“When I want to read a good book, I write one.” —Benjamin Disraeli
There are tons of options out there for making your own books, but a lot of “self-publishing” sites require a huge investment because they work on the theory that you want to sell your books to lots of people. But, alas, we little people are satisfied, sometimes, with just making a book or two — for ourselves, for our family, for presents, for a portfolio.
Here are a collection of a few of my favorite places where you can construct your very own book (from McDonald’s publishing to A list restaurant, so to speak) and none of these places force you to purchase more than a single copy of your book.
Espresso Book Machine
I posted about the Espresso Book Machine from On Demand Books a few weeks ago. I’m pretty obsessed with the fact that you can be standing in front of a machine, bookless, and ten minutes later have your self-written opus in your excited hands.
Lulu
I have no personal experience with lulu.com but I re-visit the page again and again, dreaming of the books I can create, sell (if you want you can set a price and sell your books online with no inventory costs), or give away. At Lulu, a paperback book with 100 pages can cost you less than $7, and you can order a new one anytime you want. A color comic book might cost you $15. You can also print cookbooks, textbooks, brochures, and there are even special software packages for children who want to create a book.
Lulu even has a Vintage Publishing service. This is more expensive ($150+ for the creation of the book, but regular prices apply to book purchases), but Lulu will scan in old books like scrapbooks, family heirlooms, or out-of-print books and turn them in to new, not-falling-apart books for your family to enjoy. They’ll also give you a high-quality pdf version.
Blurb
Blurb.com seems to be an artsier version of Lulu. Prices are a little steeper (for example, a 40 page 8×10 book is $20), but all include four color printing. There is also special, downloadable software if you need help building your book. You can flip through some already created books here. Book by Its Cover also did a very honest review of her blurb-created book, which I suggest you read before you take the plunge.
Good Stock
Good Stock is the cream of the book publication crop and is especially for those who want to make some kind of epic memory book probably for a momentous occasion like a birth, an anniversary, a wedding, etc. Yes, these books are expensive (maybe something like, say, $500), but I think they are amazing, beautiful, and incredibly professional, especially good for someone who knows he cannot quite create a fully-polished product on his own.
Kim at Good Stock has her own blog, and is one of the people who personally takes your shoebox full of pictures and memories and turns it into a visual story (with detailed input from you, of course). If you can’t afford your own book, you can look at some of the books already created here.
Book covers, in all their beauty, are often both an inspiration and an actual material for crafters. I zoomed around Etsy and the internet today to bring you some of my favorites in book crafts.
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man book cover Wallet ($35, ReboundDesigns on Etsy – lots of great wallets and some pricey but cute book purses)
Bobbsey Twins Book Purse ($45, ExLibrisPurses on Etsy — a new user, but I just love the orange insides!)
Donna Parker Goes to Hollywood Journal or Sketchbook made to your specifications (PenguinLovePress on Etsy, $20 — lots of vintage book covers ready to be made to your specs)
Assorted spiral bound book cover journals, $13 each
Make sure to visit my other Book Week posts here!
Since it’s book week and since this blog prides itself on finding creative things, I had to share the latest release from McSweeney’s Internet Tendency: Hamlet (Facebook Newsfeed Edition). This just gets funnier and funnier as it goes. Read the whole thing here.
I love books. I love reading them. I love looking at them. I love stacking them. Sometimes, I love them without ever even reading them (*gasp* weren’t you an English major in college?!).
“Even when reading is impossible, the presence of books acquired[...] produces such an ecstasy that the buying of more books than one can[...] read is nothing less than the soul reaching towards infinity[…] we cherish books even if unread, their mere presence exudes comfort, their ready access, reassurance.” —Alfred Edward Newton (1863 – 1940)
Books can be pretty, and to enjoy the aesthetic pleasure of cover art, page layout, typography — that I do not think is a sin. Here are a few other people who agree with me, and some of my favorite places to travel for my aesthetic love of books.
Above: From a post about What it Is by Lynda Barry
This is my favorite book blog and I recommend an immediate RSS subscription. The author, an amazing illustrator in her own right, and provides scans from sketchbooks, children’s books, comic books, craft books, and any other kind of page turning instrument with pictures or gadgets.
I love this site because it reveals (1) the artistic innards of books, (2) books not on best seller’s lists. She clearly spends time selecting pretty pages to preview, proving that the title of her site should be something more like Book By Its Cover and Great Examples of Inside Pages Too (can you tell I’m a writer? I thought so.)
2.
Covers
I love this site most because the main page’s grid layout gets me all excited about book covers every time I see it. You can click on each cover to see a larger version and commentary. They update every week, and it’s another book blog I wouldn’t hesitate to subscribe to.
3.
Flickr Sets
Above: Image from the Old-Timey Paperback Book Covers group pool on Flickr.
Veer recently posted about a flickr collection featuring scans from mid-20th century books. This got me scouting around for more flickr sets. Here are some of my favorite finds from group pools: Mother Goose Illustrations, The Retro Kid Pool, and Old-Timey Paperback Book Covers.
4.
McSweeney’s
Above: Image from NY Magazine
According to me, McSweeney’s consistently publishes some of the best-looking books on the planet. You’ve already seen my review of Maps & Legends, printed by McSweeney’s, and you can browse around for even more on the McSweeny’s site, either in the Books section or in the McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern section (the McS’s lit mag). These books are all better in 3-D, though, a lot of them have secret openings, layered covers, or some other graphical gimmick that I can’t get enough of.
5.
The Book Design Review
Above: Image from The Book Design Review
Ironically, you should not judge this page by its header because it’s full of cool book covers and book cover discussions (ironically my friend Marmalade pointed me to this at almost the exact same time I was posting it, and now I’m trying to think of a pun about being “on the same page” but it isn’t going well).
In summary, you should judge book covers by their book covers. In order to do so, you should visit the following places (right click, open in new window): (more…)
The former English major in me is feeling really guilty about this post, but the art and irony lover in me is feeling quite good.
Last week in Print Magazine’s blog The Daily Heller Steve Heller posted about Leanne Shapton’s “book blocks.” These blocks might take up the same space as an actual book, but they certainly won’t take up all of that reading time. They are literally wooden blocks painted to look like popular or classic books. Something deep inside of me wants to use them to decorate my mantel.
Since it’s Book Week here at S&D, the Donut of the Week is aptly book-related. There are actually multiple books about donuts, but I choose to highlight this 1970s children’s book, Who needs Donuts? by Mark Alan Stamaty, a cult classic among children and artsy adults. (More pictures etc after the jump.) (more…)
Last week, I posted about Thomas Allen’s recent work for an article about memoirs in Oprah Magazine. Allen cuts people and things from books, carefully folds them into a scene, and then photographs it all with a meaningful depth of field. His work for O Magazine took over a month of work, more than a 40 count box of X-ACTO blades, and over 700 digital samples. The completed project included 6 (amazing) photos — how’s that for hard work?!
Thomas Allen has generously given me four of the digital camera proofs that didn’t “make the cut” for the O Magazine article. These aren’t printed or published anywhere else at the moment, so I am incredibly thrilled to be the one to share them with you!
You’ll find a version of the photo above on page 182 of the August 2008 issue of O Magazine. In the final photo, the book is red, no title is visible, and you catch a glimpse of woman’s arms and legs going through the screen door and coming out the other side of the book. I actually really like the stillness of the photo above. In my mind, the open screen door and the book title generate the feeling of a peaceful summer day in the country.
A photo like the one above does not appear anywhere in the issue. It was probably abandoned in favor of something else.
Although this particular boy in the water doesn’t appear anywhere in the article, a similarly vintage family of three plays in the water of a book cover on page 179 of the magazine. The close cropping of this photo differs from most of Allen’s work — it gives a real sense that you’re in the scene, but doesn’t reveal that the pieces are cut from books.
The final version of this photo is shown below, at right; the proof that didn’t make the cut is shown above (and at left below). As you can see, three dogs were added, a new book was used, and an entirely different bed was constructed for the final photo. The two photos are very different, but work around a similar idea. Both of these were taken for a section of the O article called “Three Dog Nights” about Abigail Thomas’s memoir A Three Dog Life.
I hope you enjoyed the pictures above! If you want to see more Thomas Allen photos, I’ve spent some time hunting down the top five places where you can satiate yourself (Thomas Allen is hard to google, because about 10 other famous people share his name. Also, right click the links to open in new window):
Stickers & Donuts Book Week starts today (once things get underway, that link will take you to all Book Week related posts)! As a former English major, I’m very excited, but we’re still going to do all of the things we’re not supposed to do with books. We are going to cut them up. We are going to judge them by their covers. We are going to analyze their page layout. We’re going to find fashionable contact cases so we can see the books we are destroying (or, reading). It’s going to be fun. Now, I’m off to bring you a really exciting post about Thomas Allen’s photography. See you soon!
(Image above from a vintage book Flickr set found through Veer’s blog.)
