New York Photography Blog - Volume I

Now I’m more confused than normal.

The background: I did one 6 x 8 hardcover with black linen cut out cover. Used the exact same files as I used for the MyPublisher books.

***** The printing is excellent. To see any color shift at all I have to hold it directly under a tungsten light and even then it is minimal. Under normal house lighting there is no color shift. Also, the printing is a bit “richer” than the MyPublisher books. I think it’s the same paper. Although there is a Picaboo logo - it’s not printed inside the book - it’s stamped and less noticeable on the back of the cover. ****

I should note that there were two pages in the middle that stuck together a bit, and there’s a little blemish there but you’d have to be looking for it to find it - and I suspect it has to do with the black background.

The general communication is not as continuous as you get with MyPublisher. They sort of keep you abreast of what’s going on with the process; i.e. you get an email when the print goes into production. And of course when shipped. And when available on the bookshelf.

With Picaboo you get an email confirmation when the purchase is complete and an email when the book is shipped. Still - they stuck to their schedule of 4 or less days to produce.

I’m going to do some calculations as to cost now.

As mentioned before - their software is better than MyPublisher in terms of fonts, and number of backgrounds and layouts; and they’ve got true “borders,” that look better than the borders I did in Photoshop (because those were eventually resized) but I’m still not sure if there’s a way to have page numbers printed automatically. I’m going to try and find that out now.

[Just chatted live with their support — answer is no. You need to do it manually in the text boxes]

So I’m up in the air until I can figure out the cost comparison. Again, as mentioned they have a 20% professional discount - but their prices are higher to begin with and they’re never going to match the usual 40% discount that MyPublisher offers.

Let me get my calculator out.

The basic deal is that Picaboo starts off where extra pages (pretty much everyone gives you the first 20 pages in the base price) are twice as costly as MyPublisher. So the larger the book - the greater the differential. On top of that - MyPublisher gives larger discounts.

MyPublisher also offers a Deluxe edition with heavier paper - and this costs $3 for each additional page. I haven’t figured out the costs for that book.

* * * MAY 2 * * *

Confusion over. I was in contact with Picaboo and it is possible to get discounts with bulk orders and the professional program - but just not enough to make the retail selling of POD books feasible for me. So I decided to stick with MyPublisher. In essence, the printing was ever so slightly better with the Picaboo book - how much you’d notice - I don’t know. But the prices are essentially twice as high, and the discounts are twice as small. So that’s not going to be a go.

On the other hand - I’ve had a little distance on the process - and what I see with the MyPublisher books is good - and can be tweaked with a bit of work. At about half the cost - and with excellent customer service and turnaround time - they’re going to have my business for the foreseeable future.

For a really high-end book - I’d stick with SharedInk.