Blog into a Book?!!

I am so excited by this discovery. I may have mentioned already that I love the blurb.com books. Granted, they do not have as many options as some other programs, but for the price, you can't beat it. Seriously, $12.95 for a paperback 7x7 book up to 40 pages?!!! I have made a book for each of the kids, plus one about me, and I also went for the 8x10 hardbound version and put all of last years photos in it. LOVE it! So, there is my plug for blurb.com and thier books.

What I have now discovered is that you can put your blog into a book! Yep, you go to blurb.com. You download their book program. You start a book and choose the blog option. It asks which program you use and your username and all that. Then it actually downloads all your blogs into a book!! Amazing! I may have to move all my jurnalistic tendencies into my blog and make it a book at the end of the year- instant eternal journal!

Since I was so excited, I tried doing this. I have to say, that as fabulous as this concept is, there are a few issues you will want to be aware of.
1. It downloads ALL your blogs. So if you have had a blog for several years, that is a lot of entries! On the plus side, it lists them all and you check the ones you want in the book and it only downloads those. So you can choose just the entries you want.
2. It doesn't put your pictures in like it looks in your blog. It has certain formats for text and photos. When I tried it out, it put my blogs with pix onto pages with a 6 picture format, even though I maybe only had 2 or 3 pictures in that entry. Odd, but true. That means you still will have to go in and clean it up. On the plus side, you can choose the format you do want- you can go with different sizes of pictures too. I like options.
3. It only puts one blog entry on each page. Annoying if it is a short blog. On the plus side, you can just cut and paste so you have more per page.
4. This is just a good thing: It gives you the option of adding pictures. So you can add pictures that were not originally on your blog. You can also add more writing should the desire overcome you.

So, an exciting idea with many possibilities! It requires more work than it initially looks, but I think the results would be worth it. I must try it myself! I may decide to put all my weekly letters on here, rather than emailing it out to my family and friends. Then I could print this off and have a lovely record of me. I know, so fascinating that everyone will be thrilled. But hey, the prophet said to keep a journal and I'm just finding more fun ways of doing that!! And I do love the blurb program. I love that the prices are great and right up front- no wondering if adding a page is going to break the bank. It doesn have drawbacks- they only do 7x7, 8x10 (in portrait and landscape) and a huge size. And the hardcover has no pictures or writing on the cover itself- it has a dustjacket with all that on it. Not my favorite thing, but for the price, I'm happy with that! If you want to see the ones I've done so you know if you want to try it, ask me. I absolutely LOVE their stuff.