Having read the previous posts from the Dérive to the Airport series, you will know that this was an unplanned adventure that turned into an unplanned project involving walking, GPS tracking and photography. That turned into a writing project. That has now turned into a book project.

A framed print on a wall is the go-to presentation method for many photographers, myself included. I have prints and frames wherever I look in my small studio. Beautiful yes, but they clog my creative arteries, more stuff that I need to climb over to get new stuff done.

Books are a way around that dilemma. Small. Fit on a shelf. Portable. As permanent as any print, in theory. However, books have always required a major investment in time and money. And using traditional presses could land you with a garage full of heavy boxes of wasted trees.

Enter the digital age and on-line, on-demand publishing. Suddenly, the possibility of designing one book and printing one copy is a very real possibility. I have been using MyPublisher for several years now to create handsome volumes of photographs of my trips around the world. Neat sets of same sized books that can be pulled off a shelf, viewed by anyone so interested in our travels without having to set up slide projectors (yes, I also have a huge collection of Carousels packed with Kodachromes). MyPublisher is a great choice for my family-oriented travel albums. The software is easy to use, the cost can be very reasonable if you can make use of the company's discount coupons, often up to fifty percent off the regular price.

For my professional projects I prefer Blurb books. Blurb offers a variety of book design methods, such as InDesign templates and BookWright, their latest book design application. The quality is very good with a range of paper choices to meet the needs of any project. But what sets Blurb apart is their marketing back end. Once you have created your book, you can create your own online bookstore on the Blurb website, set your own price for your creations and direct people to your bookstore to purchase a copy on an on-demand basis. By using their BookWright app, Blurb will provide a free ISBN number as well as options to market your book through Amazon and iBooks or to convert your book to pdf format. I will explore these last options in the future. In the meantime, I am happy with the Blurb bookstore as my sales venue. 

Realizing that A Dérive to the Airport is a small art project, I opted to create a simple, affordable book. A seven inch square soft back book using Blurb's standard paper. The layout was fairly straightforward in BookWright. The learning curve was flat and short. Once uploaded, I ordered a sample copy for review and, sure enough, found a few needed changes. That done, I have now placed the book in my Blurb bookstore with a modest profit for the artist built in. 

I have no illusions that my book will be a best seller. This is a personal project and I am happy just having a copy or two in my own library along with the opportunity of other like minded souls to put copies in their libraries.

You can find my Blurb bookshop at  http://www.blurb.ca/user/store/davidfirman

This concludes my Dérive to the Airport series. Next post starts a much longer walk across the Czech Republic from Prague to Vienna