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Self Publishing Isn’t The Future …
Bob Young… it’s here now … has been for a while actually.
In case you missed it … Techcrunch Interviews LuLu Founder - Bob Young - he of Red Hat fame - and though he doesn’t exactly say “Self Publishing Isn’t The Future” - why would he - there is no doubt that when he founded LuLu 11 years ago - there were a lot of ‘nay sayers’ who wrote it off as just that.
Of course - that would be EXACTLY those people who are today suffering at the hands of the self publishing industry ….. don’t forget - Amazon is a major player in that space as well - not to mention Apple - that continues its own march to that drum.
I have been a fan of LuLu for a long time. Delighted to see them formalise their offer in the picture book category. I am still a massive believer in the tangible, physical, tactile real work experience of all things Digital. There is strong argument that the world has gone too far into digital and that we are losing sense of our physical selves.
Creative people operate on the physical world. Yes it is great to see photographs on web sites, the convenience of MP3s on our phones, use our iPads to create hot graphical images - but there is more - as ANY visit to a concert, play, art gallery will demonstrate. To me - the creative professionals that are winning in the new world order are the ones that differentiate themselves through physical, and tangible NON digital expressions of their art.
Yes you can get MP3s for free - but that wont help you
- see accompanying art in the packaging
- listen to the surround sound mix
- see them in concert
- wear their t-shirt …..
And the photographer now has another place to go to produce gorgeous books for their customers, share their images in different formats - build more exposure.
The book model / music model / film model - like so many industrialized models is flawed for any number of reasons …. things like this levels the playing field once more.
Kudos.