Blurb Customer Support - Alert

[Corran]

If you get really serious about printing a book, I certainly recommend First Edition http://www.editiononebooks.com/

Thank you! I am researching book options. BLURB is of course a well-known source but I was concerned about the very issue in this thread. The prices here seem really reasonable. I am looking at an edition of 100-200 for a large, hardcover, color and b&w book with mostly 4x5 images so quality is important....

 

[itf]

I was looking for info on printing books a while ago and found http://conveyorarts.org , I'm not in North America, so not much use for me, but maybe worth a look.

 

[rscheffler]

That's a worrying sign about blurb's customer support. I've done over 20 different books through them, primarily for one of my clients who likes to receive a proof book of images in addition to the digital files for annually recurring events. Over the years I've experienced a few problems with blurb, primarily printing quality, such as ink smears throughout a book, bad bindings and even had an order that consisted of single copies of several different books where half of one book ended up in one of the others. In all cases, a quick message to blurb was all that was needed for them to reprint the orders, which initially surprised me because I was expecting there to be some resistance.

The most trouble I had was with a 7x7 wedding proof book order back in 2007 or 2008, where the print quality was far inferior to the same images in an 8x10 book (images looked posterized). That one took a few attempts and a number of photos of the poor print quality compared to the larger version to resolve, and even then, was never entirely satisfactory. Later I learned the printer technology used for the 7x7 books was not the same as in the larger books. Apparently that has since been resolved.

 

[Jaans]

What does this have to do with the price of tea in China? What sort of question is this? How could I know? What I do know is that I've prepared the files the same way and according to their guidelines since the first book I printed with them -- which was voted a staff pick for what that's worth if anything -- and sometimes the books print without a cast or registration problem, and sometimes they didn't. When the books were printed poorly, Blurb quickly reprinted them without too much bs. Now, I'm getting bs. This shows me that there is a change in how customer reprints are being handled, and that is why I'm alerting others -- especially considering that I've recommended so many here to make Blurb books -- besides being upset with Blurb, I have a responsibility to the people I recommended.

Why the venom - that was uncalled for. You posted in an open forum and should expect members to pose questions that get to the source of the problem. Also, I thought that was a legitimate question - often when a company experiences rapid growth, then this growth can outpace developments in customer service as they are caught short so to speak. I really don't know why you are getting all worked up. Blurb was always a second rate (should say third rate) way to publish and one wouldn't expect the best quality anyways.

 

[jsrockit]

I've had one book, out of 50 or so, go bad... and blurb reprinted it quickly. Sucks if they won't do it now. I've been happy with the quality for the most part.

 

[Bob Michaels]

......
Bob Michaels recommends "Edition One Books", so I went and checked out their pricing. I could have gotten 10 copies of my book printed with a soft cover for about $225.00

David: also figure out what 20-50 copies will cost, then see how little you pay for the additional copies. Because Edition One is a small run, not "print on demand" subcontractor, the first few copies are expensive but get much cheaper for every additional copy.

 

[dasuess]

David: also figure out what 20-50 copies will cost, then see how little you pay for the additional copies. Because Edition One is a small run, not "print on demand" subcontractor, the first few copies are expensive but get much cheaper for every additional copy.

You are right... Using their calculator shows that going to 20 copies only costs a small additional pittance. My next book will go to Edition One.

 

[mdarnton]

Do you think they're poorly managing their growth ?

It sounds like they're managing their growth perfectly to me. Part of running a business is deciding who's more trouble than the money they bring in. Who among us hasn't fired customers?

 

[NY_Dan]

Why the venom - that was uncalled for. You posted in an open forum and should expect members to pose questions that get to the source of the problem. Also, I thought that was a legitimate question - often when a company experiences rapid growth, then this growth can outpace developments in customer service as they are caught short so to speak. I really don't know why you are getting all worked up. Blurb was always a second rate (should say third rate) way to publish and one wouldn't expect the best quality anyways.

No real venom -- I like the poster in question. I just thought the question made no sense. I have no access to Blurb's financial info 🙂 I don't think it has anything to do with growth -- I just think Blurb or perhaps some of their customer service people has decided to make customers accept lower quality printing by making the reprinting process harder. And my experience is that when a reprinting order is sent to the printer they make a better effort because they don't want a hassle from Blurb hq.

In other news... Thanks Bob, I'm going to try Edition One.

 

[noisycheese]

I will be printing a book in the near future - thanks for the warning about Blurb. Some in these parts have used Blurb in the past and gotten good results, but it sounds as if those days are a thing of the past.

Blurb needs to understand one thing: When they are printing a photographer's work and charging for it, "close enough for government work" is not an option.