Publish your own work through www.blurb.com

[Chris Saper]

www.blurb.com is such an exciting website! I've just overhauled the handbook for my course, "For Love or Money: A Business Handbook for Portrait Painters" , which you can see here.

You can publish your portfolio, a gallery application,a "how-to", your family reunion, or whatever else you choose. The software download is free, and the templates are really idiot proof. The value is tremendous, and since it's print-on-demand, there are no inventory commitments.

Look through the bookstore- there is SO much talent out there, in so many different areas,and it is a pleasure to see the creativity of so many people you'd never hear of otherwise.

Oh, and best of all - the color is FABULOUS.

[Laurel Alanna McBrine]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for posting this - what a great idea! Your book looks fabulous. I love the painting of Alexandra and the white lettering is subtle and elegant.

I was wondering whether you have any tips to keep in mind with regard to achieving the correct color and best looking images when making a book from this site?

[Chris Saper]

Hi Laurel,

I have no idea why my images and color turned out so well. I have struggled with, and abandoned, trying to calibrate my monitor, so I didn't have high hopes for the color I could expect. The color looked good on my screen ( although I have to say, a lot of times my screen color looks good but prints poorly.).

Blurb recommends you order one book before deciding whether it is correct in color, quality, and text. Then if you are happy, go ahead and publish it. I think I am very good at proofreading, but my earlier book was FILLED with errors. There are probably still mistakes in the current version. Although there is a spell check, everyone is responsible for their own misspellings, grammar faux-pas, etc. You are your own editorial staff.

[Alexandra Tyng]

Wow, Chris, thanks for this great information!

Just think if this had been available when we were kids! I would have spent all my time illustrating (and writing) books.

But, what fun, we can do it NOW!

[Chris Saper]

Access to talent, particuarly niche talent , such as Blurb provides reminded me of a recent "Painter's Keys" newletter from Robert Genn. (www.painterskeys.com)

December 14, 2007

Dear Chris,

In 1847, Karl Marx wrote that working for wages would be
superseded by what he called "self-activity." With the economy
humming along, surplus time would free people to study,
privately create and generally improve themselves. He suggested
they might also hunt, fish, or even become critics in their
spare time. This, of course, was to happen under the Communist
system. It didn't. But Marx's prophetic vision continues to
prove him right.

What Marx did not foresee was the remarkable variety of
interests that folks would pursue. Only a few years ago a
person who painted on the heads of pins would be considered an
eccentric oddball. Today's Internet can bring a world of
pinhead painters together to share techniques, one-hair
brushes, magnifying devices, exhibition ploys, pinhead history
and pinhead lore. A pinhead society is formed and a pinhead
president is elected.

Chris Anderson's "The Long Tail," while essentially a book on
economics, talks about these sorts of esoteric pursuits and
issues that will affect the lives and livelihoods of artists.
The long tail is a graph that describes the vast variety of
niches now available beyond the more standard fare. Amazon, for
example, by offering more than 800,000 CD titles as compared
with the average Wal-Mart at 4500, is an example of the retail
long tail in action. Without "the tyranny of the shelf," and
with its ability to tolerate a great deal of what they call
"noise," Amazon offers stuff that is otherwise hard to find.
Niches rule. We've put long tail graphs and their implications
at the top of the current clickback. See URL below.

With the remarkable democratization of human activity, older
attitudes of scarcity may be waning. The bonanza of choice is
affecting the ways people buy art. The "Star system" may be on
its way out. Not only will people make art for their own
consumption and those of their friends, but they will buy
locally and value individuality and connectivity rather than
name. "Young people today," says media mogul Rupert Murdoch,
"don't want to be told what's good and bad, they want control
over their media, instead of being controlled by it." The
growing presence of large Internet art sites where art is
arranged by genre and niche is part of this phenomenon. "Are
you looking for a pinhead landscape or a pinhead portrait?"

Best regards,

Robert

PS: "Noise can also be a huge problem in the long tail market.
Indeed, if left unchecked, noise--random content or products of
poor quality--can kill a market. Too much noise and people
don't buy." (Chris Anderson)

Esoterica: Not everyone sees the long tail as a good thing.
"Sturgeon's Law," named after science fiction writer Theodore
Sturgeon, states, "Ninety percent of everything is crud."
Galleries, museums and even websites are in the business of
filtering out what they consider to be crud. Part of our job as
professional creators is to filter our own efforts. By the way,
are standards rising? Maybe the democratization of art can only
go so far.

Current clickback: If you would like to see selected,
illustrated responses to the last letter, "Declining sight,"
about the eye problems of Edgar Degas as well as graphs of the
long tail, please go to:
http://clicks.robertgenn.com/declining-sight.php

[Thomasin Dewhurst]

Thanks for recommending this site. You are alway so full of really excellent ideas, Chris. I am going to see what a portfolio will look like - it is really reasonable price-wise (to get a professional portfolio together the usual way I do it would cost much more than $13!). I'd love to get your book too - it looks great.

[Alexandra Tyng]

Thomasin, THAT is a great idea! I was thinking of a catalog format, to give collectors or sell or whatever. But a portfolio is a terrific idea. If I recall correctly, I think a couple of people did something similar for the PSA conference last year and the year before. I thought the books were great but assumed they were too expensive for me to make. You are so right, it is actually a fraction of the cost of buying a good portfolio and paying for all the paper and photos. I just had to make up a duplicate for one of my galleries (for a possible portrait commission) and it was just about as expensive as your estimate.

I am interested in buying your book, too, Chris. And come to think of it, I would buy a copy of your portfolio, Thomasin. I know that might sound odd, but this makes it possible. It would be almost like having a catalog of your current work.

[Chris Saper]

Putting your work together in this way also makes for a very efficient way to register your work with the US Copyright office.

My handbook is priced to include the other things I do for my class, including a little step-by-step demo CD that I tuck in the front - If you decide to buy this book, let me know, and I'll pop a copy of the CD in the mail for you.

[Enzie Shahmiri]

Chris,

The book cover looks great! Thanks for sharing this information, what a wonderful idea for a portfolio. It could also as a sales promo at art fairs. After all if someone loves the artist's work, but can't afford the prices, buying the book would be an affordable option.

[Michele Rushworth]

What great ideas, Chris!

I also love the portrait you put on the cover. I think it has something very sophisticated about it: subtle color, and a great mix of controlled and less controlled brushwork. It's now my favorite of all your portraits.