In a previous post, I shared the exciting news that the blog book that I created using Blurb had arrived. I also included a few photos of my book. The blog book covered April - June 2012 of my genealogy blog. I began my genealogy blog on April 5, 2012.
I do like how it turned out, but using Blurb for my blog book was a laborious process. In order to have my blog book look the way I wanted it to, I ended up having to take a lot of time and effort to add my blog contents to the book manually. I didn't use any "slurping" process for the book. I had to place the photos and text on the pages manually and I had to create the Table of Contents manually too.
I didn't create another blog book for a number of years after that first book. In July of 2018 I decided to create another blog book which covered July - December 2012 of my genealogy blog.
For this new book I used Blog2Print instead of Blurb. It was so much easier and quicker than using Blurb. Blog2Print doesn't have the full editing capabilities of Blurb, but the ease of use makes it worth it. Blog2Print "slurps" the pages of your blog and creates a Table of Contents automatically, which is great. You can also edit some things, like choosing which posts to include in your book, choice of page layout, whether or not to have page breaks, text style, and photo size. You can also add pages to your book, which I have done in the blog books I've created.
Here are a few photos of my first blog book using Blog2Print. I think it turned out well, even though it doesn't look exactly like my blog online. At least the content is in the book, which is the most important thing.
I even added this page with bonus family photos. The opposite page has a note from me to the readers of my book.
I'm glad I finished up year 2012 of my genealogy blog in book form. For my 2018 Christmas gift, I created two more blog books using Blog2Print, one for 2013 and one for 2014. I'll share those in future posts.
Thanks for stopping by!
Jana
© 2019 Copyright by Jana Iverson Last, All Rights Reserved
Great idea! Good to know which program to use
ReplyDeleteThank you Patricia!
DeleteI’m so happy to read this. I used Blurb for my first two books to share with my mother. Since she passed away (5 years ago!) I’ve been telling myself to get back to it but since Blurb was so labor intensive, I just haven’t done it. I’m going to try Blog2Print!
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry about your Mom's passing.
DeleteI know what you mean about Blurb. Very labor intensive. I'm glad I tried Blog2Print. It's so much easier and quicker. :)
That does look good. I have wanted to do some focused books like just Sepia Saturday, just 52 Ancestors, and just A-Z Challenge but slurping seemed too difficult with too much to edit out. What do you think?
ReplyDeleteThank you Wendy! What a good idea to have focused books. I would say it isn't too difficult to edit them out. After Blog2Print slurped my blog according to the dates I chose, I went through and unchecked the Fab Finds posts so they wouldn't be included in my printed book. It didn't take too long and was worth the effort. :)
DeleteYour new book looks great, Jana. Do you know if you can change the width of the margins on each side individually, or do they have to be the same width?
ReplyDeleteThanks Nancy! Unfortunately, I don't think the margins can be changed. I wasn't sure, so I went to the Blog2Print website. Here's a link to their "Customizing a Book" section. Hope that helps. :)
Deletehttps://www.blog2print.com/faq/customizing-a-book/#q0
I used Blirb for my first small book and also found it laborious. I switched to Blog2Print and haven’t looked back. I don’t need each and every page laid out perfectly. I just want the content of my posts to be in book form. I use breaks between posts and I have been very happy now for 5 years.
ReplyDeleteDitto Diane! I feel the same way you do. I too use page breaks between posts so a new post begins on a new page. I really am glad I decided to give Blog2Print a try. :)
DeleteHowdy would you mind sharing which blog platform you're working with?
ReplyDeleteI'm planning to start my own blog in the near future but I'm having a difficult time making a decision between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and Drupal.
The reason I ask is because your design and style seems different then most blogs and I'm looking for something completely unique.
P.S My apologies for being off-topic but I had to ask!
Thank you! I use Blogger. It's free and easy to use. Good luck with your new blog!
DeleteYour book turned out beautifully! I haven't printed books of my blog posts, just booklets about particular families or family members, but I'm going to consider your idea because as you point out, I can choose which posts to include and which to exclude.
ReplyDeleteThank you Marian!
DeleteI do a book every quarter. Like you, I started with Blurb but now I use Blog2book since it is the only slurping option. Now it's my tenth year and I have almost an entire shelf of blog books. They come in handy at family parties, reunions, and when I do presentations on genealogy blogging.
ReplyDeleteWow Heather! Ten years. Congrats!! That's so awesome! Do you print yours as hard or soft bound books?
DeleteJana, I thought it would be a nice present sometime in the future, if I could make "family" books from my blog posts. I hadn't researched this yet. Thank you for such an informative post! I will have to check into Blog2Print!
ReplyDeleteYou're very welcome Diane!
DeleteI do use Blurb (the old BookSmart, not the BookWright one)to write my family histories, because I want the control. I do full pages of images with photoshop. But this Blog2print might work for my family stories blog. When I have enough stores I'll look into it. Thanks for the tip.
ReplyDeleteYou're very welcome Dianne!
DeleteGreat book. I have used Blog2Print. It is fast but my photos do not always come out. Sometimes they are just a dark square where a photo should be.
ReplyDeleteThank you! Oh, I wonder why your photos are sometimes just a dark square. I believe that videos we include in our posts will be a dark square in the book, but I haven't had that happen with my photos. I wonder if Blog2Print can help you out with that problem. Could it be the size of the photo that's the issue? Hmmm. I'm not sure.
DeleteThanks for this tip. I'm going to check it out!
ReplyDeleteYou're very welcome Kathy! Thanks for stopping by!
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