gave up. Now, I print my pictures, created my own website where I write articles that I enjoy and am making small books and zines after I come back from traveling.
Thanks for what you do!
Author
This makes me happy. And after all, what’s perfect? Not even sure what that means. My wife might argue she knows when she looks in the mirror but with photography and books, come on. Glad I could be of service.
I’ve given this a try. I had made three zines at this point. I can’t believe how inexpensive a small (# of pages) is. I have one 72 pages and it was $18.00 and the print quality is great. My zines are more of catalog’s then anything else. I don’t read for entertainment but I do love photography books. I would love to get more creative with design but I’m sort of a literal guy and could learn a lot about being creative when it comes to book making. Thanks for the inspiration I never would have done this without running into your YouTube channel. I’m giving a small talk in a couple weeks to photographers and I’m going to show my zines and promote the heck out of this. What a great way to see your work. Thank you!
“Time to do more, to go deeper, to get better. Time to make better photographs, so I can make better books”
Mate, this quote’s a proper kick in the guts for inspiration! I’m slapping it on my office wall to give me a daily spark. It’s the ultimate ‘get off me arse, stop dreaming and start doing’ vibe for my epic long-term photography project!
Author
Good. But do this. Start with a short, two-day shoot close to home. Use that to build so you can make progress. The long term deal might take months/years, so give yourself a hand up. Work off the cobwebs.
You all have inspired me to make a zine. I am retiring soon, and as part of my job in a high school library, I enjoy making monthly themed displays, using coloured paper, MS Word, and a photocopier. The limitations of the materials and time make the process easier, and the mission is to promote books, literacy, and understanding (“Books can be a window or a mirror”). I take photos of the displays, as some are re-used, and it has been useful to have a guide for re-making the displays. I will be losing access to my files when I retire, so I will start now, gather my favourite display photos, and make myself a zine of them. These will be easy to write about, too. As I’m typing this, I think I will also include some of the signs I made. It will be my “portfolio” from my 9 years working there. I will miss the students, who can be annoying and inspiring, as they learn and grow, and show that change is possible. I will miss working with teachers, who are all life-long learners with fascinating side-gigs, and are grossly underpaid for their time and work. It has been like working at a book club and I will miss it, but am looking forward to more free time.
Author
Lisa, wish I had met you decades ago. Based on what I know about you, and your writings, I feel like I’d be better off knowing you. Your comments are always so well written and meaningful. Not sure where you live but if we cross paths, it’s on me.
Blurb is, as you say, a life changer. Not financially (as if!) but as a way of consolidating work into coherent packages (33 books and magazines so far…). Sales are few, but I deposit a copy of each into my old college library so that posterity has at least a chance of stumbling across me. I’ll never know, of course, but then neither did William Blake… 😉
But…
I don’t know how it is in the US, but in the UK the cost of shipping is prohibitive to sales. I recently made three copies of a 20-page magazine for myself for £12.00 — excellent! — but then £15.74 was added for “Shipping and Handling”. There has to be a better way… Perhaps you can encourage Blurb to find it?
Mike
Author
Ahhhh, shipping is so tough. I love Blurb or any other platform that allows for encapsulating projects.
Thank you, Dan. My path through photography (images) is pretty philosophical but I have been struggling with “creative spark” (or lack thereof) recently. Your posts highlight that there is something to the idea of tangible/physical media that is extremely compelling (especially in this current world of social media).
Author
If you lack the spark, unplug for a while.
Dan, we did meet, at the Victoria, BC Blurb event last year, and you kindly bought a drink for everyone! (I was the one with the in-progress book of photos of the port). Thanks for your kind words. I would encourage everyone to make the effort to go to a Blurb event with Dan- it was well worth the day off work.
Author
Yes! The port book is awesome!
Congratulations for the post Dan. I enjoyed it. You are right, making books is so complicated that even with a huge expertise in this field I always would feel like a novice. I do now. I’m always struggling with edition, and not even talking about book design. What a nightmare would be being a professional.
Author
Requires someone with a vast array of skills.