I first found out about Blurb, a site where you can create print-on-demand books, from the NieNie Dialogues blog. In one entry she mentioned how she likes to compile her blog entrees and put them into a book. I thought that was a cool idea!!
So I looked into it, and the books aren't cheap, but that's because what you're getting is quality. This book would have cost me $100 with shipping if I hadn't used a 25% coupon (there's a lot of coupons out there, so keep a look out.) But this book was also expensive because I used high quality paper (not the highest which would have put this book at $124), Pro Line end sheets $3 (worth it!), and Pro Line linens for the hard cover $6 (also worth it), and 240 pages, which really ups the price. At 240 pages the cheapest option with soft cover and standard paper would have cost $56.99.
If you want to play around with prices and options their Price Calculator tells you what to expect.
The site offers many ways to create books, but I used their BookSmart program which is free and easy. (Except with text; don't copy-paste a lot of text at once).
Overall awesome, and I'm so glad I took the time to make this book for myself and family.
The back cover. The picture is from a photo my Mom took while visiting the Ventura Beach. The saying on the back is a line I wrote, "You never know the last time you'll see something you love so much. Life's short. Drink in the sunshine. Breath it in."
240 pages is thick!! And the book has a nice weight to it.
The books I used as inspiration while designing the pages to my book.
A lot of my favorite photography and poems made the cut.
Pictures I took and never blogged.
Pictures I took meaning to blog about, but haven't got to yet!!!! Heh.
My favorite family excursions.
And favorite stories.
"When I first started my blog, Completely Indie, I intended it to focus mainly on my music and Talea Studios. Never did I imagine my personal life taking over!!!
"But I'm glad it did, because I started taking my camera everywhere, and many of the photos in this book wouldn't exist.
"This book is a gift of moments. And I hope everyone pictured herein will love this book as much as I loved creating it.
"Life's a journey full of good ol' fashioned awesomeness."
I ordered this book earlier this week, and it arrived in only four days!! Just in time to give my Grandma her copy for her 80th birthday. She's already read through it and loves every page :0)
A definite treasure.
I've been wanting to do this! I have over 500 entries, so I haven't wanted to do it because of the expense...
ReplyDeleteYeah, that's what almost held me back, and you're posts are text heavy. If at the very least you should be printing them out and putting them in a binder. I've done that with my blog and facebook posts.
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