Don't Call It Vanity Press

By Maryanne Murray Buechner

When Michelle Kaufmann discovered Blurb, she thought the Web-based publisher might help her make a book of photos from a recent vacation to Costa Rica, something to show her friends. "I downloaded the software on a whim," she says. "It just looked like something people did for personal use."

Kaufmann, an architect who specializes in sustainable design, soon realized that Blurb could help transform her business. Impressed with the quality of the finished product, she turned to a more important task: a book that would feature the work of Michelle Kaufmann Designs, the Bay Area firm she founded in 2003. She had been approached by conventional publishers in the past, but as a small business, she didn't want to wait years to accommodate publishing's long lead times. "I thought, This is the book we've been wanting to do," she says. She spent two months pulling together the content to create Prefab Green--100 glossy pages of text, color photos and detailed floor plans--sent it off as an electronic file and had a stack of hardcovers to give to clients in less than two weeks.

Self-publishing, the only real success story in an otherwise depressed industry, is booming, thanks to the Internet, digital cameras and more sophisticated digital printing. It's also gaining respect. No longer dismissed as vanity presses, DIY publishing is discovering a niche market of customers seeking high-quality books for limited distribution. "A real book is a great marketing tool," says Al Greco, an industry analyst. Architects, photographers, interior designers and Japanese anime artists are using self-publishing websites to produce books that showcase their work in a style comparable to that of established art-book publishers. Professional books like Kaufmann's "are the fastest-growing segment of our business," says Eileen Gittins, CEO of Blurb, which launched in May 2006 and is based in San Francisco. She expects revenue to reach $5 million to $10 million this year, as the company expands its printing operations with partnerships in Europe and Asia.

Blurb, like other publishing websites such as Lulu and Picaboo, is producing its share of baby books, family-recipe cookbooks and wedding albums. But its most enthusiastic users are drawn to the company's extensive design tools. Stone Yamashita Partners, a consulting firm in San Francisco, recently published a 300-page book detailing the kind of strategy work it does with clients. "Blurb provided the highest quality with the quickest turnaround we could find," says David Glickman, principal at the firm, "as well as the flexibility and control over the look, the feel and the flow."

For creative types, on-demand printing is a cost-effective way to reach an audience, says Jeff Hayes, chief analyst at InfoTrends. Self-publishers have long served this purpose, Hayes adds, but Blurb reaches well beyond frustrated novelists. "It speaks to this long-tail economy," Hayes says. "If you're the local painter or you make jewelry, how do reach those who are interested in what you do? The key is to make it easier for the individual publisher and the interested reader to connect." Blurb's "slurper" tools, which pull text and images from the Web, have also inspired bloggers to put their posts on the printed page. A new feature allowing multiple contributors to collaborate on a single book will go live this summer.

Authors set their own price at the Blurb bookstore, keep 100% of the markup (above Blurb's base price) and never have to see their books in the remainder bin. "In traditional distribution, you'd see $1 a copy," Gittins says. "A lot of Blurb authors are seeing $10 a copy. This is not necessarily quit-your-day-job money, but it might be new-telescope-lens money. It can help fund your passion." Kaufmann makes only a buck or two for each copy of her book that's sold at Blurb's online bookstore (it's priced at $42 in hardcover, $35 in softcover). The real value, she says, is the added exposure from having sold some 150 copies to date. She plans to update her book regularly and only order 10 to 20 copies at a time. "It's immediate," she says, "and there's no waste."

Conventional book publishing, of course, has marketing and distribution muscle that no self-publisher can match, and Kaufmann hasn't ruled it out. In the meantime, a replica of her "Glidehouse" remains on display at the National Building Museum in Washington. On sale at the museum's bookstore: Prefab Green.