Blurb in the News

Recent Stories

Design Federation | October 6, 2009
Blurb gives young designers a leg up with portfolio giveaway
“Blurb… provides a cost effective and professional way to present work, and is the perfect tool for creating and showcasing a design portfolio. The books are of a high-quality, can be designed from scratch, or with templates, and come in a variety of sizes and finishes.”

Digital Photo | October, 2009
Photobooks Group Test
"Blurb has stolen the prestigious DP Gold Award for online photobooks. Blurb's BookSmart interface is quick and intuitive to use, and offers a good choice of picture templates as well as the functionality to customise your own. Build and print quality are great, and Blurb offers top value."

Martha Stewart Living | October, 2009
Point, Shoot, Publish
"For an expert-looking product, Blurb’s free software delivers with adaptable design and upgrade options. Flexibility and polish are two of Blurb’s big selling points. You can even sell the finished product through Blurb’s online bookstore."

CNN Money | September 24, 2009
Self-publishing empire expands
"Eileen Gittins, CEO of Blurb, explains why she launched the self-publishing platform and how you can create your own book." [VIDEO]

Esquire | September 24, 2009
How to Get the Most Out of $1,000 Right Now
"Blurb.com will turn your manuscript or PDF file into a professionally bound book that can be sold or given to friends and relatives. Small quantities are still killer in this business. But $1,000 will buy you a few dozen copies of your 120-page masterpiece in hardcover."

I.D. The International Design Magazine | September/October, 2009
Conversion Experience
"Blurb is currently touting a new PDF-to-book process that allows users to upload a press-ready PDF in one of Blurb’s standard sizes. One week and $36 later, the book arrived. It looked excellent – this is high-quality printing."

TechDigest | August 25, 2009
Nearly half now share digital images via social media
"Almost half of those surveyed stated they would prefer to make a hard copy photography book from their snaps (coincidentally this is precisely the service that Blurb offers - handy that)."

Digital Photography Now | August 25, 2009
Digital photos given new lease of life in Web 2.0 Britain
"Research from Blurb® reveals that people are sharing their lives online via images, then turning to print to keep, share, and gift their digital photographs."

Fast Company | August 17, 2009
How Can Teams Make Better Decisions
Fast Company's "30 Second MBA" features Blurb CEO Eileen Gittins on the topic of team decision making in modern companies. [VIDEO]

Arizona Republic | August 5, 2009
8 Tips on How to Declutter and Let Go of Sentimental Items
"Sites such as blurb.com walk you through every step of creating a photo book, from uploading and organizing photos to adding captions. (And they're affordable - for example, a 40-page notebook-size photo book is $19.95 at blurb.com.) That way, you can ditch the clunky, mismatched albums."

The Daily Telegraph | July 16, 2009
Digital publishing: The newest trick in the book
"Gone are the days when anyone who wanted to write a book either had to wait to be signed by a publisher or pay thousands of pounds to see their novel mass- produced in print. The internet has made it possible for everyone to be a digitally published writer through blogs, Twitter and forums. Now, however, a raft of new self-publishing websites have gone one step further by offering authors the opportunity to create a hard-copy book and sell it online."

ReadWriteWeb | July 13, 2009
The Obama Time Capsule and the Future of Publishing
"Blurb offers users the chance to personalize books in a variety of formats. The quality of this product is extremely striking and buyers can opt for a number of page layouts and finishes. The company is one of the few businesses able to earn healthy revenue in our down economy."

The Times | July 12, 2009
The 10 Best Book Websites
"Blurb.com: Got a book in you? Use Blurb’s free software to lay it out, then upload it, and the site will make it into a real paperback, with prices starting at around a fiver."

The 6Sight Report | July 1, 2009
Blurb Smartens Self-Publishing
"Blurb has launched a 12x12" book size it says is ideal for photographers who shoot square format, as well as those who have a mix of portrait and landscape images."

Dexigner | June 24, 2009
Blurb Introduces PDF to Book
"Blurb's new PDF to Book workflow gives creative professionals complete creative control to design books using the application of their choice, save the file as a PDF, and upload it directly to Blurb. Blurb has created pre-made templates for Adobe InDesign users and has developed guidelines and specifications for users of other design programs."

CreativePro | June 24, 2009
Blurb's new PDF to Book workflow
"The new PDF to Book workflow gives creative professionals complete creative control to design books using the application of their choice, save the file as a PDF, and upload it directly to Blurb. Blurb has created pre-made templates for Adobe InDesign users and has developed guidelines and specifications for users of other design programs."

MacWorld Online | June 19, 2009
Creative Profiles — Dan Milnor — Photographer
"I first came across Blurb about a year and a half ago, and I’ve now made about 80 books. Having the ability to make a book, for me, has been the most interesting development of the entire digital revolution. Blurb contacted me after I made my first few books. I was surprised, as most of the other companies I had been working with were not interested in what I wanted, or where I thought these books could go. Blurb asked, "What do you want?" I told them what I wanted, expecting them to say, "Okay," and then never hear from them again, but the response was, "Great, let's figure this out." I've been on their advisory board ever since. I can throw anything at them and they are always interested in what is possible. They have a love of imagery and of image makers. The CEO is a photographer as well, as are many of the people behind the scenes."

Cool Mom Picks | June 9, 2009
The 2009 Father's Day Gift Guide
"Decorate his coffee table with a professionally bound book from CMP fave Blurb ($12.95 and up) - you provide the images and the words. And the Kleenex."

Associated Press | June 5, 2009
One Frugal Bride Reveals Her Secret — The Internet
"We took a chance on our friends - and the Internet. We signed up for a pro account at Flickr.com ($24.95) and asked our guest to upload all their pictures. We collected more than 3,000 shots, many of them exceptional. Later, I used Blurb.com to design our album ($64.95). In the end, we were happy to write the checks. Instead of feeling ripped off with overpriced flowers and booze, we had an unforgettable, four-day celebration in a magical place, and didn't feel that we were skimping on a thing."

GalleyCat | June 4, 2009
The Revolution Will Be Customized
"In this video interview, Gittins shared her company's newest project, The Obama Time Capsule - a customized book that allows readers to mix their own content alongside images from more than 140 professional photographers and essays from General Colin Powell, Joe Klein, Auma Obama and Arianna Huffington. Blurb's innovation in the print-on-demand publishing market has helped drive the printed one-at-a-time model that is revolutionizing the way books are created and sold."

Mediabistro Fishbowl NY | June 2, 2009
What's Next For Digital Publishing
"Eileen Gittins' company allows anyone to self publish a book -- including bloggers who can upload their blogs into book format using Blurb's "slurping" tool. Gittins says every author needs a blog in order to promote the book, find the audience and get feedback. Self publishers like Blurb allow authors to update books and publish second, third and fourth editions effortlessly. With this technology, books are becoming the starting point of a conversation, not the end point."

National Geographic Traveler | June 2009
How to Make a Good Photo Book
"Turning your vacation snapshots into a book is easy, thanks to services such as Blurb that let you upload your digital images and drop them into templates."

Income Diary | May 12, 2009
Top 30 Female Internet Entrepreneurs
"Eileen Gittins: Eileen is the co-founder and CEO of Blurb, a print on demand publishing service. The company's revenue grew from $1 million to $30 million in two years."

MacWorld Online | May 1, 2009
Beth Dow and the power of self publishing
"Currently in its second year, Blurb, a creative publishing and marketing platform, is taking entries from its customers for its Photography.Book.Now competition.Submissions are being accepted until 16 July, with a grand prize of $25,000 (around £17,500) at stake. In 2008 more than 2,000 photography books were submitted for consideration. Beth Dow, a professional photographer from Minneapolis, MN, was awarded the grand prize for her project, 'In the Garden,' a dream-like evocative book-length portfolio of large platinum-palladium prints that examine tensions of mass, light, and perspective in highly cultivated landscapes. For someone who had doubts about the possibilities of self publishing, vanity publishing to some, Beth found the process a positive experience."

Fast Company | May 2009
Netting a book deal; don't wait for Random House to give your book the go-ahead
Eileen Gittins, CEO of Blurb: "People are producers now, not just consumers. They have whole mountains of digital content — images, recipes, and poetry from wikis, blogs, and Flickr — that want to find their way into books. There's a lot of content that wants to be shared and remembered, and you can't gift a Web site. I realized — hello! — e-commerce should meet desktop publishing and print-on-demand technology. Moving from the digital world to print as everything else moves in the other direction may seem contrarian. But people want physicality, especially as more and more of our lives are lived virtually."