Several years ago, I used Blurb and their BookSmart software to produce a book of family memories containing pictures and words for our father on the occasion of his 84th birthday. “Blurb – New Media Meets Old Media” discusses the process of creating that book three years ago. “Blurb Books and Why I Still Love Print” shares the unveiling of the book to my dad on his birthday. That was then, this is now and Blurb’s BookSmart software has come a long way.
BookSmart software today
Blurb and the book creation process impressed me three years ago; so when I found out they now have an affiliate program I signed up immediately. One of the perks of that signup was a coupon code to produce a free book. I decided to create a book of the pictures we collected at the Color Conversations Live ’11 event we held earlier this year in Las Vegas.
I started by signing up for a new Blurb account. Since I now use a Mac (I was running on a PC three years ago), I downloaded and installed the Mac version of BookSmart. Next, I started BookSmart up and selected the size and type of book I wanted to create. This process, along with the selection of a template, seems to have been streamlined over the last three years. I was impressed that in about two hours I had created a 20-page book of pictures and captions.
BookSmart even warned me when pictures I selected needed to be resized to be properly reproduced in print. Overall, the book creation process was extremely smooth and trouble free. Three years ago BookSmart crashed on me several times; with no data loss thanks to their ingenious auto-save technology. This time around, I didn’t experience a single crash.
Waiting for the book
I’ve submitted the order for my book and now it’s just a matter of waiting for it to arrive. Of course, once it does I’ll let you know how the final product turns out; but I have no concerns based upon my past experience with Blurb.
An offer for you
As a new Blurb affiliate I can offer you the “NEWBLURB” coupon code that will save you 20 percent on your first book when you sign up for a new Blurb account. With that coupon code, you can create a small softcover picture book for around $16. It’s not too steep an investment to put some ink on paper and I love ink on paper! If you do try Blurb out, please come back and share your impression in the comments.
I have a group of first graders waiting on a photo book from me about my dog Tipsy. She’s small, like they are!
At the same time, since I’m writing if very carefully, I wondered if I could make it a small sales item for struggling readers. Are there other programs whose books are less than $16?
Even as I type I’m realizing what a silly idea this is! This is for special things, right? Not a small quantity. Looking forward to seeing you again at KTCo. Are you one of the staff there? 🙂
There are sources for short run books. I’m just not the best resource for those. Perhaps start a thread in KTC, I know Joe Sorge as self-published.
No, I’m not staff in KTC. Just love the people and the community that has grown there. 🙂