Qoop: Publishing Books, T-Shirts, And More
This is the second review in our series on book publishing applications. To read a primer on the topic with the common features of these applications, please see: Online Publishing With Web 2.0.
With a service such as Qoop, users can print a variety of products, ranging from apparel to books. What Qoop offers in book publishing - hard and soft covers, spiral binding, ebooks - is done through a simple upload process. Qoop requires that users have a pdf that is print ready - there is no layout tool with Qoop. Advanced users may find this a quick alternative to the layout process, while users without layout experience are likely to be frustrated by the lack of support.
Because Qoop only needs a pdf to publish, there are few features to mention (all the layout’s done before), but there are a a number of opportunities available with other Qoop products. Say, for example, you were printing a manual for a training session and wanted to give out coffee mugs as a reward to attending members. With Qoop you are able to print a number of promotional goods along with books and you can do both at the same location.
Promotion with Qoop can be worked through the links on the author’s page or Qoop’s marketplace, which is divided into categories and is searchable. Each project has a preview, and with books the preview brings up a window with ten page preview of the book for the buyer. Affiliate sharing is possible with other buyers as well, to give users another chance to be seen.
Aside from the problem with only having one method of uploading there is the issue of limited print options with Qoop. At the time of this review there were only three sizes for books, and saddle stitch had not been added (but is planned for). Combine this with no design options and you have an application that will appeal to users with specific goals and experience.
To find this and other applications like it there is the Listio search: books+publish.
Previously in this series: WeBook: Social Book Publishing
Next in this series: Blurb: Making Layouts And Book Publishing Easy
Application: QOOPListio Profile: http://www.listio.com/web20/app/QOOP/
Website: http://www.qoop.com
New to Listio? Our tag cloud search offers an easy way to narrow your hunt for the perfect web application or service. No more second guessing of search terms. Just click on one tag, then as many more as you'd like to narrow your search results. It's easy and ensures you get to the listing you want. Finding web 2.0 was never so easy.
Tags: books, buy, create, publish, sell
Posted in: Book Publishing | Respond
Bookmark & Share: 
