Blurb -- my experience, your warning

duds

I just received my first Blurb order, and I have to say that I am woefully disappointed. I'm not writing this post to bash Blurb, but just to warn my fellow Smuggers that there are some bad products afoot. I would not sell one of these books to my customers - not a chance. Here are a few of the issues with my initial order:

1) The binding is not well put-together. When I opened the softcover book for the first time, I heard a crack sound - or, more accurately, the sound of papers, once glued together, coming undone. No good.

2) There are horizontal lines on several of my pages - including the front cover. Obvious printing flaws - is there any qualilty control before these products are shipped?

3) Most of the images look as if they were printed on a bad inkjet printer, on lousy matte paper (even though I paid for the "premium paper").

4) The best looking image in this book is my logo.

5) Simply put, this book isn't worth the money I would charge for it.

I am awaiting my second Blurb order - a different book - and I am eager to see if I feel the same way. I know there are customers who have had a different experience, and I think that's great... but my experience was so offputting that I felt compelled to post about it.

I'm surprised that SmugMug hasn't partnered with higher quality vendors for books. It's clear from other comments on the forums that SmugMug Pros agree - Blurb offers a "value product": cheap books, at cheap prices. And that may be fine for some customers. Personally, however, I'll be investigating another vendor and I welcome any suggestions.

Buyer beware... and good luck.

Matt S

I agree about blurb, my experience was better than yours but in the end I was not exactly thrilled with the results, the print/paper quality was the biggest issue.

So I decided to try the My Canvas option via smugmug. The book was really pretty nice, the binding is fair, and the print/paper quality far better. So far this is the best of the "budget" books I have seen. They also offer a high end book but for something like that I would use Asuka or Kiss books as their reputation proceeds them. They are very high quality with a price tag to match.

Shark

What is Blurb and My Canvas?

Shark

denisegoldberg

Shark wrote:

What is Blurb and My Canvas?

take a look at this page - http://www.smugmug.com/prints/catalog/P#More.

--- Denise

mercphoto

duds wrote:

I just received my first Blurb order, and I have to say that I am woefully disappointed. ...
3) Most of the images look as if they were printed on a bad inkjet printer, on lousy matte paper (even though I paid for the "premium paper").

I was going to try their premium paper but I think I'll pass now. I, too, have not been overly happy with Blurb books.

It's clear from other comments on the forums that SmugMug Pros agree - Blurb offers a "value product": cheap books, at cheap prices. And that may be fine for some customers. Personally, however, I'll be investigating another vendor and I welcome any suggestions.

www.asukabook.com
www.poundslabs.com
www.forbeyon.com

Village Idiot

WHCC is the only company I'll order books through. They do an amazing job.

mrcoons

duds wrote:

I just received my first Blurb order, and I have to say that I am woefully disappointed. I'm not writing this post to bash Blurb, but just to warn my fellow Smuggers that there are some bad products afoot. I would not sell one of these books to my customers - not a chance. Here are a few of the issues with my initial order:

1) The binding is not well put-together. When I opened the softcover book for the first time, I heard a crack sound - or, more accurately, the sound of papers, once glued together, coming undone. No good.

2) There are horizontal lines on several of my pages - including the front cover. Obvious printing flaws - is there any qualilty control before these products are shipped?

3) Most of the images look as if they were printed on a bad inkjet printer, on lousy matte paper (even though I paid for the "premium paper").

4) The best looking image in this book is my logo.

5) Simply put, this book isn't worth the money I would charge for it.

I am awaiting my second Blurb order - a different book - and I am eager to see if I feel the same way. I know there are customers who have had a different experience, and I think that's great... but my experience was so offputting that I felt compelled to post about it.

I'm surprised that SmugMug hasn't partnered with higher quality vendors for books. It's clear from other comments on the forums that SmugMug Pros agree - Blurb offers a "value product": cheap books, at cheap prices. And that may be fine for some customers. Personally, however, I'll be investigating another vendor and I welcome any suggestions.

Buyer beware... and good luck.

Have you contacted their service department? The one time I had a problem I was very impressed by how quickly they made my problem right.
I done a half dozen books with Blurb and never had a problem with the binding or print quality. I had one instance where they shipped someone elses book to me with my cover on it. But in less than 5 days I had a replacement for my customer.

duds

mrcoons wrote:

Have you contacted their service department? The one time I had a problem I was very impressed by how quickly they made my problem right.

I haven't contacted Blurb. I might do that soon, but I've been too busy trying to find another vendor.

One of the GREAT things about Blurb was the fact that I could set a price for my book, and then let Blurb handle transactions with my customers... and the profit would arrive in the mail. Nice! I wish I could do this through SmugMug (ahem! cough, cough! ahem!) but there doesn't seem to be an easy way to handle book transactions without making me the middle man.

Does anyone know of a decent alternative to Blurb that can serve that function?

pilotdave

What size book did you order? I don't know if it still matters, but a while ago the smaller books were printed on different machines as the larger ones. I noticed a quality difference between the 7x7 book I ordered a couple years ago and the 8x10 (I think) books I ordered last year, which were much better as far as print quality.

This year I sold 20+ copies of a blurb book (8x10, non-premium paper). I thought the print quality wasn't quite as good as the books I ordered last year, but I can tell you that I didn't get any complaints. People absolutely loved them. The printed hard covers (as opposed to the dust jackets) look great.

The print quality isn't what I get from my own inkjet printer, but overall the books look great and most people (customers) aren't nearly as picky as we tend to be. I even pointed out a few issues (banding, etc) to a photographer that's very picky about his own prints, and he thought I was being too critical.

Blurb books might not be appropriate for every use, but for their price, I think they're great.

Dave

mrcoons

duds wrote:

I haven't contacted Blurb. I might do that soon, but I've been too busy trying to find another vendor.

One of the GREAT things about Blurb was the fact that I could set a price for my book, and then let Blurb handle transactions with my customers... and the profit would arrive in the mail. Nice! I wish I could do this through SmugMug (ahem! cough, cough! ahem!) but there doesn't seem to be an easy way to handle book transactions without making me the middle man.

Does anyone know of a decent alternative to Blurb that can serve that function?

I could not find another vendor similar to Blurb (other than Lulu which I do not recommend) that had prices that I thought my customers will pay. So it's all about what will sell in your market. Just do a Google on book publishers and you will find lots of them.

bruceblurb

duds wrote:

I haven't contacted Blurb. I might do that soon, but I've been too busy trying to find another vendor.

One of the GREAT things about Blurb was the fact that I could set a price for my book, and then let Blurb handle transactions with my customers... and the profit would arrive in the mail. Nice! I wish I could do this through SmugMug (ahem! cough, cough! ahem!) but there doesn't seem to be an easy way to handle book transactions without making me the middle man.

Does anyone know of a decent alternative to Blurb that can serve that function?

Hey Matt, Bruce from Blurb here. Sorry to say that you got in a bit of a perfect storm with a print partner that is having some issues particularly with soft cover books. The perfect storm aspect is that you requested USPS to a PO Box and that service is currently not provided by the printer that would have normally produced your books, but that will be an option from them in another week or so.

I'm going to request a reprint of your books from an alternate printer but I'll need to send them to your billing address since I can't do PO Box from the alternate printer at this point. If you are not happy with the results I'll be happy to refund what you have paid to date. Fair deal? Plus I'll throw in a coupon for a couple of free books if you PM me.

Best,
--bw

duds

Hi Bruce. I'll PM you, but just wanted to publicly say thanks for reaching out. I'm willing to give Blurb another shot (especially on your dime) if there's a better printer waiting in the wings.

And I'll post back here with the results, fellow photographers..

bruceblurb wrote:

Hey Matt, Bruce from Blurb here. Sorry to say that you got in a bit of a perfect storm with a print partner that is having some issues particularly with soft cover books. The perfect storm aspect is that you requested USPS to a PO Box and that service is currently not provided by the printer that would have normally produced your books, but that will be an option from them in another week or so.

I'm going to request a reprint of your books from an alternate printer but I'll need to send them to your billing address since I can't do PO Box from the alternate printer at this point. If you are not happy with the results I'll be happy to refund what you have paid to date. Fair deal? Plus I'll throw in a coupon for a couple of free books if you PM me.

Best,
--bw

bruceblurb

duds wrote:

Hi Bruce. I'll PM you, but just wanted to publicly say thanks for reaching out. I'm willing to give Blurb another shot (especially on your dime) if there's a better printer waiting in the wings.

And I'll post back here with the results, fellow photographers..

Sounds fair Matt. I've just placed your reprint orders and will have them shipped 2nd Day Air so you'll get them quickly. Looking forward to hearing your opinion once you get them.

Best,

--bw

Matt S

Bruce, well done.

MichaelKirk

Matt - please follow-up
Matt,
Can you please follow-up with you replacement and the print quality.

I have a 100 page photo book I designed thru Blurb just waiting to have the text added and ordered. We ordered a smaller book late last year (8x8 hard cover with premium paper) and I was not "thrilled" with the image print quality, nothing really negative, just not thrilled. I really like to hear your follow-up review before I place an order....or may just try and send it elsewhere.

Thanks,
Michael

duds

MichaelKirk wrote:

Matt,
Can you please follow-up with you replacement and the print quality.

Absolutely. Bruce placed the order yesterday, so I expect it within the week. I will definitely follow up on this thread once I receive them.

termina3

Bay Photo does books… they look beautiful online, I'm getting one in the mail shortly. Will report back on how that turns out.

Tina Manley

I have participated in several Blurb books put together by the Leica Users Group. I have ordered paperback, hardback slip-cover and hardback bleed-cover books and have been very, very pleased with all of the books that I have ordered. I did have a problem with an early order, several years ago, when I received an empty box - no book. Blurb quickly shipped another book overnight at no cost to me. I think it is fantastic and unbelievable that anybody can print a book on demand of the quality that Blurb does.

Tina
www.tinamanley.com

duds

Hi all. I promised an update once I received the new books... I apologize for the delay - my fault, not Blurbs.. the books came shortly after Bruce ordered the new books.

They were noticeably improved. The colors were brighter, the blacks were blacker, and one of the subjects no longer looked like he had a radioactive suntan. I was much happier with the second round - I would not hesitate to offer them to my clients.

I'm glad that Bruce was able to remedy this issue, and I'm grateful for his assistance. I'm a little concerned that quality control won't catch these issues the first time for my clients - if they order a book, are they going to get the "bad version" or the "good version"?

One last thing -- the first round of books came in packaging that made me want to cry -- huge, wasteful, completely unnecessary. The second round came in packaging that was reasonable and appropriately sized. Maybe this is important to you, and maybe not... it is to me. I'm green. :nah

termina3

The Bay Photo books are amazing. Functional, but attractive, with multitudes of paper options and layouts. Beautifully deep blacks, vibrant colors, and accurate graytones when appropriate.

Very impressive. Certainly more expensive than Blurb, but I suppose there's a reason.