Friday 29 March 2013

The unravelling begins


OK ....I am signed up in Blurb, uploaded Booksmart (I think that's what it's called) and realised there is more to this than meets the eyes.....however I am really excited and currently brainstorming titles....I like the idea of 'Print on the peripheries' as mentioned on the IMPACT site so I will be looking at titles reflecting this in some way (possibly!)

Many thanks to Aine for all her hard work so far

Sue

Wednesday 27 March 2013

Onward and upward

Hello all

FIRSTLY

It is a great disappointment to me that Impact8 Dundee
took so long to let people know the outcome of their proposals.
We were told the end of January 2013.  There was no email from them indicating what was happening.
I of course emailed them............no reply whatsoever.
Mid February I emailed them again.................................. no reply whatsoever......yet again.
A good friend, printmaker artists book maker on our team Sue Corr endeavoured to make contact and find out by phone was informed we’d find out be the end of the week by email ........but again that got us  absolutely nowhere. (Thanks Sue !!)

So it was not until 21st March 2013......that we received the outcome.



 Oh well its now just about getting on with it.  I sense a “nervousness” from a fair amount of people in the group so I thought It might be best if I did a sample “altered pod book” (A.P.B.)

So yesterday I ordered the cheapest book I could find on Blurb ( that certainly wasn’t easy to find I can tell you!) and It cost me £10.00 including postage.

Its a “pocket Book” which is one of the ‘options’ one can choose as a format.
Additionally it’s  printed in Black and white only – that makes it even cheaper still.
The pages are  printed on thin paper and it’s a soft back cover.

I want to get hold of it as soon as I can so that I can have a quick go at transforming it – so as to give you guys food for thought.
I am hoping my lovely friend Tatiana can help me to shoot a short video ( probably not very well edited – we don’t have time) so I can post it onto You Tube.

Failing that – I know I will be able to at the very least take photos of any ‘alterations I make to it to demonstrate and help people to understand the wherewithall.

I would have preferred to buy a colour printed book similar to the monograph I made about my own artwork.
BUT I have never been so broke........money is really lacking in our household ...........so needs must.

I have sent a conformation to Impact to let them know I want the project to go ahead and that
 we will do a scheduled talk about it.

I have yet to receive specific details / exact dates from them and will let you have the
 information as soon as I receive it.

Below are some details I recently sent to Madeleine Samson one of our team from Canada who wants to get started ASAP

Here are my recommendations  for getting on with making your POD book

These are
observations from the book I made with Blurb

There are 2 ways to approach this and you can do either or both of these.

First Make a dummy book

Get  some  white copy paper  and cut 20 sheets
measuring 20 cm high x 40 cm wide

Compose your  imagery within these
Remember you have 40 sides.

SECOND

It is extremely important that you become familiar with using the “pictify”  software
http://www.blurb.com/make/bookify

So the sooner you get to grips with it the better.  It isn't difficult  so have a bit of fun with it.
For the book I made,  I had all imagery at 300dpi  - I wanted them to be as good a quality as possible you see.

 but if you are just going on there to the website
to get the feel of using it
then just use any old images of whatever resolution you have available to you presently.

TEXT in your book

A)
Method whereby you type into the  software as you upload and position your jpg images onto the page space.

There are a range of text layout options within “PICTIFY” the software  on Blurb

http://www.blurb.com/make/bookify

 .........that enable you to place it in one two or three columns
Or just one line under the image.
It’s hard to explain this without you going to the website and having it onscreen in front of you
 but while working with your dummy
just don’t be putting too much text with the images.

B)

The other way of approaching is to have the ‘written’ part of your book
  represented in handwritten form.

In that case............ then you will need to scan it into a computer and
integrate it with your imagery for your pages – that way you wont
 need to bother with the text input part when using the Pictify software.

You will be able to choose full page bleed as an option which will mean there
aren't any borders.......... the jpg you upload will go right to the edge of the paper page.

I use centimetres (cm)  as a unit of measurement because it is very exact and
so I prefer it. If you use inches etc then I am sorry about that.

The book I made is  17 x 17 cm and 0.40 cm thick  ( not enough room for writing a title etc on the spine)
- however this kept the cost down in any event.

PAGES:    You are looking at a 17 cm (height) x 16.5  cm (width)  size page ( paper sheet).

and I would recommend you make a book that is at least 20 pages
which of course would be 40 sides .

Otherwise it wont be very substantial and I am not sure but there
may be a minimum page amount on Blurbs publishing program.

Lastly............ there is the front and back cover which is 17 x 17 cm .
As you will be modifying the book then you could just leave it blank
or just write/ type  the title on it.

I would not bother with a hardback cover or dust jacket because ........
we being fabulous artists book makers can,

if we wish, add this when we “alter” our books (ha ha !!!)
heaven knows what amazing transformations we ‘ll come up with !!!

Also I can get you a 15% discount when you are ready to print out your book -
just please get back in touch with me about 3 or 4 days before you send
it through to be printed etc..




I invited the lovely Sara Bowen   who had expressed interest in participating after I had had confirmation of participation of the 20 places
However as she is so busy with getting her own artist books completed for the BAO project 2012 and preparing for presentation of exhibition for Impact8 that she now regretfully is unable to participate after all.



I did have a lot of research I had done prior to putting the proposal together
and just to find out what other artists were doing  in relation to e.g.,  "altered" 
print-on-demand books.  But I ended up with a lot of material being erased from a 16 GB memory stick which had that info on it.   Never mind these things happen.
There wasn't any that I could find if any of you would like to contribute any findings then that will be most welcome.