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Online publisher Blurb announced on Tuesday a new feature that allow groups to collaborate on the publication of a custom book. The latest update of Blurb's BookSmart software, which allows users to design their books offline, also overhauls its graphics capabilities and adds many new templates for wedding albums, yearbooks, and journals.
"Right now communities are doing this the hard way, emailing photos and links to one another" says Blurb CEO Eileen Gittens, pointing to groups on Flickr and various camera enthusiast forums which have collaborated on custom publications. BookSmart now allows one person to be the project manager and invite others to upload photos to a community site hosted by Blurb. The project manager can limit the number of photos any one person uploads and send reminders to those who haven't contributed.
Technology aside, says Gittens, Blurb's biggest challenge is to communicate to potential customers the quality of its printing process. Gittens used Blurb print a book of childhood photos and sent it to her family last Christmas. "My sister called me on Christmas morning and said, 'I had no idea you made real books!'" laughs Gittens. "And this is my sister. She had to see the book to understand."
San Francisco-based Blurb has partnerships with Flickr, Chronicle Books, Travelocity, and Lonely Planet. With three printing locations in the U.S. and one in the Netherlands, the company plans to add a fifth in Asia next year.
