Blurb Review for the Professional Author

First off, Blurb is one of the good self-publishing companies out there for hobbyists. There aren’t any scandals tied to Blurb and authors who pay Blurb tend to get exactly what they pay for the most part. So you don’t need to worry about getting ripped off by Blurb. They are not a fly-by-night publisher or printer. Since 2005, they have helped produce over 8 million books. That’s an impressive number.

Benefits of Blurb

• Hobbyists can print as few as one copy on demand. This is perfect for photo books — family albums — and small projects like cookbooks.
• Blurb has design tools and templates that allow you to create your own book.
• You can make your book available at Amazon, Barnesandnoble.com, Apple books and through the Blurb bookstore, etc.
• Blurb keeps track of your book sales and pays you for those sales.
• High-quality printing, especially for image-heavy books.

Drawbacks of Blurb

• No in-house design team, so you’ll be on your own designing your book using their tools and templates or you can hire one of their partners. If you’re a master at Adobe InDesign and Photoshop, you could technically design your own book and use that as well, but most professional authors would rather spend their time writing than designing. Also, I don’t recommend using templates for a professional book because that will look amateurish and could look like someone else’s book.
• No in-house editorial team. Same as above, you’ll need to hire someone else to do it — probably a freelancer. You’ll need to go through an extensive interview process to find the right editor for your project and this could take a while.
• No book marketing support whatsoever. It’s not enough to just list your book on Amazon, Barnesandnoble.com and some other retail websites. You have to be intentional with your marketing and that means actively participating in digital marketing to drive traffic and sales to those retail sites. Blurb is severely lacking in this book marketing department, that’s one of the main reasons I don’t see them as a legitimate option for professional authors or writers.

Customer reviews

Blurb’s customer reviews are overall positive, with a 4.5 star rating on TrustPilot. Many of the reviews note the high quality of printing and ease of using the website. Some of the negative reviews focus on lack of support or poor support and long lead times on printing. There are over 200 1-star reviews posted on TrustPilot describing issues, accounting for about 6% of the reviews on that platform. So take a look. If support is something you don’t think you’ll need and you’re only printing your grandmother’s cookbook, then give it a go. But for professional authors, support is paramount — fast responses, quick printing lead times, help with design, editing and marketing are all must haves!

Sitejabber tells a different story and gives Blurb a 1.6 out of 5 stars rating from 95 reviewers, and many of them comment on poor printing quality. I find it intriguing that reviews from TrustPilot vs. Sitejabber can vary so greatly.

The Final Verdict: Is Blurb a good option for pro authors?

From Blurb’s limited distribution, to providing little to no design, editing or marketing, I don’t believe that pro authors would find Blurb to be a good fit. Hobbyists might find it to be a good website for self-publishing a photo book or cookbook but those wanting to make money with their book products will find the Blurb platform limiting.

MindStir Media is a full-service alternative

If you’re looking for a full-service book publishing experience as a professional writer, MindStir Media is a great match. Not only does MindStir Media handle book cover design and interior formatting for you, but they’ll also edit your book and offer full-fledged marketing support that includes services like social media management, author website design, best-seller campaigns, PR, celebrity endorsements and more.

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