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| My Blurb Blog book |
1. Blurb’s software “Book Smart” imports blogs from Blogger, Live Journal, Typepad and Wordpress.com. You just select the blog service and then enter your blog’s URL (web address) and the software imports ALL your posts. You can then select which ones you want to have in your project by checking off them off the list. The BookSmart software is free.
2. You can have Blurb.com print out your project in a bound soft cover or hard cover book. Or you can print it out yourself, to your printer or to a PDF file. I’ve used the printer option to edit my work before sending it to the printer, because once you hit SUBMIT you cannot edit your project!
3. All your projects are saved on your own hard drive, in a folder called “BookSmartData”, and each project gets its own folder here with several files inside it for your text, photos, etc. You can then backup this folder onto your own external hard drive or internet service for safe keeping.
4. The earlier books I made with Blurb.com were sewn bindings, however today I received my copy of my Blog book and it WAS NOT sewn. My earlier projects were 40-80 pages, and this one is 132 pages, so maybe this is the difference? The quality of the paper, photo printing, cover and everything else is unchanged. I don’t know how this new type of binding will stand up.
5. Blog now offers a new type of premium paper. I don’t know if it is archival paper or not, but it a bit more expensive than the paper I’ve had them use in the past. I’m happy with their regular paper.
6. Putting your book project (blog book or photo book) up on the bookstore at Blurb is a good way for relatives to preview your work. It is also a good way to explain the binding/printing process to someone else who is trying to figure out what a finished project looks like. You can remove the book from the bookstore at any time with just a click. I’ve used the Blurb Bookstore to peruse other people’s projects, to get ideas for my own projects. There are lots of genealogy books up on the Blurb Bookstore right now.
Thank you to Carol from http://draft.blogger.com/www.reflectionsfromthefence.comfor asking me some very good questions over the past few days. She is the one who found out that in BookSmart you can print to PDF to save a copy of your blog, which would be an interesting way to preserve a copy of your blog on your own hard drive.
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Copyright 2010, Heather Wilkinson Rojo
Thanks Heather for the further explanation on Blurb. I went to their website the last time you posted about it and registered and downloaded their software. I haven't had time to go further with it but hope to soon.
ReplyDeleteThat's neat, I had never heard of blurb until now, maybe I'll do some slurping some day ; ) Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI want to know how I can do a blurb with just certain photos from your blog, Carol's, Jenna's, Lindalee's, Becky's and some of the other good photographers. Wish there was a way.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mary, Michelle and Barbara! Barb you can edit any text or photos. I usually edit out most of the photos and leave in a few as larger photos, and then shrink some to tiny just for decorations. The editor lets you remove or add whatever you want, including taking out entire posts, or adding addtional pages.
ReplyDeleteThis is very cool! I hadn't see Blurb before. Thanks for sharing the info!
ReplyDeleteHeather, thanks for the additional info about your results with Blurb. After I read your earlier post, I downloaded BookSmart and slurped one of my older blogs to see how it worked. It was worthwhile, I think, to work on a starter project as a learning experience. There was a lot of editing I wanted to do with that project, so I slurped another of my older blogs which needed slightly less editing, because I wanted to see an end-product before investing a lot of time doing stuff in a way that might not satisfy me. My finished product came a couple days ago, an 80-page 7" square book, hardcover with jacket, and I'm extremely happy with the materials and workmanship. I'm looking forward to making more Blurb books. I appreciate knowing, though, that the binding in your longer book is not a sewn binding. I just poked around at Blurb a bit, and found this advisory about how the books are bound:
ReplyDeleteFor you bindery aficionados, Blurb uses both "side sewn" and "perfect bound" binding options on all hardcover books. Generally, books with fewer than 120 pages will be side-sewn. Books with more than 120 pages will be perfect bound. These methods are the same for both Hardcover, Dust Jacket or Hardcover, ImageWrap options. All softcover books are perfect bound.
Good to know! When I get going on my family history books, I'll be inclined to keep them under 120 pages.
Thanks for pioneering the Blurb experience--you motivated me to get started, and I'm havin' so much fun with it!