Food, Photos and Travel: Blurb.com

Since my parents don't have regular internet access, I wanted to put together a book of my travel photos for them. There are several options for self-publishing on the market, and I think I looked into just about all of them.

Based on reviews I read online, I went with a company called Blurb who seems to be growing in popularity every day. I downloaded their software, and in within an evening I created a 110 page book featuring photos from my last 2 years of traveling. The software is incredibly easy to use. It has over a dozen different page templates, and all you have do is drag and drop your photos into place. They even have options for cookbooks, poetry books, baby books and more. The best part is that you can create a book that is up to 440 pages long! Most of the books on the market don't even allow for 1/10th of that.

I ordered three books... one for me, one for my dad and one for my mom. They took about 2-3 weeks to be delivered. This must be their busiest time of year, so I am more then satisified with that time frame. Though there are a few minor flaws, the print quality is very good. The color is accurate and vibrant. The cover is black linen with a custom printed dust cover, which I designed myself using their software, and the pages are a nice weight with kind of a semi-gloss finish. Sure, it's not of the same quality as an expensive coffee table book... if you want that you'll have to go through a company like Asuka, however the cost is very high and they only deal with professional photographers. For the price, however, the overall quality is excellent. My 110 page books cost $38 each, which is very reasonable for a custom printed, professionally bound book. My parents will be thrilled!