Grab pics from Flickr for a DIY book
On Monday, it becomes official. Blurb.com, which offers do-it-yourself bookmaking, and photo-sharing site Flickr are teaming up to help consumers jazz up their self-publishing efforts.
"Flickr got feedback from their members that they wanted to make books...We have already got a lot of feedback from Flickr's end users," said Eileen Gittins founder and CEO of Blurb.
Flickr community members have used the Blurb service for a couple of months now, and Flickr printed the community-contributed compilation "24 hours of Flickr" through San Francisco-based Blurb.
But starting Monday, a link to Blurb will appear on Yahoo's Flickr alongside other partners: personalized business card maker Moo, photo product printer Qoop and stamp printer Zazzle. Once signed in, members can click on the Explore tab and choose "Do More with Your Photos" from the drop-down menu to upload photos and add text to their self-made books.
Blurb has its own free downloadable software, called BookSmart, that customers can use to create books online. They can then order their creations as professionally printed, hardbound books. In addition to letting consumers add photos and write text manually, the service allows them to upload content from blog sites such as Blogger, LiveJournal, TypePad and Wordpress.
Last week, Blurb launched its service in Europe. Prices for Blurb books in Europe will be 5 percent higher than in the U.S.
The Blurb team is now touring Europe--traveling to Berlin, Paris and London--to promote its service. Team members are tagging along with a group from Flickr, which is promoting the "24 hours of Flickr" project of 122 photos. The book is available both online and in bookstores worldwide.
