If you’re on Blurb’s mailing list, you may have received an email today about Blurb’s new eBook tool. I had read about it before, but hadn’t gotten around to trying it yet. What caught my attention in the email was the note that for a limited time, you can convert your old books to eBooks FREE of charge. Yes, I love a bargain and I know you do too, so I jumped on the chance to convert my Blurb wedding album that I made three years ago to an eBook so we could view it on our iPad.
When I logged into my Blurb account, I looked at my completed books under “Your Books” and found a button beckoning me to convert my book to an eBook for iPad. Yea! The book conversion process has begun but is taking a bit of time (a dialog box opens up every few minutes giving me an option to go back to Blurb to do other things or wait for my book to convert). It said it could take up to 30 minutes to convert a large book and my book was 80 pages, so it is still processing. Meanwhile, I decided to start writing this post so I’m doing this is in “real time” (ha ha…well, until my baby wakes up or until I have to run out for an errand)…
The conversion can take place in the background according to the prompts, and I’m a big multi-tasker so why not get this post cranked out?
What’s New About This?
This process is different from the share function using Twitter or Facebook which has been available at no charge for quite some time (and b/t/w is available with many photo book companies). What’s funny is I rarely have shared my books via social media or via e-mail. I really like to have the physical copy in my hands to share with friends and family and especially if it’s a gift for them, sending it out ahead of time kind of ruins the surprise you know? This does however give me ideas for some end of year projects. I may create an eBook version of a “year in review” book I’m planning to make and share it with my friends. What’s nice is that friends who may still want to buy an actual book can do so, and for those that just want to view it on their iPads or iPhones, they can just download the eBook version for free.
For those who are doing the 365 project along with me – after you print out a copy of the book for yourself, wouldn’t it be fun to have an eBook version you can show off to your friends, or send to them so they can see what you did this past year?
For pro photographers, this may be a fun revenue generating option to add on to a wedding package (you set the price, and keep 80%) or as a nice complimentary bonus for brides and grooms. Perhaps guests, bridal party and other relatives who may not normally buy prints may be interested in paying a small fee to buy a nice eBook of photos commemorating the big day.
How Does the Process Work?
So, I had to run out of the house for a bit, so I can’t tell you exactly how long it took to convert, but it’s finished now.
1) Go to “Your Books” and convert your book to an eBook;
2) After it finishes you’ll find it under “Your Books” under the eBook tab;
3) Click “Edit”. The program will tell you if you have to change any fonts you’ve used due to licensing issues and it will suggest an alternate font.
4) If your fonts are changed, you can pick another font if you don’t like the suggested one. Either way, go through each page of your book to make sure that the font change doesn’t require you to make other changes. In my book, my font change left the titles a little too close to the photo above it, so I just bumped it down a smidge, just a minor adjustment. Other than that, I didn’t have to make any other changes.
5) You can click on “Preview” at the top right to see how it will look on your iPad;
6) When you’re done making changes, click on “Create”;
7) You’ll be asked if you want to set a price or provide it free;
8) You can then send it to yourself and to any other recipient for free;
9) Open it on your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch. Done!
The editing process only took me 1o minutes or so and it was very easy. I’d definitely recommend you check it out. So, go to Blurb to convert your books to ebooks for FREE (I don’t know how long this offer will last, so check it out!) I’d love to hear what you think of it and how the process went for you!
Please note: I am an affiliate of Blurb, but I was not asked to write this post, nor was I compensated. As always my opinions are solely my own.
I love it. It’s easy to convert and a great way of sharing. Instead of a memory book I have been keeping a blog and blurb is probably the best website out there that does a great job with blog to book conversion. I did have to change the text boxes to fit on the page due to the font changes but that was easy. Maybe 10 pages out of 150. So not to bad hope this option continues to be free
Why is everything only aailable for the ipad or iphone? The Android phones and tablets are just as popular and in some cases better than those apple products. argh!
Do you know if you can change the font style after the book is created and published? I did not have time to do a thorough review before I submitted it.
Thanks!
Yes, it appears so because I can still go in and edit my book. I think if you already downloaded it to your iPad however, you’d have to redo the download to get the updated version of the book.
What a great option! I’m putting together a book for my daughter’s first year and this would be a great option to share with family.
Silly question, but can you keep the book private so that it’s only available to download by people who you’ve provided the link to or does it open it up for others to be able to search & find/buy/download?
That was the longest sentence ever. Yikes.
haha, I write really long sentences too. Yes, you can keep it completely private and then just send a link to them that only they can see. I’ve already done that with a few books myself.
Perfect! Thanks so much! 🙂
Your blog is very helpful. When you create the book with Blurb is there any place on the book or ebook (cover, back cover, etc.) that includes the name Blurb? Are they just considered the printers? Thank you.
I’m not 100% sure. for the printed books there is a logo but you can pay to remove it. perhaps if you go and take a look at the ebooks that are there for sale in the bookstore, you can flip through a few to see.