What's The Ideal Orientation For Your Book?

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Horizontal, vertical, or square? It can be challenging to decide what orientation is ideal for your photo book.
In cases where all images share the same orientation, choose the same orientation for your book; a horizontal book for horizontal images, a vertical book for vertical images, a square book for square images. (If you’re concerned about how a book fits on shelves at book stores, use square formats cautiously and choose size accordingly.)
If the orientation of the images in a book is mixed, consider two approaches.
If a majority of the images in a book share a common orientation, choose that orientation.
Or, if you want to give all images equal opportunity for size and surrounding space, choose square for the most orientation neutral format.
When in doubt, remember that vertical books generally fit in people’s hands more easily.
Find more Bookmaking resources here.
Learn more in my Fine Art Digital Printing workshops.
Catch my Making Your Own Photo Book seminar today at 12 at Photoshop World Las Vegas.

Blurb's Return Policy

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If your Blurb book was damaged in shipping or has a production defect (like banding or improper binding) Blurb will replace it. Simple email them a picture of your problem to start the process.
There are a number of things that can go wrong that Blurb can’t cover, which you can control by carefully checking a file before you upload it.
Here’s Blurb’s Return Policy.
Blurb guarantees your satisfaction with the workmanship of your book. On the off chance your book arrives damaged or with a manufacturing defect, contact us via Blurb’s Customer Support within 14 days of receipt. We’ll make things right. Please understand that Blurb does not provide refunds or cancel orders, and except for the cases expressly described in this return policy (i.e., your book arrives damaged, with a manufacturing defect or a defect in workmanship), Blurb cannot otherwise accept returns.
Please note that each book you order from us is individually made by one of Blurb’s top-notch professional book-printing partners. There may be minor differences across different prints of the same books and/or across books printed by our different book-printing partners, including, but not limited to, slight variances in color fidelity and binding type. While we work very hard to keep our product as consistent as possible, this variation is a normal occurrence and is not considered a manufacturing defect or a defect in workmanship and does not qualify for a reprint.
When Purchasing Your Own Book
Your book is all yours: Blurb does not proof, edit, or change your content in any way. This means it’s your responsibility to review your book before you publish, and fix:
– Typos, grammar, unfinished text, or other text errors
– Low-resolution images that may appear blurry in print
– Dark images that appear dark on screen (Blurb doesn’t lighten your images to match what you see on a backlit screen)
– Design issues, including book format, organization, style, color, and page layout
– Any other creative choices you made in Blurb BookSmart® or PDF to Book you want to revisit
We strongly recommend printing a hard copy of your book on your local printer for a final once-over. (You might ask a friend to look it over, too.) If you find changes you’d like to make, no problem. Just make them in Blurb BookSmart® or your original PDF to Book file, upload the revised book, and then order as many copies as you’d like.
When Purchasing a Book From the Blurb Bookstore
Blurb is not responsible for the quality of the content of any book in the Blurb Bookstore. Each book you purchase from the Blurb Bookstore is custom printed only upon your order, and we don’t warehouse books, therefore we do not accept returns or process refunds for any reason, except to the extent we guarantee your satisfaction with the workmanship of our books, as described above.
Learn more with my Bookmaking Lessons.
Learn more in my Fine Art Digital Printing Workshops.

Get Great Color in Blurb Books!

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X-Rite and Joe Brady offer this free 52 minute webinar on how to get great color in Blurb books.
video Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Your Book (37 Minutes)
Learn how to: create your book; work with photos, text, and layouts; upload your book; and more.
video Blurb BookSmart® Design Tips and Techniques (26 minutes)
For those who already know the basics of BookSmart, this intermediate session explores several design ideas you can use in your books.
video Using InDesign® to Make a Blurb Book (3:33)
A short three-minute introduction to using Adobe InDesign® to create compliant PDF files by using the Blurb PDF/X-3 Export Preset and the Blurb Templates.
Learn more with my Bookmaking Lessons.
Learn more in my Fine Art Digital Printing Workshops.

20% Off Books In Blurb's "Digital Photo Liberation" Month

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Make a Blurb book by July 31 and get 20% off. Blurb is declaring July “Digital Photo Liberation”. Liberate all those holiday/wedding/baby/you-name it photos locked away in your camera and on your computer. Set them free – get them out of the digital world and into the physical world – in a book made by you.
Simply type in the appropriate promo code at checkout.
–  USD $ coupon code: LIBERATION
–  GBP £ coupon code: LIBERATION1
–  EUR € coupon code: LIBERATION2
–  AUD $ coupon code: LIBERATION3
–  CAD $ coupon code: LIBERATION4
Learn more with my Bookmaking Lessons.
Learn more in my Bookmaking Workshop.

Blurb Volume Discounts

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With Blurb you can order one copy of your book or many. Volume order discounts begin on orders of ten or more copies of the same book. For orders of 1,000 or more, Blurb offers offset printing for better economies of scale. Your discount grows along with the size of your order.
What are the discounts?
10    – 199     10%
200 – 400    15%
401 – 999     Request a POD price quote here.
1000+          Request an Offset price quote here.
Find out more and get answers to these frequently asked questions here.
–  Do I need to order a proof book before I submit a volume order?
– Will my volume order books look like my proof book?
– How much is shipping?
– How can I get a price quote for a volume order?
– What is the total turnaround time for volume orders?
– Why do volume orders take longer to process?
– What are my payment options for a volume order?
Learn more with my Bookmaking Lessons.
Learn more in my Fine Art Digital Printing Workshops.

Blurb for Good – Make a book. Make a difference.

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Individuals, non-profits, and organizations of every size and stripe have raised awareness and funds for their causes with Blurb books.
You’ll enjoy many benefits when you join Blurb for Good.
An easy solution
No big budgets or massive production needed. Your expenses are merely the cost of a book, that’s it. We take care of the rest and give you everything you need to create, promote, and sell your book for your cause.
Fundraising mojo
Our Set Your Price program lets you name your book’s price and keep 100% of the profit for your cause. We do all the bookwork, from fulfilling orders to tracking donations and proceeds, to cutting checks and sending them your way. You’ll also get detailed revenue reports, including stats on books sold and the number of visits to your book detail page.
Contributions from Blurb
If you qualify, we’ll even pitch in with a charitable contribution for every book you sell. Simply apply to our charitable contributions program and we’ll pitch in with $1 for every book sold.
High visibility
Get the word out with free promotion tools like Blurb BookShow™, our new book preview widget, and Blurb book badges. Put your book in our Blurb for Good bookstore. And be eligible for our Staff Picks, features in our blog, and shout-outs on Blurb’s Facebook and Twitter pages.
A lot of flexibility
Print on demand means we print to order, one by one. No waste, no warehousing. Discounts to you start at orders of ten or more books. And if you’re thinking books by the hundreds, we can do offset printing for even better economies of scale.
So do some good and join Blurb for Good.
Learn more with my Bookmaking Lessons.
Learn more in my Fine Art Digital Printing Workshops.

Blurb's BookSmart – 10 Tricks to Impress Your Friends and Confound Your Enemies

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Looking for tips on how to use Blurb’s BookSmart software?
Chad Jennings provides useful tips on the Blurberrati blog.
Find 10 Tricks to Impress Your Friends and Confound Your Enemies here.
– Drag and Drop Images from Your Desktop
– Drag and Drop Images to a Page Thumbnail
– Hide Used Images
– Use Arrows to Nudge an Image
– Use Keyboard Shortcuts and Right-Click Menus
– Turn off Text Auto-Zoom
– “Copy and Paste Page Layout” is Your New Best Friend
– Paste Text to Match Style
– Save Headers and Footers Until Last
– How to be Considered for Staff Picks
Find 3 more tips in his updated post here.
– Lock Your Spreads Together
– Hang Your Virtual Shingle
– Show Unused Photos
Learn more with my Bookmaking Lessons.
Learn more in my Fine Art Digital Printing Workshops.