Book Making: Blurb vs Shutterfly

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A long time ago, I did a test. I made the exact same book with Shutterfly and with Blurb. It was this one – my little book of quotes (- still available for free if you want it!).

Making a basic hard-bound photo book, the book making process itself was similar on both ends. The check out was radically different – Shutterfly has that super annoying habit of adding extra upon extra, charging for this and that so what was once free… isn’t, at the end of the process. I felt pretty tricked and it made me want to either reach into the computer screen and throttle them or just quit the whole thing altogether.

Blurb? No. Everything was straight up. What you see, what you get. And yes, I think it initially seems a little more expensive than Shutterfly but when you finish with all that add on crap that Shutterfly makes you go through, it’s the same price.

Blurb just doesn’t lie about the prices like Shutterfly does.

Okay, so, that was that and then I let it rest till the books arrived. When they did, HOLY COW.

HOLY SMOKIN’ COW.

It’s absolutely jaw-droppingingly INSANE the difference in quality – I mean, EVERYTHING. The page texture, the book binding (- I ordered hard copy for both). The photo print, the colour, EVERYTHING.

I was stunned.

So then I did what any good loudmouth does and I wrote to them and I ended up getting invited to their headquarters in San Francisco to help test out their e-books (-  show them how REAL PEOPLE figure out how to make an e-book in other words).

The Blurb headquarters in SF was really small, simple, laid back, friendly. A lot of young people but they weren’t so hip that I felt my nursing and spit up stains too keenly. Everyone was drinking coffee and they offered me some which made me instantly like them.

I was really, really curious about one thing: why don’t more people know about Blurb? Why is it all like this really well kept secret? I asked the guy who had invited me in and he said that Blurb has been around for a long time but it’s been mostly used by professional photographers. And that totally explained a lot to me: the gorgeous photo quality, paper, the lovely binding. The works. Those Blurb books are RAD.

I went on to test the book making process. I got really excited about it because it’s very simple, and you can do things with making e-books with them like (easily) add videos into the book! Crazy cool, right?!!

Hang on a second while I dig up that link to where you do it… okay, here it is:   Blurb ebooks

If you are interested in self-publishing at all, give this a look-see. It costs you about $10 to produce it – then you can sell your e-book for whatever you want. You can sell it from your site, or create a store on blurb – you can also download the print or include a pdf of the book.

Instagram Photo Book –  I ordered one of these this year and liked it so much I went and ordered copies for family. I know I sound like a broken record player here, but THE QUALITY! It’s amazing! I mean, really, really amazing!

Okay, that’s enough. I don’t want to go on too much, but with all of these gift-giving times coming up, and with a lot of friends into writing and self-publishing, I thought I should be more vocal about what Blurb can offer you.

xoxox m

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ps

Save 20% when you spend $40 or more on print books at Blurb
When you use the coupon code: MORESAVINGS

Save $25 when you spend $100 or more on print books at Blurb
When you use the coupon code: EARLYSAVINGS

**Offers are valid through November 11, 2013 (11:59 p.m. local time). Valid for printed books only. A $25 discount is applied toward your product total with a minimum order of $100. This offer is good for one-time use, and cannot be combined with volume discounts, other promotional codes, gift cards, or used for adjustments on previous orders.

ps2

Don’t know what to make? check out:
Blurb Gift Center,  Blurb Family History Book,  Blurb Baby Book ,  Blurb Food Book.

Or one of my own favorites? The planner (- I ordered another one because I loved last year’s so much)

 

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