It's a book!

I am very fortunate in my friends, but I have a particular debt of gratitude to mention today: First, to Maribeth, who made it clear she wanted my Contemplative Photographer's Alphabet turned into a book; secondly to Vicky, who -- always alert for artist possibilities -- sent me a pointer to a contest being held on Blurb.com; and thirdly to Maggie, my old friend from high school, who convinced me that Blurb was not a ripoff and I should give it a try.

I figured out quickly that the point of the contest was to get people to self-publish their photography books using Blurb, but it took me a while to realize that this might be a way to make a book out of the alphabet (I am a little slow sometimes). Eventually I screwed up my courage and decided to pursue the option and now, as of this past weekend, I am the proud possessor of a lovely little 8" x 10" book of my meditations.

It's not inexpensive -- $24.95 for a paperback, not including shipping and taxes -- and if I want to sell it through them to anyone else they charge an additional $5 (so I had to raise the price $5 to cover that) but it's really quite lovely: the colors came out great, the paper (I didn't go for the high end paper) is just the right weight and shininess, and I am delighted with the whole process.

The way it works --if you want to make a book out of your own work -- is you download their proprietary software and design the book yourself. The software is easy to use, and since I already had the photos I was able to produce the whole thing in an afternoon. One of the most exciting parts -- since the Alphabet has been stable for a couple of years now -- was designing the back page, which you see here. It's one of my favorite shots from Shaw Island, of a boat in Blind Bay and the Orcas ferry dock in the distance, paired with one of my favorite Hafiz poems -- all in all, a wonderful experience.

SO. If you are an artist who has been longing to put together a book of your work, I definitely recommend a visit to Blurb.com to look at your options. And if you've always wanted a copy of the alphabet for yourself... well, this may not be a particularly inexpensive way to meet that need. On the other hand, buying the calendars I create every year one at a time from my local printer -- and those are only 14 pages, stapled, with no lovely cover -- costs almost the same, so I suspect the problem is buying these things on an individual basis. There are volume discounts at Blurb, just as there are at my printer, but they're not as significant, and I don't see myself purchasing a hundred copies and trying to sell them out of my home...

But, all marketing concerns aside, I confess I am just giddy with delight to see this work in print. So thank you for listening to my gush; I promise tomorrow I'll be back to business as usual!

Oh -- and by the way, the mounted exhibit of the alphabet is ready to leave Houston, so if you have a place to display twenty-six 13" x 19" images and would like to display it, just let me know... the only cost is shipping them to the next location.