Copyright Dan Nelken, 2009 & Blurb P.B.N Editorial Honorable Mention
Blurb just announced some new stuff for their self publishing services, an software upgrade to v2.5 for BookSmart and some better shipping rates for your books. The details will follow shortly.
Also recevied news that Dan Nelken, a photobook author whom I reviewed here earlier in the year, received recognition for his Blurb book Smash ’em Crash ’em, gardening an Editorial Honorable Mention.
Interesting to note regarding Blurb’s self publishing photobook contest that Dan, like the Grand Prize Winner, used a designer to help him develop his final book. Some folks are taking this book competition very seriously.
INTRODUCING BLURB BOOKSMART 2.5
Blurb BookSmart® 2.5 is available for download, and includes
many new features that give you even more control in the
customization of your book layouts; how images are accessed,
viewed, and filtered; integrated help options within BookSmart;
and increased stability of the application itself. You can
grab it here:
http://links.mkt2330.com/ctt?kn=4&m=4247623&r=NDg1MTI2NTc0NAS2&b=2&j=MTM4NjY2MDYyS0&mt=1&rt=0.
Regarding their flat rate shipping, this is what they had to say:
We also wanted to make sure you’re aware of our new flat-rate
shipping option, which significantly reduces the shipping
costs when you order between 1 to 5 books – using U.S. Ground
or International Economy options – as follows:
– US: 1 to 5 books = $6.99
– Canada: 1 to 5 books = $7.99 (USD)
– Europe: 1 to 5 books = 5.99 Euro
– UK: 1 to 5 books = £3.99
– Rest of world: 1 to 5 books = varies per order
BTW, I hope to acquire a copy of the Grand Prize Winner of the P.B.N. for review later this year, stay tuned;- )
Best regards, Douglas Stockdale
Update: Oops, I forgot to add the Blurb link to Dan’s winning photobook (okay, embedded above), because I figure you would at least like to look at his book tease, eh?
PhotoBook Journal 
Doug,
Thank you for mentioning my book on your blog. Even though I knew what the concept of the book would be, I also knew that I needed a really good designer to make it happen. And Tony Jennetti happened to be that person. The fact that he was one of my oldest friends didn’t hurt the endeavor.
The statistic that blew me away was that the competition had over 2,400 submissions from 50 countries.
The fact that so many photographers
had an idea that would require a book to express it, and then spent endless hours of effort and money to enter the competition is just incredible to me.
Imagine how many more people will be submitting next year.
The mind boggles. At least mine does.
Dan Nelken
Dan, thanks, it appears that you and Tony made a nice team in developing your photobook.