What you need to know before self-publishing with Blurb
Although self-publishing has the reputation of being easier than traditional publishing, there’s still lots to learn before self-publishing your own book. And in your search for the best self-publishing platform, you’ve landed here wondering… Is Blurb self publishing really worth it?
In this post, I’ll give you an idea of the whole process of publishing through Blurb.com because I’ve done it myself! I used Blurb for the first book I ever self-published, so I’ll give you a full review of my experience including the design process, formatting, cost, marketing, and anything else I can possibly think of.
For context, I studied Creative Writing and self-published a poetry book through Blurb as a freshman. Then, in my junior year, I self-published an art book again through Blurb.
I’m now a writing coach and I share tons of creative writing tips over on Instagram and through my email list!
This post is not sponsored by Blurb in any way; I’m just sharing my honest thoughts!
This post is all about Blurb self publishing.
OVERALL REVIEW:
Let’s start with a summary of my review in case you don’t want the full in-depth story.
Overall, I had a great experience with Blurb and would highly recommend it. It’s an easy, user-friendly way to create a professional-looking book without needing much experience in formatting or publishing.
It’s very customizable, so you can create your own layouts and upload your unique front cover. Overall, Blurb is a great way to dip your toes in the world of self-publishing. I had a very easy and straightforward Blurb experience when I was a college student with no prior self-publishing expertise!
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How do you design your book in Blurb?
Blurb has a downloadable free design tool called BookWright. I found BookWright very easy to use as far as online tools go.
It was very easy to learn because Blurb’s site walks you through the Blurb software as you create your book format. They even have helpful FAQs in case you get stuck along the way.
There are very easy steps to follow as you design your book. Obviously, you have to put in more work here than you might with traditional publishing since you’re doing it yourself. But there are very easy steps to follow. As long as you don’t mind learning along the way, you’ll still get high-quality books out of it as a finished product!
Because the design app BookWright is so user-friendly for beginners, I think it’s a great option for independent authors looking for a seamless self-publishing experience.
You can choose from different book size options, upload your own cover and book title, and customize other specifications. If you’re not much of a designer, there are graphic artists out there who create book covers for good-looking books. You can find designers on platforms like Reedsy. You could hire someone to do it and then upload the design directly to Blurb as your book cover.
As long as you don’t mind experimenting and learning as you go, you’ll end up with a finished product you’re happy with in terms of book design.
What are the print options and costs like?
When I had my first experience self-publishing through Blurb, I was concerned about the cost options because I needed to order a large volume of my poetry books for an arts showcase I would be attending.
One thing I really love about Blurb is that they offer volume discounts when you order more copies of the physical book. This can be really helpful if you need to have a physical inventory to sell at an event.
The other great thing about Blurb is that they don’t charge distribution fees. If you’re selling via Amazon or another platform, there might be distribution markups. But as of the time of writing this, Blurb states that there are no distribution fees on platform itself.
You can also choose your list price for both the printed book version and ebook version so that your readers can shop directly from Blurb. When they purchase from Blurb, there might be shipping fees depending on where they live, but Blurb also gives discounts for customers who buy multiple books, which is a plus.
Of course, there are costs to self-publishing. But if you don’t have a big budget, I think Blurb is a great place to start!
Is the Blurb bookstore any good?
The Blurb website is pretty user-friendly and easy to navigate, so if you tell your customers where to go, they’ll be able to order off it pretty easily.
The one con I will say about the Blurb bookstore is that it’s not as mainstream as other self-publishing platforms like Amazon. While Blurb.com is a good option because of the lack of distribution fees, your target audience might not even be aware that this platform exists, so they won’t know to look for your book there unless you tell them.
How do you get your readers to purchase through Blurb?
The good news is, you can market your self-published book in other ways and direct your audience to the Blurb platform. Or, you can put your book on Amazon or sell it through your own channels. It just depends on what your unique needs and resources are as an author.
The truth is that no matter where people ultimately buy your book, you still need to market it so that they can find it.
It’s quite easy to upload your book onto the platform for people to order. Blurb takes care of the shipping for you, which is nice. All you need to do is design your book, write a book description, set your price, and then share the link to your potential readers via social media or other communication methods.
The shipping isn’t quite as fast as Amazon (obviously!), but it’s still pretty fast. As of the time of writing this, Blurb ships to 70 countries and territories around the world. It takes about 4-5 business days to print and bind each order before shipping.
I know that some of my readers purchased my book directly through Blurb and they got it fairly quickly, considering the printing and binding time. For a self-publishing company that gives self-published authors so much freedom to design and sell their book, using Blurb’s platform directly is a great option!
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How do you market your book after self-publishing on Blurb?
I’ve already touched on this, but since you’re a self-published author when you publish through Blurb, you still need to do a lot of work to market your book if you actually want it to sell.
Blurb is a place to publish and print your book, and for people to order your book from. But they don’t do any marketing or promotion for you.
When I first used Blurb self publishing, I printed and ordered 50 copies of my book at the base price to sell at an in-person arts event I was attending. Because I was the creator of the book, I only had to pay for the actual printing and shipping costs, and Blurb gave me a certain discount for ordering a volume of 50 (it would have been cheaper per book if I had ordered more).
From my memory, I believe it costed me $5 per book at the time (they were short, small poetry books) and I sold them for $10 each. I probably could have made a bigger profit margin, but I was a freshman in college just looking to get experience self-publishing, not get rich off my poetry book!
Aside from that, I directed my audience directly to the Blurb website to purchase directly from Blurb, where my books were listed at $9.99 per physical book or $7 per ebook. I was able to choose this listing price.
All the physical copies sold at my arts event, and I made a few sales through the actual Blurb platform. I only marketed that book for a couple months, so it’s not something I actively sell anymore. I think it did alright for a freshman in college with no previous reader base!
Can you get a hardcover book through Blurb?
Yes! You can, and you can even get a hardcover with a dust jacket.
I can’t personally speak to this much since both the books I’ve self-published through Blurb have been soft covers, but I know it can be done!
What kinds of books can you self-publish through Blurb?
The answer to this is… Probably almost anything!
I belive Blurb users are mostly beginner authors who aren’t ready for publishing houses… or poets, artists, and people wanting to create Blurb photo books. I’m sure all kinds of people use Blurb to publish all kinds of books!
The first book I published was a short poetry book, and the second book I published was an art book (all images). Both of these were great experiences with Blurb self publishing and I’m happy with how they turned out!
So, should you use Blurb to self-publish your book?
Only you know the true answer to that, but here’s what I will say:
Blurb is a great option for people wanting to dip their toes into the self-publishing world.
It’s a great way to get a feel for publishing a book.
Are there better self publishing platforms out there? Probably; I haven’t tried any, so I can’t speak to that.
But, if you’re thinking of self-publishing a book and you have a very low budget to do so, Blurb is a great, accessible, practical option to get you started!
While I plan to go the traditional publishing route for my next book, I’m glad I self-published through Blurb first because it gave me a better idea of the process and effort it takes to publish and market a book.
