Monday, October 20, 2008

Blurb In Depth


Thanks for the compliments on the books! You guys asked some great questions, and I thought others may be curious too. I've also posted some interior shots so you can get an idea of the different page formats.


First question was do I do one every year...
Yes and no. I did make a volume for every year, but I did them both a couple weeks ago. I've got the 2008 volume in the works, but will wait until after the holidays to finish it up.


Second question was how do I decide which pictures to use...
Because I keep a family blog, which is like a journal for me, I literally just slurp the entire blog into the Blurb Book Smart program and then separate it out from there. A blog has been the easiest way for me to catalog what we've been doing, what the boys have been saying, etc. and with Blurb it is really simple to get all your photos and wording into one place. You don't have to decide which photos to order or even remember/think of captions - it's great!


Third question was how long it took me to put them together...
Let me start by saying that I can't just slap things together - I like things to be perfect [although, since I've had kids my definition of "perfect" has changed a bit!]. If I had had to gather all the pictures and think of things to write in the book, it would've taken me a long, long time. But, since I already had all my materials there all I had to do was organize them and make them look good. I did limit myself [because I can spend hours on the little things if I don't stop myself], for example, only using black text on the inside [I would've obsessed over the colors]. I worked on both books on and off over one weekend and the following Monday, had Reggie proof them Tuesday and ordered. I would allow for more time with the first one you do because it will take time to get familiar with the program.


Hope this helps! Go Blurb!

3 comments:

the dowiaks said...

thank you for answering some questions and posting the inside. they look great. i can't wait to get started on mine. i just have a feeling it will keep me up at night! :)

Anonymous said...

Hi there,
I follow your blog pretty regularly and was wondering if the Blurb books you made were from "Blogger" blogs? I've heard that the "Blogger" format isn't working properly. Did you have any trouble?
Thanks!
Leslie

alston said...

Hi Leslie -

Sadly, I did just find out that Blogger is no longer working with Blurb. I even emailed them to double check + they weren't sure when and if they would support Blogger again. It seriously happened within 1 or 2 weeks of when I ordered these books + totally stinks! I had over half of this years book in there already, so I will just copy and paste from the rest of my blog entries. Maybe if enough Blogger users write them they will get to work on it??!!

alston

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