I found an opportunity to work with Blurb and of course I jumped at the chance to work with Blurb. I wanted to use the opportunity to document the visit my kids had with their grand parents from Texas. So I downloaded and installed the software which was super easy.

This is a preview of my book. You can see the pages. There are so many page layout options. At first I didn’t even notice all of them. This would be the perfect way to write your own children’s book and you can do the artwork yourself.

First, I tested it out to see if I could create a blog book. Before I started reviewing items, I  thought about making a book out of those memories on my blog in a book. It’s like on-line scrapbooking. And as you can see, I wasn’t alone. It was so simple. When you choose the Blog Book option, it will ask what blogging platform you use and then it will walk you through the process to signing in your account and putting all your blog posts in a book for you. It was extremely easy. But I decided to go for a photo book instead.

You can write your own photo book, or make recipe book. It’s just so simple using their BookSmart software.

1. Blurb is a creative book publishing and marketing platform that enables anyone to design, publish, share and sell bookstore-quality books.

2. To get started on your book, download Blurb’s free BookSmart software at www.blurb.com. It works on a Mac or PC.

3. Import photos, text, artwork, even your blog. BookSmart has photo and blog slurpers that will automatically “slurp” your content from many of the major photo-sharing and blog platforms into your book.

4. You have complete creative control. Select from among BookSmart’s hundreds of professionally-designed layouts, or upload your own page designs.

5. Order, and within 7-10 days, your masterpiece will arrive.

6. Blurb books are available in four sizes: 7×7”, 10×8”, 8×10” and 13×11”. Blurb also offers the option to publish a text book (for novels, manuscripts, etc) starting at $4.95.

7. If you’re interested in selling your book, you can make it public in Blurb’s Bookstore (www.blurb.com/bookstore) and set your own price. You keep 100% of the mark-up over the original cost.

8. Check out Blurb’s Bookstore for inspiration and to discover some amazing books.

My Opinion:

I would have to say that so far Blurb is my favorite spot to make a photo book. The whole process is the easiest to use and you have a professional looking book when you are finished. Kodak takes too long to upload, and you can’t add very much text. The layout options of the photos are small and it just doesn’t compare to Blurb’s layout options:

  This is just two different samples of page layouts you can choose from. I also feel like what you get for the price is amazing. You get a premium book you made on your own. I can easily see how people will use this to self-publish, because it is fast and easy. It only takes a long time if you are indecisive like me. I have two many pictures of my children. Uploading was just as easy as installing. All I had to do was select upload. One issue I did have was I couldn’t figure out how many pages I could publish using the software. Maybe I just couldn’t find it on the site. So I did trial and error. Whatever you make can be sold in their bookstore for readers to order! How easy to share with the grandparents after creating it.

Enter To win:

5 people can win a code to make your own books.

To Enter:

Visit Blurb and tell me what kind of book you would like to write.

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