Fame and fortune in the book business – one or the other, at least – can be yours. And a lot faster than you thought, too!
Not that we're anywhere near the historical conclusion of the events of this past summer- I think it's fair to say that there's still going to be plenty of military and political fallout from the second Lebanon war. But thanks to a new generation of publishing options on the Web – some of them with nearly instant turnaround times (except for shipping) – you can basically write a history book in the afternoon about an event that happened in the morning! Of course, only “history” will judge if your version of what happened turns out to be accurate in the long run – but as I like to say, there's no history like first-person history.
Usually, you expect things like these to be more expensive than similar services available abroad, but Lupa's prices – for example, you can get a 40 page color/b&w hardcover book for NIS 199 – work out very comparably per page (about $1.25) compared to Shutterfly, iPhoto, or the rest of them, which all charge in the same general range. Print time is a matter of days, and the company will even hand deliver your book anywhere in Israel if it's a rush job. Lupa is how Ziv Koren got his Lebanon war photo book out to the public in such a short time – making his the first book published on the subject. The one drawback for people like us is that the Lupa software and Web site are strictly in Hebrew (but I have a feeling that the situation will change when the Lupa people read this!). And, unlike the majority of American and UK sites offering book printing services, Lupa does not offer other items, like mugs, calendars, pennants, etc (it's not clear if they are planning to, based on conversations I had with some Lupa people).
Lupa is without question a very convenient way to get your photos into book form for the benefit of posterity – but it, along with the other photo book services available, raises a raft of questions. Like, what if I wanted to print a regular book – not necessarily with pictures. It stands to reason that if the Web offers instant four-color photo printing, it wouldn't be too big of an accomplishment to offer plain old text printing. And then there's the idea of sending my photos out to a Web service for publication; might there not be some privacy issues involved? Is there a way to print something of similar quality off my own laser or inkjet printer?
Services like Lupa and products like the Epson Photo Book Creator, or the personally printed and bound method of publishing, are appropriate for a family project – but the cost is prohibitive if you want to commercially distribute your work. Even if you could insert text on your 40 pages, it's hard to imagine someone paying over $35 for a copy of your tome – not including shipping, of course.