Back in ye olden days of publishing, a single book required the involvement of dozens of craftspeople. If the paper was meant to last, it had to be made out of “rags” (that’s right, used cloth) since untreated woodpulp paper quickly disintegrated. The metal type had to be set by hand. Bookbinding was an artform all its own. Well into the 19th century, it was often up to the customer (not the publisher) to arrange to have their newly purchased books bound, according to their taste and budget.

Today, all of that seems like ancient history. Blurb’s full set of publishing tools makes it easy to design, print, and distribute books on your own. Still, even though it might look like the magic happens with a few mouse clicks on your end, none of Blurb’s books would be possible without our team members in production, who assemble each book at our printing facilities in Seattle, Rochester, Atlanta, and Eindhoven. Then, and now, books need many hands to become a reality!

Which is to say, making books has always been collaborative. And it still is today. At Blurb, we want to empower our community members to become authors, designers, and publishers. But that doesn’t mean you have to do it all on your own. Many creative disciplines go into making a book or magazine, and you don’t necessarily have to master each one of them in the process of producing your own publication.

Incorporating different artistic techniques into bookmaking

It can be easy to think of books as falling into one category: this is a poetry book (it has poems); that’s a photography book (it has photos). But different artistic techniques can be incorporated into a single book. Some popular examples include children’s books and cookbooks. While some children’s book authors are able to write and draw beautifully (lucky them), many authors choose to work with talented illustrators, allowing the writer to focus on the storytelling while giving space for the illustrator’s visual talents to shine. Likewise, cookbooks can also easily be turned into a book collaboration. Once again, a writer focuses on cooking and descriptive stories that bring their recipes to life, turning over the book’s illustrations—whether photographs or hand-drawn pictures—to someone else. A great author-illustrator partnership, like well-integrated images and design, help transform a plain Word document into a fully-realized publication.

Other examples include novels or poetry books with accompanying illustrations or photo books with texts written by a different author. For example, in the evocative 24-page photo book Weekends at the Card House, Ashley Chang and Vanessa Le mix their writing and photographs—as well as their respective family experiences growing up in different Asian-American immigrant communities—to reflect on the pride and togetherness that marked their upbringing. Pictures of exquisite food, boisterous gatherings, and warm kitchens help bring these worlds to life, page after page.

Blending disciplines allows for fresh storytelling. Whether mixing memoir with visual art or poetry with graphic design, such combinations allow authors to expand their forms of storytelling and explore new ways of presenting their work.

Some inspiring examples of cross-disciplinary bookmaking collaborations

Books have a way of bringing people together. Here are just a few of the many ambitious, collaborative publications that authors from the Blurb community have been producing. These inspiring examples showcase the power of publishing to push boundaries and unite many creative approaches into a beautiful final result.

sinθ is an international print-based creative arts magazine made by and for the Sino (Chinese) diaspora. Their latest issue, ENCOUNTER, is a great example of what we mean by creative collaborations. Opening with an interview with the playwright Brandon Zang, the issue features the work of a musician, three different novelists, a game designer, a poet, a visual artist, and two shortlisted writers from a 2024 contest hosted by the magazine. While readers can’t hear music from the print issue or play the game in its pages, sinθ is a showcase of how Blurb publications can bring together all kinds of creative work between the front and back covers.

In the words of the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Jiaqi, “Working on sinθ has changed my life in every way. I’ve made lifelong friends, become a writer myself, discovered that my passion lies in editorial work and tapping into the power of publishing and creative curation.” On the subject of collaboration, they describe how “each team member, contributor, and interviewee has provided such insight into what it means to be a creative person working today.”

Rohingyatographer is a unique photography project created by a collective of talented Rohingya photographers based in one of the world’s largest refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Their third issue, Food for Thought, offers a visual ethnography of Rohingya life in refugee camps as told through the lens of food. Going beyond recipes, this publication explores food’s cultural, social, and emotional significance, an approach made all the more poignant in an environment where basic resources are so precious. Combining writing, images, and storytelling into one inspiring issue, the magazine offers a testament to the resourcefulness and spirit of displaced Rohingya people—one that Blurb is proud to be able to help transform from an idea into a reality.

In the word’s of the project’s driving creative force, Sahat Zia Hero, “As a community-driven project, we wanted a platform that allowed us to retain creative control, produce high-quality prints, and make the book accessible worldwide—and Blurb made that possible”

[Read more about Rohingyatographer in this Blurb interview from June 2022 or a more recent update on the project from in an interview with the magazine’s editor on NPR.]

Finally, Goddessarts Magazine is a contemporary, international, and artist-run arts magazine based in Germany. The latest issue features a wide range of visual work, from architecture to abstraction, “liquid” oil paintings to fantasy worlds. Started and run by the artist-turned-publisher Lena Snow, the magazine gives Snow a chance to support like-minded artists and share her personal process of finding inspiration with readers around the world. As Snow told us, “Through the Goddessarts Magazine, I’ve had the privilege of connecting with so many incredible people, and these connections have truly enriched my life in ways I never imagined.”

Books as an archive of creative collaboration

Books are not only spaces for collaboration—but for enduring collaborations. Or, at least, an enduring record of those collaborations. This is why independent filmmaker Shahab Zargari chose to publish a book to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the release of his directorial cinematic debut The Crystal Crypt (2013). Adapted from a short story by the science fiction writer Philip K. Dick, Zargari’s film mixed live action, computer-generated imagery, and 2D animation. That means that The Crystal Crypt went from words on a page, to a film combining many different creative disciplines before going back onto the printed page, but in a whole new form.

What makes Zargari’s book such a delight is how it shows the many, many steps and countless hands that were involved in adapting Dick’s story to the screen. Storyboards, artwork, location stills, character designs, make-up artists, animation tests, even props each get their due in this loving testament to the creative community behind Zargari’s passion project. Of course, each of these elements is represented in the film itself, but publishing them in a book provides all of Zargari’s collaborators, as well as interested fans, the joy of appreciating them page by page. 

The benefits of collaboration

Books offer many ways of collaborating: whether combining different disciplines in the hands of one author or gathering the work of a big group of creative practitioners with each offering their unique talents and bringing their own ideas and energies to the process, from beginning to end. 

There are also practical benefits to consider. For example, if you take on collaborative publishing with a group, you can split the costs. Maybe this allows you to upgrade your choice of paper or go bigger with the size of your chosen format. Instead of shouldering the financial burden on your own and choosing something safer, you might be able to take more of a risk and really go for it! Or maybe the extra hands on deck convince you to put in a large order of 100 or more units, rather than going one unit at a time with print-on-demand. With this option, there is more upfront cost but also more personalized support from the Blurb team (and bulk order price breaks!). While selling over a hundred books on your own can sound daunting, taking it on with a co-pilot or two makes climbing that mountain seem a lot more manageable—and a lot less lonely.

On the subject of promotion, this is another place where working with others can make a big difference. Going it solo means you will be speaking only to your existing fans and followers. Bring on a few co-authors, though, and you will be able to cross-pollinate your audiences for mutual benefit. The power of collaborations will also be felt over the long haul of promoting your book. You can each take turns being the promoter of the work to share the responsibilities and avoid burnout. 

“Reading is solitude,” asserted the writer Italo Calvino. “One reads alone, even in another’s presence.” While that may be true of reading, it doesn’t mean that making a book has to be a solitary process.

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Want to explore Blurb’s platform and tools to learn what your collaborative bookmaking process might look like? We’re all for it! Check out our products and start brainstorming your next creation.