Wednesday, April 6, 2011

My Blurb.com book - with a problem...

Remember when I was ordering a blurb.com book to bring down to New York City as a little press kit? 

Here it is! Overall it looked great, except for one problem which I'll get to at the end of the post. And I'll introduce you to my new friend Calla - who REALLY had a great blurb.com book when I met her!

I got the idea of printing a blurb.com book from Lauren Liess of Pure Style Home. (See Lauren's post on her portfolio book here. )


Isn't a little book the best? The images and captions came out great, and it was so convenient to have the book to hand to people at the conference so they could see the jewelry I made. I got so many nice compliments on it!

One of my favorite pages was in the back that highlighted some of my "press hits" - lingo for when my jewelry has shown up in the media. Wouldn't you know I met the author of one of those books that featured my jewelry in NYC that weekend!

{bad text}
So what was a problem with the blurb.com book? I used their online software to design the book, which was fairly easy. I previewed everything carefully. But when I got my printed book in the mail - on the first page - a paragraph of text got formatted all screwy and part of the paragraph got completely chopped off!

Can you call a real person to discuss customer service with blurb.com? No, no phone number given. I had to email. Let's see if they can fix this for me - I hope!

{Calla Gold and me at the MJSA Expo NYC}
And here's my new friend Calla Gold. She's an amazing private jeweler, and yes, that's her real name - her career must have been destiny. She brought with her a hardcover blurb.com book  "The Language of Jewelry Design by Calla Gold"

This is the amazing thing - you can go to Calla's website and download the e-book version for free, or use blurb.com to order a book yourself! Brilliant! Not only does blurb.com allow you to print a book, but you can publish it as well!

Loretta

p.s If I did another book on blurb.com , I'd skip the online software and submit my own .pdf files to have more control over the finished pages. Remember how Lauren was a little disappointed in how her greens printed? I had a similar problem with how some of my whites printed. Probably no one noticed this but me, but when you are a designer, you just want everything to be perfect!

13 comments:

  1. Beautiful Idea!
    Cant wait to see you:)
    Also i just added few things on my new etsy shop,please check and pass the love:)

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  2. HI Loretta! I'm so glad to find your blog....and what a great post to come upon. I'm going to check out blurb.com right now!! I'm also going to "LIKE" your facebook fanpage!
    Linda

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  3. Deepali- Can't wait to see you and your shop in Portland, soon!

    Linda- Can't wait for our upcoming lunch! Just put your blog "She's So Clever" (and you are) on my "Locals" blogroll!

    Loretta

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  4. ...for those who emailed, the 21 page softcover book was about $15, and I paid $2 to upgrade the paper, and then had to rush ship it for about $16 so I could get it in time for my NYC trip.

    I ended up paying about $33.00 total for the one book ($17 + $16 shipping)

    Loretta

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  5. Your book looks beautiful despite the few mishaps. And I know what you mean, those little things that don't come out exactly as you planning can be so irksome!! Hopefully you'll get some resolution from them soon!!

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  6. Quintessence - Irksome, but the big picture was the book was done and did the job, right?

    Blurb.com emailed back that they saw the text problem and have given me a credit to reorder the book. So sad I can't talk to a real person there - how do I know the bad text will not happen again?

    Loretta

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  7. You book looks wonderful and think you're amazing to even be able to upload (or is it download?) the stuff. It looks lovely and the pics of you in the book and with Calla Gold - what a wondrous name - are superb! Love reading about this!

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  8. It looks fabulous so far, but I know exactly how you feel if you can't call someone to fix something it's rather bothersome. Great idea to bring with you to showcase your gorgeous stuff!

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  9. Oh that looks stellar! Once the edit is fixed it will be such an asset to show off your beautiful designs.
    xo Cathy

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  10. Sorry about your text being off but your book still looks wonderful. I was actually going to give a little book a try for my clients at Christmas…so they don’t forget I’m about and who wouldn’t keep a nicely formatted booklet about? Sounds like it was just the thing for your show and thanks for the tip. Have a wonderful weekend Loretta!

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  11. I've been dying to try out blurb, it looks like such a fun way to make a personalized book. I think I'll have to make a wedding one now :)

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