Wow! I just heard from my good Pal Ivan Makarov that the Plus One Collection sold almost 100 copies in the first day of taking orders. That’s pretty impressive for a $200 limited edition book. I think the book probably got a nice boost when Google Social Chief Vic Gundotra himself posted about it and bought a book yesterday.
What is the Plus One Collection? Well 520 photographers got together on Google+ to create a collaborative book for charity (so far we’ve raised over $5,000 for Kiva). These are some of the very best photographers on the site and each submitted their best photo of 2011. A panel of 11 editors (I was one of these) using blind ratings then edited this down to 193 single page photographs (all 520 will be in the ebook but only 193 would work in the print book).
There are two editions of the book being offered for sale. A numbered limited edition 11×13 fine art book, printed on fine art paper, including tipped-in print, made to museum standards, available for only 9 more days — and another less expensive book that will follow fulfilled through Blurb after the limited edition sale. Each limited edition book also comes with a print from the book and a certificate of authenticity.
All of the work on this book was done by photographer volunteers on Google+. Ivan probably did the most work of all, but so many others in the community helped as well. Especially notable was the amazing design work on the book that photographer Andy Lee did. Ingo Meckmann designed the great website for the book.
100% of all net proceeds go to Kiva.
I’ve loved seeing this project come together as photographers from all over the world have contributed (literally only 65% of the photographers are from the US/Canada, the rest are from all over the world including Europe, Asia and as far away as Oceania!). The book shares a love for photography and fine art along with a way that we have been able to give back to the world that we all find beauty in and photograph every day. Thanks to everyone who bought a limited edition book yesterday, the price is steep but I think you’ll be proud to own a highly collectible edition of some of the best photography from 2011 while helping to support a very worthwhile cause.
Nifty and sounds quite familiar: http://www.istartedsomething.com/20111108/microsofties-show-off-their-best-snaps-in-inspire-photobook-for-charity/.
Looks pretty familiar too!
Fantastic initiative that Ivan and he’s team have taken. I’m so proud to be included in the print edition. Wonderful cause.
Ahhhh Charlie, that’s interesting. I had no idea that Microsoft employees ever did something like that. Super cool. 300 pages! Impressive!
This is actually Ivan’s third such project of doing a collaborative community oriented book. We did two of them back at Flickr too.
http://thomashawk.com/2010/01/announcing-the-dmu-book-save-10-the-lightbox-collection.html
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1828309
This is the most ambitious and the first for charity though.