I got my blog book for all the posts that I did last year in the mail a few days ago. Overall I was very pleased with it.
The print was clear and the colors were vibrant. The binding seems strong and the pages are made of a nice glossy paper.
The only flaw that I saw in the book is that there was a slight graininess to the photos. But I’m not sure if that is due to the printing process or because of the quality of the photos themselves. Anyway, like I said, overall I was very happy with it, even if it was a bit pricy.
It was quite the project though. The book is 181 pages long. I used a free downloadable software called BookSmart from Blurb.com to create the book. It was really nice. It simply asked for your blogger user name and password and then it let you choose which posts you wanted to download.
Then it pulled all the text and photos from your blog into the standard format that you chose. Then you could go in and edit each page and change the format to your liking. It is that part of it that took forever and was rather tedious. But in the end, I think worth it.
Now I have a book to serve as our family journal for the year. I may not be a great genealogist and be gifted at searching out the names of my ancestors – but at least I am keeping up with my current family history! Well, for now at least. Let’s just hope I can keep it up :)
10 comments:
Oh, my goodness...this book is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO cool :) You're such a good mommy to put all this work into something your children and family can cherish forever! :) I love it!
Tootie Cat-
How long did it take and how much did it cost? I would love to do something like this for my family.
I have 2 books already set up. I'm just waiting for some money before I can order them! :)
Glad that yours turned out good! Technology sure is fun!
Has A. Becky already bought her copy?! I'm sure A.D. would love one of those so that she could see all the pics since A. Becky reads it to her everyday!
It took me a couple of months to format all the pages because it was so long and I had to do it in little snatches of time between work and kids. Once you order it, I received it in about 10 days. The pricing is based on the size of the book (I did an 8x10 book) and the number of pages. It is not cheap. The book I made cost $43.95 for a softcover or $56.95 for a hardcover. You can check out the book size options and prices at http://www.blurb.com/create/book/pricing
Kylia - yeah AB ordered one for her and one for Mama Doris, I'm going to bring it to them next week when we come for a visit. I hope they like it!
I am working on my 2008 book right now, and you have inspired me to work harder to get it done! I'm using booksmart too, so I'm glad that you like it (I've never seen a finished product before). I'm going to be teaching a class in our RS about blogging and blog-to-book as part of family history; you should do it in Middleburg. I think it's a great way to do family history for people like us!
That is great! If I made a 2008 book it would have NO pictures and would be 3 pages long. I guess I'll start my book (and family) for 2009.
My mom offered to buy me one of my blog for my birthday. I haven't decided if I'm going to take her up on the offer yet!
My SIL did one of these books for her blog last year (through blurb.com) and she loved it. I'm glad to see the quality is good!
I just finished mine and I have been working on it since February. It was so worth it though. The kids have loved looking at it and reminiscing. Glad you got it done!
Thanks for answering all my questions! Looks like I'll be busy this summer with this huge project! I can't wait! Good work - your book is awesome!!
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