Surveying the Shortlist

My Sticky-Noted Shortlist

Friday, March 26, 2021

As someone who aspires to create & do her own “thing” after Tugs is done, I am always looking at words. I like the title of Artifact Uprising and so I gravitated to it first. The site has a clean layout. Nothing super fancy schmancy, which I like. I know I mnot be buying their website but presentation matters to me.

Next, I looked at ease of use. How simple was it for me to get to the information I needed, to find the kind of item that I am looking for or to be inspired to consider something I had not thought of previously?

I found a hardcover photo book option. Various sizes, colors for the binding and so on. 216 page max for the hardcover photo book, which would kind of force me to streamline things a little. But there were no examples of books with text as well as images. I scrolled and clicked. I scanned the FAQs page. Nothing. I ended up meandering for a few minutes before surrendering and submitting an inquiry. We’ll see how long it takes to get a response. Obviously, they are a no-go if I can’t incorporate text.

So in the interim, I moved on to blurb. Okay, so for blurb, you have to create an account to get started but it seems very user-friendly and has something called “Book Wright” that you can use to access templates or simply design and edit your own layout. They have a layflat page format and also provide the option of upgrading to professional grade paper, something called “ProPhoto Pearl.” (I hear David Bromsted saying, “Sounds fantastic, right?!”) And so I held my breath as I skimmed and scanned and scrolled and clicked. I pondered whether I should/need to learn Adobe Lightroom (yet another overwhelming anomaly to me). And then I came to it: a “how-to” piece on adding a Word Doc to your page, under the Articles section of the site. So it can absolutely be done. It seems like I have a lot of space to be creative and to customize, as I have been able to do with SquareSpace (happy, happy, joy, joy). So blurb takes the lead. I like the flexibility and control it seems that I will have.

And one last thing about blurb: they mention the option of possibly selling your book via the site. I am not sure I want to go that route but it is enticing. If my work could be linked to Barnes & Noble or Amazon (hiss!), it could “save me a step.” I dunno. I am just putting that in my back pocket. The traditional publishing process is seeming more and more arduous and less and less enticing…