blog books

I discovered two years ago that I could turn this online blog into the form of printed books. My friend Marsha posted on her blog about the process she used to transform her blog into published books, and it really intrigued and excited me. I met her at her house one day when I was in Utah, because I was so interested in the quality of the printed blog books, and I wanted to examine them before purchasing them and investing in them myself. She gave me a few tips about what she did and what she liked about the book-making process. It sounded so easy and I found myself wanting to print one even more!

 

I used the website Blog2Print. You enter in your blog address, and the date range that you want included. It automatically pulls up all the blog posts you've done during those times, and you can click on any particular posts that you might want to edit before printing or delete any from printing, too. Then you choose a book cover, a cover photo, and you're set. It's really that easy! A year ago, I got my first two years of blogging printed into two books. It takes about 3-4 weeks after ordering for the books to arrive, and when they did, the boys were so excited about getting them and they loved looking through the books. I took them to show the 2nd grade class that Jonah and Micah were in, and read them a few of the stories out of them, and they were fascinated, too. The 2nd graders had just finished their author's project of writing and illustrating and creating their own books, and I wanted to show them that the possibilities are still open to them even as adults to make their own books!

 

 

My blog is like an online journal, and having it printed is like having a family journal and photo album combined.  I love these books! They all have hard covers, and are bound really well, and they are the size of my high school yearbooks. The books are costly, though, and the price depends upon the number of pages. The 2008 book (green) cost $60, and the 2009 book (blue) cost $100. When I received some money this past Christmas from Josh's mom, and my dad, I knew that I would be able to afford to buy two more. Since I blogged so much during 2010, I split the year in half and made two books out of the one year. I ordered them when Blog2Print had a 15% special, and the books cost $65 and $110. It was a wonderful Christmas gift to me and the boys! Thanks Dad & Kathy for the awesome gift! I ordered the two new books at the beginning of December, and we received them over Christmas Break. The boys spent all week reading and looking at the books!

 

The only thing I don't like about the books is that you can't pick how large the photos are inside; they all come in a standard small size. Blog2Print is constantly making changes to their book-making process, and I think they've received enough feedback about this problem, because I received a survey from them recently asking what feature the customers would like to have changed, and this was the option that I marked. 

Have you turned your online blog into a printed book? If not, I definitely recommend it! My main reason for blogging is to have a record and a written memory of my family's life and by turning it into a physical book, it truly feels like it justifies that reason.