Looks great to me! 

This looks pretty good to me, from what I can see.

It looks good… maybe you can add also a sort of ranking system by users.

Cheers,

                roberto

cool feature !   should help those wanting to purchase

How about the ability to design a book and then select from several sizes (and soft / hard cover options) for the same project?  That way, for instance, I could make a book of family photos and make a large hard cover version for myself and my immediate family and smaller softcover versions for more distant relatives.  Clearly they would all have to share the same aspect ratio but should’t there be some way of scaling?

And my big issue… profiling!  Can’t we all agree that things would be better if a color profile was used.  That way we could have consistency in our books and more importantly, predictability!  WYSIWYG is a good thing!

One other issue…  Let me make some global changes to my book. I made a book recently that was too dark.  If I wanted to fix it, I’d have to change each image.  An option for increasing overall brightness by a percentage wouldn’t be optimal, but it would be better than what is there now.

Ok, that’s three ideas.  Where are my $0.06?

think it is in general a good idea. authors/publishers/designers must be aware though that negative or seemingly unpositive comments can’t be deleted. But good way to get the communications flowing.

  And these little ghosty emoticons sure are cute.

evermeg,

Actually, negative comments will be able to be deleted by authors/psublishers/designers. You will have that control, which makes it a little diferent than what we are doing in the forums.

– Kathy

not exactly on topic, but what about a way for a book buyer to leave you a note when they buy your book, right on the purchase page? right now, i don’t think there’s a convenient way for a buyer to do this, is there?

also, a way for a buyer/fan to be on an email list and/or rss feed where they’ll get a notice when an author updates a current book or uploads a new book.

I have just seen other suggestions from Jeffsstuff and I really like his idea to make one book and than be able to create different sizes.

It is ok if the author is than responsible to check if certain pages had to be auto adjusted (e.g. if specific layouts are not available in one size) and may need manual work to perfect it. 

This would be a great!!! feature. 

If I go to a bookshop, is see a selection of books. With Blurb/printing on demand nobody is selecting. I know there must be great books on Blurb, but for now they are very hard to find. This commenting thing may help a bit… But more is needed I guess. A system of critics that evaluate book in a transparent way ([as an author] you should be able to submit your book to a critic). If you like the taste of a critic it is much easer to find new interesting books. Or (even) more abstract: you should be able to know the commenter. People that like the same thing should generate(autom.) a profile (page). etc.

I like the idea but also agree with a previous comment that the comment deleting should be left to Blurb when reported as abusive or insulting, because if your book really isn’t very good at all and someone posts constructive feedback, I think it’s only fair for potential buyers to know that in advance.

Leaving the choice to the author will make the comments biased and loose it’s purpose.

I also like the ranking/stars idea.

Thanks for keeping up the innovations… I love your products!

D.

Cannot read your images very well, but they seem to be very good ideas. I’ve nothing to add, except that I find Blurb as it exists very user friendly.

Very good idea. Anything is better than the silence that now prevails about almost every book on Blurb.

The idea that authors could remove any comments they didn’t like seems repulsive and misleading to me.  It’s sort of like a dictator polictical regime only counting the votes in an election that were cast for the dictator in power.

If comments are to have any validity, they all need to remain for a true and balanced view.  The only thing that should be removed is offensive and illegal material.

I find it hard to believe there are individuals who think they should be able to invite comments, then delete any they don’t like so every comment ends up being a flowery commentary on their book.

comments: great feature. love the idea.

what about a b3 badge (or announcement) if the book in the shop is using b3 services. it influences the quality and the price – but in the shop is nothing visible yet, if a book is offered only in b3… it can be compared to offering a book with premium paper!

Love it! Can’t wait to hear other users’ views of the books, will help me decide whihc to pick, buy or recommend to friends ;-)

Great idea. Creates conversation in the Web 2.0 environment.

Good idea, also +1 for the 3 or 5 star rating idea!

Not so sure about how you told us all about this though (via an email from Blurb@email.blurb.com ) – all the links point to (presumably) a marketing/tracking website at links.mkt2330.com rather than links back into the Blurb forums (even the account page link and forum link seem to pass through tracking links at links.mkt2330.com) ... which would be fine except from where I am, none of the links work! 

Sounds like a great idea. I’ve got three photo books in the blurb bookstore and the only comments I’ve gotten are from family and friends who naturally feel obligated to say how marvelous the books are.  I would like some real feedback ,positive or negative to help me improve both my photography and writing .

Pat Lynch

Love the idea!  I create my books with family photos mainly for my personal enjoyment and that of my relatives.  I am my own primary "buyer"...(but would love to hear that others think my grandson is as beautiful as his Gramma thinks he is!!)  As far as negative comments… (if I had one I would keep it to myself…..besides you might just love the book!)   We all work very hard to produce our books and it will be nice to share our thoughts and appreciation on jobs well done. 

Yeah… great idea! Peers are the best critics.

How about constructive criticism seen only by the author. I am a retired art and photography teacher and I always taught my students to be able to ‘crit’ the work of others and in that way were able to learn to ‘crit’ their own work. I also taught them not to ‘crit’ the subject, only the way the subject was handled. I called it subject prejudice. If the viewer does not like the subject that does not make it a ‘bad.’ book. Comments on layout and the quality of the photography should be what would be commented on. I have produced thirteen books on blurb.com and have several hundred photos on jpgmag.com. Veiwers can leave comments with your photos. They are mostly positive. When any one photo is viewed that is noted and comments can be left. A viewer can ‘favorite’ a photo. Many, many viewers do not ‘comment’ or ‘favorite’ a photo. Blurb authors and blurb personnel should check out the jpgmag.com system. You can sign in and do this, but not upload any photos. — I find that blurb authors are not really interested in purchasing books, but far more interested in selling their own books. I am an amateur photographer, but it seems only friends, family or former students are interested in purchasing them.

jpgmag.com also sends each photographer an automated email every twelve hours (2:00AM and 2:00 PM) letting them know the ‘Comments’ and ‘Favorites.’ This is an excellent tool. It is an excellent way to find out what others like. I do notice far too much ‘subject prejudice,’ sadly!

I’m not sure that the preview of our books is of a quality that anyone can seriously comment. I gave up looking at previews because the process was cumbersome and low quality.

I think that this is a great idea!