nksyoon
Well-known
I made a book of Cuban photos to go with my exhibition. Softcovers were fine. I ordered a hardcover proof. I was satisfied with that too except the dust jacket was badly folded resulting in the cover image being off-center. I asked if it was possible to be more careful of the folding in future.
"I would like to order more hardcovers but am worried about this issue recurring - can you assure me that this problem won't happen again? If I make another order, is it possible to have the order checked before shipping?"
Their response?
"We improve quality checks as much as possible and when we can, while striving to maintain book prices for our customers. Our goal is to make book publishing easy and available to everyone, and therefore, it is important to keep costs as affordable as possible. To that end, we are subject to manufacturing defects, just like any other manufacturer. We readily accept all responsibility for the costs associated with returning the book, reprinting it, and reshipping the reprinted book back to you. We cannot, however, accept responsibility for any costs associated with your intended use of the book."
Foolishly I ordered 10 more hardcovers to be sold at my exhibition. They arrived today - all 10 have off-center images - so much for their QC.
What's their response this time?
"In regards to bad folds, I do see there is a slight variation and that a few are more off-center than others. The dust jackets are individually and manually folded by an individual and it is likely, that this will never be 100% perfect.
We do want you to be happy with your books and can meet you half way on getting some new copies. I have issued you a coupon for $152 towards the cost of purchasing some new copies. I may suggest possibly putting some text on the spine as this may help make the fold more aligned and precise."
Their coupon is less than half of the order value.
CRAP!
"I would like to order more hardcovers but am worried about this issue recurring - can you assure me that this problem won't happen again? If I make another order, is it possible to have the order checked before shipping?"
Their response?
"We improve quality checks as much as possible and when we can, while striving to maintain book prices for our customers. Our goal is to make book publishing easy and available to everyone, and therefore, it is important to keep costs as affordable as possible. To that end, we are subject to manufacturing defects, just like any other manufacturer. We readily accept all responsibility for the costs associated with returning the book, reprinting it, and reshipping the reprinted book back to you. We cannot, however, accept responsibility for any costs associated with your intended use of the book."
Foolishly I ordered 10 more hardcovers to be sold at my exhibition. They arrived today - all 10 have off-center images - so much for their QC.
What's their response this time?
"In regards to bad folds, I do see there is a slight variation and that a few are more off-center than others. The dust jackets are individually and manually folded by an individual and it is likely, that this will never be 100% perfect.
We do want you to be happy with your books and can meet you half way on getting some new copies. I have issued you a coupon for $152 towards the cost of purchasing some new copies. I may suggest possibly putting some text on the spine as this may help make the fold more aligned and precise."
Their coupon is less than half of the order value.
CRAP!
sevres_babylone
Veteran
Sounds like Leica explaining M8 defects.
Now I don't feel so bad about being cheap and buying the softcover version of your book, which I enjoy very much.
nksyoon
Well-known
Thanks to sevres_babylone for buying the book!
Fred, I have never seen a book in a bookstore with covers as misaligned as these.
Fred, I have never seen a book in a bookstore with covers as misaligned as these.
sockeyed
Well-known
How do you feel about the print quality otherwise? Do you do anything special with your digital files to get good reproduction of BW images (ie, no colour cast)?
Congrats about the exhibition and the book, by the way.
Congrats about the exhibition and the book, by the way.
nksyoon
Well-known
I'm quite happy with the image quality see my comments here:
http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showpost.php?p=850713&postcount=4
Other than the slight variations in colour cast between hard and softcover versions, image quality is good and detailed examination is needed to see the differences between the book and A3 prints on quality papers - Hahnemühle Photo Rag 308 with an Epson 7800, and Ilford Gold Fibre Silk on an Epson 2100.
I actually prepared the images with a slight warm tone as that's how I usually like them, but no special adjustments for Blurb's process. There is a new prototype service which is intended to offer a better colour-managed process: http://www.blurb.com/b3info
What I have read is that the 7x7 books are printed on a different machine from the 8x10 and 13x11 books, and the print quality is slightly better on the bigger books.
http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showpost.php?p=850713&postcount=4
Other than the slight variations in colour cast between hard and softcover versions, image quality is good and detailed examination is needed to see the differences between the book and A3 prints on quality papers - Hahnemühle Photo Rag 308 with an Epson 7800, and Ilford Gold Fibre Silk on an Epson 2100.
I actually prepared the images with a slight warm tone as that's how I usually like them, but no special adjustments for Blurb's process. There is a new prototype service which is intended to offer a better colour-managed process: http://www.blurb.com/b3info
What I have read is that the 7x7 books are printed on a different machine from the 8x10 and 13x11 books, and the print quality is slightly better on the bigger books.
sockeyed
Well-known
Thanks for sharing your experiences.
itf
itchy trigger finger
Why not just get them to print a new set of dust jackets and ship them out to you flat. It means you have to fold them on, but at least you can get it right. I'm sure $150 would cover that and maybe another book or two.
pagpow
Well-known
Having a little trouble parsing this -- the last sentence.
nksyoon
Well-known
I ordered the books to sell them during my exhibition - so they're disclaiming any liability for my potential loss in not being able to sell these books.
nksyoon
Well-known
Update:
Blurb has asked me to send the books with UPS to HQ in California. Their production people will look at the books.
It's good that they're taking this seriously, but I still won't have any hardcover books to sell at my exhibition.
Blurb has asked me to send the books with UPS to HQ in California. Their production people will look at the books.
It's good that they're taking this seriously, but I still won't have any hardcover books to sell at my exhibition.
pfoto
Well-known
Just checked a book I got recently from them and the dust jacket is perfect on it. I must have been lucky. What I did notice immediately about the book when I got it though is that most of the pictures inside are full bleed. It did make me wonder. I think Blurb has an option where they print the dust jacket on the cover. Maybe they would get something like that right?
Michiel Fokkema
Michiel Fokkema
Hi,
last book I ordered, I ordered hard cover with printing. So, no dust jacket but printed. Looks great and no problems with dust jackets.
Cheers,
Michiel Fokkema
last book I ordered, I ordered hard cover with printing. So, no dust jacket but printed. Looks great and no problems with dust jackets.
Cheers,
Michiel Fokkema
nksyoon
Well-known
Blurb's solution has been to refund my order, and they might add some hints on dust jacket design in the FAQ to avoid similar problems in future.
"Our print operations manager has taken the following 2 actions with regard to your case.
First, he has fully refunded you for order 232700 ($xxx).
Second, he is sending more feedback to the printer regarding their cover folding process. The process remains a manual one, and we cannot guarantee perfect folds. However, we share your goal of being able to improve that aspect of book production in the future."
I'm happy that they refunded my order, but I'll have to think about how I design my covers in future to avoid this problem.
"Our print operations manager has taken the following 2 actions with regard to your case.
First, he has fully refunded you for order 232700 ($xxx).
Second, he is sending more feedback to the printer regarding their cover folding process. The process remains a manual one, and we cannot guarantee perfect folds. However, we share your goal of being able to improve that aspect of book production in the future."
I'm happy that they refunded my order, but I'll have to think about how I design my covers in future to avoid this problem.
35mmdelux
Veni, vidi, vici
buy the book because its cheap there and fold the jackets yourself would be my solution.