In my post on 12 June I discussed some alternatives for converting blogs to books. I decided to try out Blook. I now have the book and an ebook in three formats which should cover any ereader. The book has 154 pages and covers the first three months of blog posts for my first blogging year in New Zealand (which, unfortunately, was not my first year there).
Advantages: It took very little time and is very simple to do. The quality is good.
Disadvantages: There is little flexibility and if a post has one word (one of mine had a heading: 'Paper Wasp' and a text 'R.I.P.'.) then it still occupies one page. Only softback is offered.
Cost: The cost of the paper book alone was £49.31. The cost of the ebook at £3.44 (standard rate regardless of size). The cost of carriage worldwide was £6 (regardless of size).
Having done one I will certainly do more. My next one will enjoy a 15% discount.
I anyone want to have a go then the first person I introduce who produces a book will get a 30% discount. (as would I).
I may also have another try with Blog2Book which, last try, met with technical problems.
Post script: Since writing this several commenters have pointed out that there are no dates on the posts in the book. I hadn't noticed! Silly me. That is quite a serious disadvantage. I shall investigate.
I have not had much interest in a blog book. Maybe later.
ReplyDeleteIt's not for everyone Red.
DeleteThe quality looks very good. I see no date for each posting, is that throughout?
ReplyDeleteIt is indeed Red. I shall investigate that further. I have a horrible feeling that the only way to get the date in would be to add it to the heading and that would defeat one of the prime reasons for using Blook ie speed and ease. I shall alter the post to make that point.
DeleteUntil you brought it up the other day, I never thought of turning my posts into a book. If I did, I guess I'd sort them into various books according to their labels, for instance all my recipes in one book, the fashion posts in another, the travel posts in an extra volume, and so on.
ReplyDeleteLike Cro says, I wonder whether there are any dates for each posting in your book?
If you were going to do that, Meike, then Blook wouldn't be your platform I don't think. I would probably use Blurb or one of the many other platforms that allow lots of editing.
DeleteIt looks beautiful, ?Graham. Did it take long to create?
ReplyDeleteLess than an hour Frances. Although I spent half a day for the project because I tried a number of different platforms.
DeleteNice book and project
ReplyDeleteThanks Maywyn. I'm happy with the quality but there is some further tweaking and investigation to do.
DeleteLooks great GB.
ReplyDeleteI've not heard of blook before you mentioned it. Is it like blurb in that you can buy albums created by others or are they private to the person who created them?
Helen you could buy this on Blook if I made it public. I've not put this for sale but only because I haven't got around to it and I can't possibly imagine anyone buying it.
DeleteThanks GB. I'm not sure that there's a choice to make a book private on blurb so that's interesting to know.
DeleteI have written so much that my blog book would be as thick as the King James Bible - but hopefully more readable. Thanks for promoting this idea. Most interesting.
ReplyDeleteYP on a practical level the books are limited to a certain number of pages. My NZ blog would run to about 2 books for each six month period.
DeleteThat looks great, GB. Hope you get the dates problem sorted. It wouldn't be worth it to trawl through every post adding it, would it? Although with your patience you could probably do that without having conniptions.
ReplyDeletePauline if I do have more posts printed by Bloop and that is the only way then I shall do it. As for conniptions I'm not really given to them which is just as well as, until I looked the word up I'd never heard of it.
DeleteI have printed quarterly editions of my blog for the first couple of years, but I must admit haven't done anymore since. Being a photographic blog I used a photo book style rather than getting my blog slurped up in its entirety, but it is a very time consuming way of making a book.
ReplyDeleteLynda I've made family picture books in the past and they are time consuming - but rewarding!
DeleteI've taken up the challenge! It took a few hours to create a book from my blog ..... now how do I claim the 30% discount? I'm all ready to publish.
ReplyDeleteHi Nancy. Please email me on gbe.eagleton (at) gmail.com and I'll given you the promotional code.
DeleteI guess since you chose a limited time period the missing dates on each post don't matter all that much. But of course if you want ALL your blog posts throughout the years printed - then it does become a disadvantage if the dates are missing.
ReplyDeleteI have sometimes printed out on paper (on my own printer) certain special posts, for example involving family history. But then I've usually done that in close connection with publishing them.
I do also try to remember to download backups of my blogs now and then. (Dashboard - Settings - Other - Import & back up - Back up content)
Monica I've never printed out my blog posts (it never occurred to me) but I back up regularly.
DeleteI think that's a great idea - so many people including myself would be interested in reading it.
ReplyDeleteThe problem, Amy, is that the printed versions are not cheap. The eBook version is more reasonable.
DeleteI remember some blogger I read makes a book of their posts for each year, mostly because they don't trust the internet gods to preserve it and i suppose it is true that a server could fail or whatever.
ReplyDeleteYour book looks good and even if nobody from the broader community buys it, it will make a fabulous heirloom
Kylie I never anticipated anyone buying it. I wanted as a memory and for the family. I do have my blogs backed up because I'd be very sad to lose them.
DeleteI really like the look of your book! I do very little reading online (as in books), but I love to read offline. You have a very nice blog.
ReplyDeleteThank you Linda. I read far too few books these days. Hopefully that will change.
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