Blurb, books and calendars

[Antonio Correia]

I am making a book (another one as I have done 3 already with Blurb) about some of my photos under Projects (http://antoniocorreia.smugmug.com/Projectos%20-%20Projects) (no matter which).

As next year I will be retired I want to make calendars for 2010 and books.
Not that I am thinking to sell the books but I want to try. Who knows ? :dunno

I have not yet seen any book from Blurb (http://www.blurb.com/) with the new paper but I would like to. The books I have made so far, are Suficient not Good.

I would like to have something really Good or Very Good. Exquisite. Nice paper, nice printing and so forth.

I came here as I was looking for "how to make calendars" and, in case you know anything about it, tell me please.

Any experience with Etsy (http://www.etsy.com/index.php) ?

Remember that I am in Europe.

[JMP]

Sorry, no information, but something caught my eye... RETIRING, WHY??? :scratch

[Antonio Correia]

Sorry, no information, but something caught my eye... RETIRING, WHY??? :scratch

:rofl:rofl:rofl:thumb

[Cuong]

Sorry, no information, but something caught my eye... RETIRING, WHY??? :scratchWith Antonio's prolific photographic work, it looks to me more like a switching of careers than retirement.

Cuong

[Antonio Correia]

With Antonio's prolific photographic work, it looks to me more like a switching of careers than retirement. Cuong

:rofl:thumb:bow:thumb

[clemensphoto's]

I guess the more appropriate question is what profession his retiring from?

[Antonio Correia]

I guess the more appropriate question is what profession his retiring from?
You all pull my leg but don't tell me anything about what I would like to know.:D

OK OK. :D
I am retiring from beeing Architect (30 years as professional last June), however with capacity to go on if needed, and going on in photography as amateur.

I can tell you a little bit more :D.

My books in the future will be - I hope - "Festivals of the World" ; "Landscapes of the World" and yet another one "30 pictures of 2008". This one will be released until the end of the year.
You will be able to buy it on line from Blurb. :clap

The others, later, later. The work has to be refined, exquisite, unique.

Thanks for pulling my leg. :rofl

[cmason]

Antonio:

I have ordered a few Blurb books and have been happy with them, but was not planning to 'sell' them.

My only other experience with books was examining some samples during a photo seminar. I got a chance to examine books from White House Custom Color, and was very impressed, they were much better image quality and stock quality than Blurb. Perhaps others who have ordered before can give you more personal feedback.

http://www.whcc.com/books.htm

[Antonio Correia]

Antonio:
I have ordered a few Blurb books and have been happy with them, but was not planning to 'sell' them.
My only other experience with books was examining some samples during a photo seminar. I got a chance to examine books from White House Custom Color, and was very impressed, they were much better image quality and stock quality than Blurb. Perhaps others who have ordered before can give you more personal feedback.http://www.whcc.com/books.htm
Thank you Mason.:D
The books I have done are "domestic" ones. Only for the family.:D
But why not try to sell them ? :dunno

I know that it is very difficult but I its very easy to try, as I am doing the books - at the present time - as gifts for the family, for Cristhmas.:D

I went to that link you kindly gave me but I wonder if it is only for professionals.:dunno

I e-mailed them and an anwser will soon be here.
Thank you :bow:D

The way Blub works pleases me. However their software fails sometimes...

[cmason]

Yes I think WHCC is primarily for professionals, and I doubt they have software like Blurb does.

For friends and family, I think Blurb is just fine, and I have no complaints. For the money, Blurb is great. Again, if I were selling these as books, then the expectations might be higher.

Don't really know how much 'sales' get driven from Blurb's website. I don't think it would be much.

Another idea is lulu.com (http://www.lulu.com), which is designed to be a self-publishing web site. There have been mixed reviews on their photobooks, but their website seems to be a pretty good sales area.

[Antonio Correia]

Yes I think WHCC is primarily for professionals, and I doubt they have software like Blurb does.
For friends and family, I think Blurb is just fine, and I have no complaints. For the money, Blurb is great. Again, if I were selling these as books, then the expectations might be higher.
Don't really know how much 'sales' get driven from Blurb's website. I don't think it would be much.
Another idea is lulu.com (http://www.lulu.com), which is designed to be a self-publishing web site. There have been mixed reviews on their photobooks, but their website seems to be a pretty good sales area.

:bow:D:thumb:thumb

[redleash]

I have used Shutterfly (www.shutterfly.com) for several books, some of which I have sold and some have been given as gifts. I have been very pleased with their quality and responsiveness and I find their software easy to use. I think they are one of the more expensive of the do-it-yourself companies, but I have seen several reviews where their quality was rated highest. I do not know if they ship to Europe but I would suspect so.

Best of luck--you do have some fabulous work!

Lauren

[Antonio Correia]

Thank you Lauren :D
I am doing a book for Cristhmas from www.blurb.com (http://www.blurb.com); www.lulu.com (http://www.lulu.com/); http://whcc.com/index.htm one from each of the publishers and the same, I mean with the same pictures in each and one of them, to compare.

I also got myself into www.asukabook.fr (http://asukabook.fr/) because my sun and myself we have an entreprize of images www.helivision.pt (http://helivision.pt/) But I had a quick look and found it to be rather boring: have to make a CD, go to the post, bank, etc.

lulu has the advantage of also making calendars.

Something curious happened with whcc:
I wrote them a mail asking if if the service was only for professionals.
They answser me with a long letter and I quote this important part:
" Hello there Antonio, You don’t necessarily need to be a professional in order to use our services at WHCC... ... To get started with White House Custom Colour, simply visit http://whcc.com/become.htm and fill out the short questionnaire. We will respond to that questionnaire with an email including a link where you will be able to upload up to five 8x10 test images (300dpi, Lv.10 JPEG) to our servers. We will process this order and input your information into our client database. Once completed, we will send these prints out to you free of charge so that you’ll be able to color match what you’re seeing on your monitor to what we’ve printed for you. Along with this print shipment, we’ll package a “Getting Started Guide” that will include your new account number and password, as well as a complete set of press and photographic papers and finishing samples for you to look over... I hope this information helps! Please let me know if you have any more questions. Have a wonderful day, Antonio!"

In fact this looked like this mail was just for me with certain parts copy and paste of course.
I am going for them. For sure. Because of this way of contacting people.

lulu is also interesting because it makes calendars. However I find their site to be very confusing or it is just me:dunno

Thank all for the help and the clues...

Have a good day:D:thumb:thumb

[cmason]

Antonio, we look forward to a complete review of these services, it will be good to get your professional opinion on these.

That helicopter looks so cool!!

[Antonio Correia]

... professional ...

:wink:wink You are pulling my leg :wink:wink

:thumb:thumb:D

[urbanaries]

Antonio,

I am curious to see what your experience is with WHCC. Like Cmason, I have found their products to be of the highest quality. I also find their customer service, turnaround and pricing good. Out of all the vendors I've used in the photo industry, they are top notch, they run like a company should from top to bottom, IMO.

As far as product, I just abandoned using Blurb altogether in favor of WHCCs photo wrap cover, hinged pages press-printed book. With free 2-day shipping, it is only a few dollars more than the (far inferior) blurb products. The paper WHCC uses is phenomenal. Made a 10x10 for a guest book of engagement photos at a wedding over the weekend. I had at least 30 people come up to me ooohing and ahhhing about it. The blurb books were nice but didn't nearly have that response.

Wish you the best of luck!

[cmason]

urbanaries, for WHCC, is there any software for book layout? or just Photoshop templates?

[Antonio Correia]

I hope to remember to tell you my experience when I have the books.
Thank you all for the comments inserted. :D:thumb

[urbanaries]

urbanaries, for WHCC, is there any software for book layout? or just Photoshop templates?

That is the biggest drawback....no software. Although I think Blurb's layouts are too geared toward text and not enough for photo layouts. I ended up making pages in Photoshop and importing them into Blurb as JPGs, anyway!

I bought a few templates from Design Aglow (http://www.designaglow.com/the_shop/store_pages/product_categories/templates/album_templates.php) that I like.

[jeff lapoint]

I hope to remember to tell you my experience when I have the books.
Thank you all for the comments inserted. :D:thumb

Any updates?:ear

[Antonio Correia]

Any updates?:ear

Sorry. :scratch Not yet. :D
:bow :thumb