Self-Publish Books with Blurb

[This is a sponsored post on behalf of Blurb books]

I’ve always been really interested in the idea of self-publishing and using online photo and print services. So I was thrilled to receive this very sweet, self-published children’s picture book from online printing company Blurb.

 

Have you seen Kyle’s Kitten? is written and illustrated by Sara Hitz Arnold and has beautiful, whimsical pictures that draw in the eye and really engage the child’s full attention as they search for details on every page. The story is about Kyle who wakes up one morning and can’t find his kitten anywhere. On every double-page spread, the little grey kitten is hiding amongst the toys, books and surrounding landscape as Kyle goes on his way throughout the day. Of course, this sort of idea is hugely entertaining and exciting for little children, as they love to try and find him amongst the busyness and are so excited that they can see him even when Kyle can’t. It has a touch of the pantomime “he’s behind you!” scenes that we all grew up with and loved!

The book is produced to a beautiful standard, with hard cover and thick, quality paper for the pages, just like a book you’d expect to find in the book stores. I was quite surprised with the quality having seen a few other self-published fiction books (from other sites) in the past which felt a little flimsy and unprofessional.

So, having seen this lovely book I must say my mind is now whirring at the possibilities of what I could create from the comfort of my own home with my laptop on my knee in front of the fire!

Blurb offers a wide range of options and isn’t in any way limited to publishing fiction books. Here are some options you could choose from (and I am going to have a go at myself soon!)

Family Photo Albums: I’ve made a couple of these before and everyone is always so thrilled to see photos in book format. In this digital age, how many of us regularly print our photos and put them in albums anymore? I know I’m so guilty of barely printing any over the past few years, but a finished photo book always looks stunning and has such  special keepsake quality to it.

They also make a brilliant present for family members or as a celebratory gift to a  married couple for example, and are quite low cost for the quality. I made on using Blurb a couple of years ago, with all of my Instagram pictures (which I’m otherwise unsure of how to use sometimes) and it is one of the most-loved books we own.

Art compendiums: One of the questions I get asked the most often is how best to store the kids’ art. It’s such a problem, especially after they start to bring home reams of it every day from school or nursery too! My favourite thing to do is to photograph it and store it up, ready to make into an art book, using the same format as a normal photo book. It would be amazing to do one of these annually wouldn’t it!

Book Publishing: If you have a great idea for a story or non-fiction book you want to see in print, it seems now really may be the time to do it. Blurb now offers a service called BookWright which allows lots of productions of soft, hard and ebook editions from a single file. And even better, it links to Amazon so that they can be sold directly through the seller and in Kindle edition format too! Very clever and convenient.

I think I’m adding more photo and art books to my wish list for 2015, as well as the time to make them of course!