book review vs blurb

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Joanna Campbell Slan

Thanks for visiting the official website for New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author and Winner of the Daphne du Maurier Award of Excellence, Joanna Campbell Slan.

What's the Difference? Blurb, Review, and Back Cover Copy?

February 26, 2015 by Joanna Slan

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Joanna is represented by JABberwocky Literary Agency 917-388-3010 https://awfulagent.com

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A comparison of our 9 favorite custom photo book services, for one of our all-time favorite gifts

by Cool Mom Team | Nov 29, 2021 | Art + Decor | 9 comments

Since custom photo books are among our very favorite gifts for the holidays, for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and even for teacher gifts and gifts for favorite sitters, we’ve put together a helpful comparison of our top picks.

For years, we’ve compared our favorite custom photo book companies –there are now so many out there, it can be hard to choose one service over another. Especially because they’re all a little different.

That’s where we come in! We’ve researched and tried dozens of custom photo books for comparison sake over the years, and we’ve narrowed down the list to our absolute favorites, with a few details on what makes each one special.

This post has been updated for 2021

So, if you’ve got a few thousand photos sitting on your phones or laptop albums like we do, pick a date to take care of that — then pick one of our favorite custom photo book services from this comparison, so you can preserve them somewhere more beautifully than “in the cloud.”

Top image: Shutterfly

Related: Creative men’s gifts for hard-to-shop for dads and grandpas

A comparison of our favorite custom photo book services

We may earn a small commission from purchases through affiliate links in this article, which helps support our own small business at no additional cost to you. 

Artifact Uprising Custom Photo Books (starts at $17)

Artifact Uprising makes gorgeous, keepsake albums with exquisite design, and our readers may recognize that we recommend them in our gift guides all the time for all kinds of occasions and people we love.

In terms of artistry and archival quality, you can’t beat these custom photo books; the hardcover books are bound in linen with a variety of dust jacket choices, and they also offer occassion-based photo books  (babies, weddings, travel), as well as extremely affordable softcover books  in all sizes, including a square, 5.5×5.5″ Instagram-friendly book.

We also love their new Color Series Custom Photo Books , to let you create a gorgeous library of small, affordable photo boos — say one you send to Grandma each month?

The downside: I don’t have a professional photographer following my family around all the time making us look as gorgeous as the photos featured here! But hey, that’s what photo editing apps are for, right?

Pinhole Press Custom Photo Books (starts at $14.99)

This wonderful, family-run site is another custom photo book site we’ve recommended for a long time — actually, right when they launched! Since then, they’ve grown beautifully over the years, and offer lots of unique formats for photo gifts, with features like cool spiral binding, an accordion-style brag book, or even photo gifts like photo tile games or puzzles.

Of course they also have classic soft and hard-cover photo books, all with exquisite attention to details like paper and printing.

Their modern, simple styles starts around $19.99 for layflat custom photo books  with nice softcover binding, and there’s a wide variety of beautifully produced  hardcover keepsake photo albums  starting at $49.99 (though most are around $69.99) including their popular  landscape lay-flat photo book with cloth binding , which comes in vertical, horizontal, or modern square sized custom photo books (above).

They starts at at $69.99 for 20 pages, with achoice of ten different binding colors, and the result is just lovely.

Blurb Photo Custom Books (starts at $14.99)

The options from one of the original custom photo book sites,  Blurb Books , are super popular and for great reason — the quality is spectacular, with some of the most customizable options I’ve seen anywhere on the web.Softcover books start at $14.99, hardcovers with image wraps or dust jackets are in the $29 range, and their higher-end hardcover, layflat custom photo book starts at $49.99.

Find options from cookbooks with old family recipes to cute alphabet books starring your very own kids, and of course, the classics.

Additionally, they offer options for book and magazine publishers, or let you become a self-published author yourself. That make the DIY design tools on their site a bit more than what you get from than quick-and-easy, drop-and-go photo book generator — you need to download their BookWright by Adobe design tool first — and that saves you 35% off your first book. But the multiple page templates make it kind of fun to put together, and the result is tops.

Mixbook Custom Photo Books (starts at $15.99)

What started as a series of Mosaic photo books featuring Instagram photos has really grown into a wide variety of books that you can either design yourself , or make it easy using one of their dozens (and dozens!) of custom templates.

A softcover 8×6″ book starts at $15.99, while a premium leather book with dust jacket starts at $44.99 for a smaller size, all the way up to $114.99 for a large 14″x11″ custom photo book.

While they do still offer some of the minimalist designs we originally loved, they have evolved to a more scrapbook-y feel, that may or may not be your cup of tea. However we do appreciate their specific categories for adoption or seasonal albums — plus Martha Stewart Mixbook designs — it really is worth a look around, especially for very reasonable prices.

Related: 8 wonderful Mother’s Day gift book ideas to celebrate all she is, and all she loves.

Shutterfly Custom Photo Books (starts at $14)

Shutterfly was one of the very first services to offer custom photo books and is still a strong — and affordable — option in our opinion, so don’t sleep on them!

Because their background is in photo storage, they understand the value of sorting books by topic or occasion, meaning they offer ready-made templates with themes like Year in Review , Seasonal , Family , and Celebrations photo books  to cover you from graduation to weddings to new babies. (Not necessarily in that order!)

There’s also a lot of modern new template styles ( Simply Modern shown above), as well as a new designer collection of custom photo books , with collabs from various designers and design companies — even a  new “Memories That Spark Joy” book  from none other than Marie Kondo .

And now they’ve launched a new Make My Book service that allows you to send the company all your photos so they can personally do all the work for you. It’s free to get started, and a reasonable $9.99 design fee if you order the book.

Since Shutterfly custom photo book prices are low to start with and they regularly offer big discounts, this is a great way to order books if you’re a few years behind on getting it done.

Related:  18 very cool personalized gifts for adults – all with fast shipping!

Chatbooks Custom Photo Books (starting at $10…sometimes less)

If you want to do as little work as possible, The Chatbooks service is smart — their original custom photo book is a fully automated monthly subscription in which you hook up your camera roll to their free app  (iOS or Android), subscribe, and automatically get a beautiful 30-photo mini album (or Monthbooks  album) mailed to you or a relative, each month for just $5 a month — or $10/15 for the larger Monthbook.

Similarly, Chatbooks offers an Instagram photo series book  (starting at $10), which pulls your Insta snaps into 60-photo albums that only go to print when you’ve uploaded those 60 snaps.

For something more traditional, check out their Premium Layflat Photo Book , a custom photo book with up to 100 premium, archival pages of photos that also can be flowed right in from Instagram, Facebook, Google Photos, Dropbox, Flickr, or your own computer’s photo library.

And, depending on what you tend to post on Facebook (ahem), they also now let you turn your favorite Facebook posts into a photo book. Good idea, if your’e considering leaving the platform but want to keep some favorite photos and posts in hard copy somewhere.

Snapfish Custom Photo Books (starts at $12.99)

If you’ve tried scrapbooking and it just isn’t for you, Snapfish, like Shutterfly, may be what you’re looking for. They offer lots of ready-made template pages, along with options to add in hundreds of embellishments — i.e. fancy clip art designed by the likes of Martha Stewart and Sirron Norris, all to give your book a more personal, scrapbook-y feel. So if modern designs feel “empty” to you and you’re a more is more kind of person, this may be right for you.

One of the big plusses is the ability to design your books (or other photo gifts  from ornaments to mugs to t-shirts) right from the Snapfish app .

Admittedly, the quality of the photo books isn’t quite what you’ll get from Artifact Uprising, Blurb, or Pinhole Press, though they have improved over the years. However, they offer decent books at solidly low prices — Hardcover books start at $39.99, and that $12.99 will get you a 5×7″ softcover. With Snapfish, keep an eye out for frequent discount codes too.

Minted Custom Photo Booklet Cards (starts at $2.52/ea for 25)

While Minted doesn’t specifically offer custom photo albums, they do offer some wonderful   7-page mini-booklet photo cards  — basically mini custom photo books you can send to everyone you love over the holidays. While you do have to order a minimum of 25, they start at just around $2.50 each, which is pretty sweet. Plus, all their designs support the artists and designers who make them.

It’s a terrific option when you want to make a custom photo book, but have quite a few people on your list you’d like to send one too. We also want to mention Minted’s custom photo cover journals . Especially since you can include multiple photos on a cover, they give you that sweet photo book feeling, only with a more practical use than just a coffee table book.

Related:  20 unique personalized gifts for kids, from toddlers to teens

Artkive Photo Books of Children’s Art (starts at $75 plus box fee)

With so many of us using photo books to preserve our children’s artwork, we have to give a nod to the Artkive Photobook service.

This dad-run service has become parents’ go-to way to digitally preserve our kids’ artwork and they do a lovely job. As in, they do the entire job, pretty much. You carefully pack a box of your children’s masterpieces, send them in, and Artkive does the rest for you from professional photography and editing, to designing the book, to sharing a digital proof.

Just know you definitely pay for this service — the box itself costs $39, and you’ll pay an additional fee if you want the artwork returned to you. (Some parents are really fine just having the photographs.)  From there, the photo books cost $75 for 25 photos.

They also offer framed mosaic prints, which recently received an Oprah seal of approval. Though we’ve been recommending them for years. In fact, find their Lifekive Heirloom keepsake prints service in our guide to best gifts for Grandparents  from small businesses.

Written by Cool Mom Team

We spend our time looking for cool stuff, fun finds, and helpful info just for you. Hope this one fits the bill. Bio Twitter Instagram

FOREVER Print should be on this list! It offers the best photo book quality I have ever found. It uses archival-quality materials that will last for generations without fading or deteriorating. Also has tons of templates & size options and is reasonably priced. I have been using FOREVER Print for over a year and highly recommend!

Thanks for the great insight to the various companies. I’m curious to know your process. We have photos on my phone, my husbands phone and from our digital camera. Do you combine your photos into one spot to make sure your books don’t miss images from the various sources? Thanks!

Hi Jessica, with the books that auto-create books from a social photo feed, you can only enter a single feed for them to draw from. If you’re creating your own books however, you can upload your own photos from multiple sources. Check each company’s FAQ because they each differ.

Ditto what Liz said…but I will add that since my husband and I both have Apple accounts, we merge them with our family sharing so all of his photos show up in my feed too. That makes it easier to make sure we have all our photos when it’s time for a photo book!

Thanks for your article. So I want to do a yearbook of my Facebook and/or Instagram posts. I’ve heard of Pastbook, My Social Book, Chatbook, ZNO Timeline book…. I also heard FB no longer allows captions to be exported to these books? Any advice on where I should begin? I’m a bit overwhelmed in deciding which platform to use.

What company is the book towards top with “happy” on it.? Thank you for the reviews 🙂

Hi, Shannon! The link to the company (Artifact Uprising) is directly underneath that photo. They make beautiful albums!

I wanted to do a history of the family with pictures. Do any of these work with quite a bit of text? Thanks

My young one’s elementary class used an Artkive-like book maker called Scribble ( https://scribble.art ). Our teacher was in love with it because they use fancy tech to clean up all the images from your phone. They are fairly new and are willing to give large discounts to teachers!

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Home » Writing » How to Write a Good Book Review

Tips for Writing a Good Book Review 

Now that you’ve prepped what you want to say, how you want to say it, and who you want to say it to, it’s time to start writing. Below we’ve gathered our favorite tips to help you write a good book review. Wait… make that a GREAT book review.

1. Include general information

Make sure to include all the relevant book information for your audience , including the title, author, genre, and publisher in your review. While not necessary, it is also helpful to include the number of pages, list price, and ISBN number.

2. Provide a brief plot summary

After the hook, you can then move on to the brief plot summary. This summary shouldn’t be too long, but it can be a paragraph that explains the basic plot so that the reader better understands if it’s a topic of interest. One pitfall to avoid is to give away spoilers in the plot summary. Don’t give away any plot twists, and err on the side of caution if you feel that the information is too much. For example, tell the reader that the plot has unexpected twists rather than explain any surprises in the summary.

3. Focus on the book, not the author

Keep in mind that your main job as a reviewer is to share your opinion on the book, not to critique the author. Keep the focus on the story. Avoid referencing pitfalls in any of the author’s past books or what you about them as a writer. You can provide a brief introduction to the story mentioning the author and past books, but don’t spend too much time focused on the author. The review should focus on the content of the book and its characters.

4. Be clear and specific

It is not enough to just say that you did or didn’t like the book. Let your readers know why. Make your thoughts clear as early as possible and explain the reasons why you liked or disliked specific storyline components and characters. Be specific about what you loved about the writing, what drew you to the characters, or what left you feeling lukewarm about the plot. You don’t need to explain every aspect of the book, but the reader should walk away with a sense that they understand the basic plot and determine from the review if they want to read the book for themselves.

5. Remain subjective

Not all book reviews have to be glowing, but they should be subjective. Rather than just saying you didn’t like something, support it by letting your readers know why. We all gravitate towards different things, so what may not appeal to you may appeal to someone else. If you remain subjective, then you can explain to the reader the basic story and let them decide for themselves. The review can include your likes and dislikes, but they should focus on what you felt the story did well and what parts of the story you didn’t like. However, the main focus of the review should be to explain the story so that readers can determine if they want to read the book further.

6. Avoid spoilers

We know it can be tempting, but do your best not to let any spoilers slip in your book review. Have you ever been excited to see the latest blockbuster hit (or watch the season cliffhanger to your favorite TV show) and then someone spoils the end before you even have time to watch? That is exactly what you don’t want to do to your reader. As you explain the book in your summary, ask yourself if what you are explaining ruins any surprises or twists. As you write the review, keep it vague. For example, explain that there is a major plot twist but don’t go into the specifics.

7. Be transparent

Always share if you received an incentive to review the book, got an advance copy, or have any connection to the author. Your readers will appreciate your honesty. Plus, it helps you avoid the negative impact on your credibility if they find out later. Getting paid for a review is a perfectly reasonable excuse to read a book, but it does allow readers to determine if you’re being unbiased. By specifying if you have any relationship with the author, the reader can better trust your opinion, even if they feel you’re being more biased.

8. Keep it short

While book reviews can be any length, it is always best to keep it short and succinct. Pull in your reader with a strong first sentence that sets the tone of the review and end with your recommendation. Remember, most people start to scan when something gets too long. A book review is a short summary, so writing a novel-length review loses reader interests. Keeping it short will ensure that your readers will dive into your likes and dislikes and use your reviews to determine if they have an interest in the books.

9. Proofread before posting

The quickest way to lose credibility is to post a review filled with typos. Make sure to give your final book review a thorough read before posting it and double check the spelling of any character names or places that you mention. Even better, ask someone else to read it over. It is always good to have a fresh pair of eyes proof to catch any typos. If you don’t have a family or friend who will help with proofreader, you can join a writing community where members offer test reads and proofreading. Make sure that you don’t post the review publicly, because search engines will index it and the review will no longer be unique content.

Also, keep in mind that you will want to write different book reviews for different sites. Don’t just copy and paste the same review. Google search engines scan for duplicate content and if flagged, your review won’t appear.

10. Add a hook

The hook is one or two sentences that grab the reader and convince them to keep going. It should be interesting, but it should also stick with the topic without misleading readers. The hook could be a simple statement that explains the main character of the book, or it could ask a question that resonates with the reader. Don’t make the hook too sensational to avoid sounding like a sales pitch. It should simply provide an introduction that grabs reader interests.

11. Explain what you liked about the book

Writing your own book review is a way to explain what you liked about it, and what you liked could be of interest to another reader. This section allows you to personalize the review. You can explain what you liked about the characters, who was your favorite character, what part of the book was your favorite, and if the book invoked any personal feelings (e.g., you laughed or cried).

12. Explain what you disliked about the book

You likely have something that you disliked about the book, and this section explains what you wish would have been different about the storyline or the characters. Just like the other sections, make sure that you do not reveal too much and give away important plot lines that could be considered spoilers for the rest of the story.

13. Include brief quotes as examples

Brief quotes provide readers with better insight into characters. Using quotes from characters will help the reader follow the plot summary and determine if the characters are people they can relate to. Avoid using excessively long quotes. Since the reader hasn’t read the book, a long quote could ruin plot twists or overpower the review.

14. Reference similar books

A great way to introduce readers to a specific book is to compare your book review with other books. For example, you can explain to the reader that they will like the current book you’re reviewing if they like another similar book. Alternatively, you can also compare characters between books to provide better insight into the story’s characters and the dynamic between individual characters.

Ready to make your own book? Get started quickly and easily with our free bookmaking software, Bookwright .

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How To Write a Compelling Book Blurb (+15 Examples)

A reader enters a bookstore. They walk towards your stunning book cover and flip it over. Their eyes skim over curated words…but the reader slides it back onto the shelf and moves on to the next book.

What happened?

Your worst nightmare, that’s what!

The book blurb failed to sell them on your book. They’re not convinced. It didn’t seem like their next great read. So they moved on…

How do you convince them? How do you sell the idea of your book enough for them to buy it?

Keep reading to learn how to create a book blurb that knocks your reader’s socks right off!

What is a Book Blurb?

A book blurb is a descriptive sales pitch that gives the reader a sneak peek of what the book is about. Without a compelling blurb, all the book marketing strategies in the world aren’t going to help very much.

It can be found on the back of your book cover , inside a hardcover book’s sleeve, or on the book’s description online, for example on the book’s Amazon page.

The book blurb may reveal to the reader:

• The main characters
• The setting
• What’s unique about the book’s story
• Why they should care about the story

What a Book Blurb is Not?

A book blurb is important to your book’s success, so you shouldn’t get it mixed up with any other book description tools:

• Review Blurb: This is the endorsement that an authoritative figure, like an established author or celebrity, writes about your book. It can usually be found on the book cover.
• Description: This includes everything from your book blurb to reviews. This can be seen in your book listing online.
• Synopsis: This is the extended version of your book blurb and includes more details on the setting, characters, and plot. A book blurb sells your idea to the reader while a synopsis is most useful in selling the book idea to publishers.

Why is a Book Blurb Powerful?

There are millions of books for readers to choose from, so why should they choose yours?

A book blurb has the power to confuse the reader or turn their interest into a sale. A well-written blurb can captivate the reader, giving them no choice but to start reading the first chapter while browsing online, or standing in the middle of a bookstore.

That’s a lot of power for 200 words to hold. But dynamite comes in small packages.

A good book blurb can act as the dynamite that leads to an explosion in the book market.

How To Write a Captivating Book Blurb

Writing the perfect book blurb is a tall order, but you are the most equipped person to write one that blows readers away.

You know your book better than anyone else. All you need is a guideline to get you going. Follow the steps below and write an attention-grabbing book blurb:

Before You Write: Do Your Research

You wrote your entire book with the target reader in mind, so they should be just as important when writing your book blurb.

Dig up your research or conduct new research on why this reader-base would be interested in reading your book.

If it’s a fantasy novel, they could be looking to drift off into another world. If it’s a self-help book, they need a problem solved.

Consider why they’d love to read your book and feature that in your book blurb.

1. Lead with the Genre 

The genre your book resides in needs to be obvious to the reader. Playing to the tone and atmosphere of your genre will leave no room for guessing.

You should aim to meet readers’ expectations of the genre. For example:

• A Thriller blurb will make the reader feel tense while being driven by adrenaline-soaked descriptions.
• A Rom-com blurb will cause a warm, fuzzy feeling that’s coupled with a quirky plot and characters.

Using keywords

There are certain keywords that are mainstays for genres, and you should sprinkle a few of those in to please the Amazon algorithm and make it easy to find when readers search for a book like yours. Being discoverable online will help your book sales soar. Use it to your advantage:

Book Blurb Example: Use Keywords

Sue Lynn Tan’s Daughter of the Moon Goddess lets the keywords fly in her book blurb:

A captivating and romantic debut epic fantasy inspired by the legend of the Chinese moon goddess, Chang’e, in which a young woman’s quest to free her mother pits her against the most powerful immortal in the realm. Growing up on the moon, Xingyin is accustomed to solitude, unaware that she is being hidden from the feared Celestial Emperor who exiled her mother for stealing his elixir of immortality. But when Xingyin’s magic flares and her existence is discovered, she is forced to flee her home, leaving her mother behind. Alone, powerless, and afraid, she makes her way to the Celestial Kingdom, a land of wonder and secrets. Disguising her identity, she seizes an opportunity to learn alongside the emperor’s son, mastering archery and magic, even as passion flames between her and the prince. To save her mother, Xingyin embarks on a perilous quest, confronting legendary creatures and vicious enemies. But when treachery looms and forbidden magic threatens the kingdom, she must challenge the ruthless Celestial Emperor for her dream—striking a dangerous bargain in which she is torn between losing all she loves or plunging the realm into chaos. Daughter of the Moon Goddess begins an enchanting duology which weaves ancient Chinese mythology into a sweeping adventure of immortals and magic, of loss and sacrifice—where love vies with honor, dreams are fraught with betrayal, and hope emerges triumphant.

Why it works

This blurb is not short of any fantasy tropes that fans love. If the reader is a fan of epic fantasy, their ears will be burning red after reading the first sentence.  The grandeur and complexities that are filled in this type of genre are conveyed. For example, the blurb mentions the keywords Emperor, Goddess, mythology, celestial, kingdom, magic, prince, quest, realm…we could go on!  It would be overkill if these words were not relevant to the story, but Sue’s novel is an epic fantasy staple.

2. Maintain the Author’s Voice

The atmosphere and tone of your book blurb should match your book almost identically. You don’t want the reader to read the blurb, flip open the book and feel as if they’ve been catfished.

You know your genre well but that doesn’t mean that writing a blurb in this genre is any easier. Browse online, or on your own bookshelf, to find successful blurbs in your genre to get a real feel for how you could do yours. 

Book Blurb Example: Consistent Voice

The book blurb for Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes is a great example of how to convey the author’s voice:

In this poignant, hilarious and deeply intimate call to arms, Hollywood’s most powerful woman, the mega-talented creator of Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal and executive producer of Bridgerton, For the People and How to Get Away with Murder, reveals how saying YES changed her life – and how it can change yours too. With three hit shows on television and three children at home, Shonda Rhimes had lots of good reasons to say no when invitations arrived. Hollywood party? No. Speaking engagement? No. Media appearances? No. And to an introvert like Shonda, who describes herself as ‘hugging the walls’ at social events and experiencing panic attacks before press interviews, there was a particular benefit to saying no: nothing new to fear. Then came Thanksgiving 2013, when Shonda’s sister Delorse muttered six little words at her: You never say yes to anything. Profound, impassioned and laugh-out-loud funny, in Year of Yes Shonda Rhimes reveals how saying YES changed – and saved – her life. And inspires readers everywhere to change their own lives with one little word: Yes.

Even though it’s written in 3rd person, the blurb takes a conversational tone. This familiar way of addressing the reader is distinct throughout the book, and it continues on the back of the book too.

Top Tip #1: Your writing voice should come through in the book blurb, but it should be written in the third person. Unless done with absolute class, creativity has its time and place and sometimes it’s best to follow the rules of the publishing industry.

3. Highlight the Hook

Take the most unique, compelling part of your book and use it to hook your audience.

The hook is the first 2 lines of your blurb that show why your book is interesting and worth reading.

These first lines are important as it’s the reader’s second impression of your book (after the book cover).

In an online platform, for example, Amazon, it’s even more vital to your book’s success. If the first lines don’t reel the reader in, they’re not clicking the ‘read more’ option to find out more about your book.

Then you’re at square one!

Your hook can be anything from the book’s premise, conflict, to the characters.

A good hook intrigues while not revealing too much about the story.

• Character: Give the reader a glimpse at the main character’s personality
• Premise: Highlight your unique take on a classic or perhaps the head-tilting concept that breathes new life into the book’s genre
• Conflict: A story is nothing without problems, show the reader how world-shattering your conflict is, either for the actual world or just your character’s world.

When picking how to lay out your hook, consider the following elements:

• What fear or goal is driving the main characters throughout the story?
• What external factors are creating conflict?
• How do the external factors influence your character’s choices?
• What is personally motivating your character’s choices?

Book Blurb Example: Hook The Reader

Renée Ahdieh’s The Wrath and the Dawn has a blurb that is dripped in its hook:

One Life to One Dawn. In a land ruled by a murderous boy-king, each dawn brings heartache to a new family. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, is a monster. Each night he takes a new bride only to have a silk cord wrapped around her throat come morning. When sixteen-year-old Shahrzad’s dearest friend falls victim to Khalid, Shahrzad vows vengeance and volunteers to be his next bride. Shahrzad is determined not only to stay alive, but to end the caliph’s reign of terror once and for all. Night after night, Shahrzad beguiles Khalid, weaving stories that enchant, ensuring her survival, though she knows each dawn could be her last. But something she never expected begins to happen: Khalid is nothing like what she’d imagined him to be. This monster is a boy with a tormented heart. Incredibly, Shahrzad finds herself falling in love. How is this possible? It’s an unforgivable betrayal. Still, Shahrzad has come to understand all is not as it seems in this palace of marble and stone. She resolves to uncover whatever secrets lurk and, despite her love, be ready to take Khalid’s life as retribution for the many lives he’s stolen. Can their love survive this world of stories and secrets?

The character’s goal and personality make for a killer hook…but the complexity of the conflict captivates the reader even more.  The premise is revealed while leaving the reader on the edge of their seat wondering how this conflict will take place and where the story will go.

4. Follow a Structure

Your book blurb won’t get written in 5 minutes. It might not even get written in 5 hours.

It’s not as long as your book or even an essay, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t structure it. In fact, structuring it will give you a better chance of including what is necessary and cutting out the fluff.

The common plot structure can work for a blurb as well:

Introduction:

Introduce the main characters and the setting, giving the readers a chance to sympathize or relate to the characters. 

For non-fiction, you want to make your reader the main character so speak directly to them. You can also turn the focus toward the expertise of the author here.

Show the internal and external conflicts that have happened or could happen. Problems create drama, and you want your readers to be excited to find out how it all unfolds. 

In the case of non-fiction, point out the reader’s possible conflicts and how your book will address them.

Conclusion:

You have to finish off strong with a sense of urgency – they need to find out what happens!

For fiction books, you can entice the readers with a cliffhanger, and for non-fiction try to provide relief that their problems will be resolved because of your book.

Book Blurb Example: Keep to a Structure

An example of moving a blurb through the above structure lies in Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister:

Can you stop a murder after it’s already happened? It is midnight on the morning of Halloween, and Jen anxiously waits up for her 18-year-old son, Todd, to return home. But worries about his broken curfew transform into something much more dangerous when Todd finally emerges from the darkness. As Jen watches through the window, she sees her funny, seemingly happy teenage son stab a total stranger. She doesn’t know who the victim is, or why Todd has committed such a devastating act of violence. All she knows is that her life, and Todd’s, have been shattered. After her son is taken into custody, Jen falls asleep in despair. But when she wakes up… it is yesterday. The murder has not happened yet—and there may be a chance to stop it. Each morning, when Jen wakes, she is further back in the past, first weeks, then years, before the murder. And Jen realizes that somewhere in the past lies the trigger for Todd’s terrible crime…and it is her mission to find it, and prevent it from taking place.

The blurb uses plot structure to sprinkle in key details that lure the reader in.  The introduction packs intensity into the narrative allowing the reader to feel the anxiety of the main character. The conflict then fits in perfectly with the atmosphere created, raising the stakes higher in the reader’s mind.  The conclusion lets the reader know exactly what the main character’s aim is while enticing the reader to see how it all unfolds.

Don’t stray too far from the structure

You may want to play around with the structure and show off your writing chops…but be warned! Readers are not going to spend 10 minutes trying to break down your masterpiece blurb. They just want to know if your book is worth reading.

The more out of the box it is, the more it will seem that your blurb is just out of pocket.

Read some examples of other book blurbs and use your understanding of them to successfully write your own. Here are some questions to ask as you analyze your fellow authors’ blurb structures:

• How does the blurb start?
• What is the common way to reveal the hook in that genre?
• How is the blurb concluded?
• What makes the blurb work?
• How could you improve the blurb?

Top Tip #2: It can seem impossible to try and fit your blurb into this mold right off the bat. We suggest taking a swing at the first draft by just describing your story like you would to a friend. Once you have all the information down, you’ll have a better idea of what’s missing and what should be left out.

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5. Edit, edit, edit

If you’re struggling with your book blurb, you’re doing it right. It may be short, but that doesn’t reduce the time spent on it.

There should be tons of variations of your book blurb in your drafts. And you should keep every one of them as you never know which of your earlier drafts may contain that killer one-liner hook or that epic cliffhanger.

Writing a book blurb will turn into more editing than actually writing…just like writing an actual book!

You’ll have to revise, check the grammar, remove typos, write the last line better, or start off with a more surprising hook…there’s so much to edit!

But you should know when to stop editing. Ask yourself the below questions when revising your book blurb:

• Is your blurb easy to skim through with short sentences and paragraphs?
• Are your character and plot descriptions simple but also memorable?
• Does the tone match the book’s atmosphere?
• Is the hook clear?
• Do the conflicts and stakes grab attention without revealing too much?
• Are the expertise, credentials, and comparisons appropriate for your book?
• Does the blurb flow well?

Top Tip #3: If all the words on the page are starting to blur and drift away, read it out loud. Just like when you’re trying to get the dialogue in your book to sound perfect. It works for book blurbs too.

6. Get some Feedback

A great book blurb is not made in isolation. Share a few of your more promising drafts with friends, family, and your beta and alpha readers .

Ask them for their honest feedback and see which of your drafts get the best reactions. You can even combine what works from different versions to make the final version that hits all the marks.

But as is with most feedback, take care not to obsess over small details that one person may bring up. But if more than 2 people have similar negative feedback, you should address it.

Tips for Creating a Good Book Blurb

You know how it’s done…but how do you do it well? 

Here are a few more tips for you to keep in mind to turn your blurb from good to great:

Whip out those copywriting skills

Writing a good book blurb is not exactly like any other of your writing pursuits. It’s more like copywriting. Copywriting is a marketing tool used to make readers take a desired action. For example, a call-to-action that entices a reader to sign up for your author newsletter .

You can use copywriting to persuade the reader to buy your book. The ‘copy’ in your book blurb should move the reader through the following emotions: Curiosity, intrigue, interest, and desire to know more.

Book Blurb Example: Use Copywriting Tricks

A fun example would be from One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus:

Pay close attention and you might solve this. On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention. Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule. Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess. Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing. Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher. And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High’s notorious gossip app . Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention Simon’s dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn’t an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he’d planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who’s still on the loose? Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them.

In copywriting, the writer needs to talk directly to the reader, and this blurb does this in a poignant way. Part of it is written how a normal blurb would be, but the beginning and end call out to the reader directly. Readers who love this genre want to solve a mystery. And this blurb is asking the reader to do exactly that!

Word count matters

The shorter and more concise your book blurb, the better. Typically, a book blurb is between 100-200 words. 

Depending on the information you’d like to share, the genre, and your publisher’s preferences, your book blurb can be anywhere from less than 50 words to 250.

Book Blurb Example: Say It In Fewer Words

A short blurb can be found at the back of David Levithan and John Green’s Will Grayson, Will Grayson :

Will Grayson, Meet Will Grayson. One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, two teens—both named Will Grayson—are about to cross paths. As their worlds collide and intertwine, the Will Graysons find their lives going in new and unexpected directions, building toward romantic turns-of-heart and the epic production of history’s most fabulous high school musical.

The book blurb quickly sets up the premise and then takes the reader on a short journey that invites them for a deeper look – buy the book! This blurb neither undersells nor overstays its welcome.

Book Blurb Example: More Description

There are some blurbs that bend the rule a bit like Caitlin Doughty’s Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory :

Most people want to avoid thinking about death, but Caitlin Doughty—a twenty-something with a degree in medieval history and a flair for the macabre—took a job at a crematory, turning morbid curiosity into her life’s work. Thrown into a profession of gallows humor and vivid characters (both living and very dead), Caitlin learned to navigate the secretive culture of those who care for the deceased. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes tells an unusual coming-of-age story full of bizarre encounters and unforgettable scenes. Caring for dead bodies of every color, shape, and affliction, Caitlin soon becomes an intrepid explorer in the world of the dead. She describes how she swept ashes from the machines (and sometimes onto her clothes) and reveals the strange history of cremation and undertaking, marveling at bizarre and wonderful funeral practices from different cultures. Her eye-opening, candid, and often hilarious story is like going on a journey with your bravest friend to the cemetery at midnight. She demystifies death, leading us behind the black curtain of her unique profession. And she answers questions you didn’t know you had: Can you catch a disease from a corpse? How many dead bodies can you fit in a Dodge van? What exactly does a flaming skull look like? Honest and heartfelt, self-deprecating and ironic, Caitlin’s engaging style makes this otherwise taboo topic both approachable and engrossing. Now a licensed mortician with an alternative funeral practice, Caitlin argues that our fear of dying warps our culture and society, and she calls for better ways of dealing with death (and our dead).

It doesn’t go over 260, but it’s a lot to read. It uses this word count to sell the reader on the hook. It discusses a taboo topic comprehensibly, warming the reader up enough to check out the first chapter.  This is a lesson in using the word count to capture the reader’s interest in a topic most would not want to touch.

Use present tense to captivate the reader. Keeping them smack dab in the middle of the action is easiest when it feels like the story is happening now.

Book Blurb Example: Present Tense

A Rip Through Time by Kelley Armstrong does this well, despite the time travel element:

In this series debut, a modern-day homicide detective finds herself in Victorian Scotland―in an unfamiliar body―with a killer on the loose. May 20, 2019: Homicide detective Mallory is in Edinburgh to be with her dying grandmother. While out on a jog one evening, Mallory hears a woman in distress. She’s drawn to an alley, where she is attacked and loses consciousness. May 20, 1869: Housemaid Catriona Mitchell had been enjoying a half-day off, only to be discovered that night in a lane, where she’d been strangled and left for dead . . . exactly one-hundred-and-fifty years before Mallory was strangled in the same spot. When Mallory wakes up in Catriona’s body in 1869, she must put aside her shock and adjust quickly to the reality: life as a housemaid to an undertaker in Victorian Scotland. She soon discovers that her boss, Dr. Gray, also moonlights as a medical examiner and has just taken on an intriguing case, the strangulation of a young man, similar to the attack on herself. Her only hope is that catching the murderer can lead her back to her modern life . . . before it’s too late. Outlander meets The Alienist in Kelley Armstrong’s utterly compelling new series, mixing romance, mystery, and fantasy with thrilling results.

This blurb introduces the complexities of a time travel mystery while keeping the reader completely locked into the reality of the situation.  The timeline, setting, and atmosphere of panic and mystery come through clearly. The plot is described in more detail due to the intricacy of the hook but it keeps the reader wondering, “What on Earth will happen next?”

Book Blurb Example: Use The Past

But if you want to jump rope with the past and the present in your blurb, Gillian Flynn’s Dark Places shows you how:

Libby Day was just seven years old when her evidence put her fifteen-year-old brother behind bars. Since then, she has been drifting. But when she is contacted by a group who are convinced of Ben’s innocence, Libby starts to ask questions she never dared to before. Was the voice she heard her brother’s? Ben was a misfit in their small town, but was he capable of murder? Are there secrets to uncover at the family farm or is Libby deluding herself because she wants her brother back? She begins to realise that everyone in her family had something to hide that day… especially Ben. Now, twenty-four years later, the truth is going to be even harder to find. Who did massacre the Day family?

The book blurb talks about the mystery that plagues the main character’s life, but it happened years ago. This premise makes it appropriate to discuss the events before the book, while still keeping the actual tense as present.  

Keep it Simple, Silly

Your book has the best chance of reaching readers when the blurb is straightforward. Confusing, long-winded sentences may appeal to a minority of readers, but you’ll lose a lot of book sales in the end.

The world is filled with many different types of readers. Don’t close your book off to them by writing a complicated book blurb that most won’t take the time to read.

However, in the case of non-fiction, if your book targets a niche audience it would be appropriate to use jargon and terminologies related to the subject matter.

But even in special cases, a reader looking to dip their toe into the waters of your topic could be put off by your embellished blurb.

You never know, a reader on the other side of the world could become your biggest fan. So, keep it simple.

Book Blurb Example: Simplicity

The Witcher: The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski has a blurb that masters this goal:

Geralt the Witcher—revered and hated—holds the line against the monsters plaguing humanity in this collection of adventures, the first chapter in Andrzej Sapkowski’s groundbreaking epic fantasy series that inspired the hit Netflix show and the blockbuster video games. Geralt is a Witcher, a man whose magic powers, enhanced by long training and a mysterious elixir, have made him a brilliant fighter and a merciless hunter. Yet he is no ordinary killer. His sole purpose: to destroy the monsters that plague the world. But not everything monstrous-looking is evil and not everything fair is good . . . and in every fairy tale there is a grain of truth.

Sometimes a story’s existence is so well-known that going into more detail could do more damage than good.  The Witcher is known by many and the blurb reads as though it knows it. A quick brag and detailing of the premise and this book blurb is set.

Make the reader feel something

Your book’s hook is not factual, it’s emotional…even for some non-fiction books.

Obviously, if you’re writing a mathematics textbook, you’re not looking to emotionally sell your reader on your theories (or maybe you are – to each their own!).

Emotion pilots most decisions in life, so why would that be any different from buying a book? The more a reader feels for your story, the more likely they are to buy it.

This is why many blurbs are character-driven. It’s the fastest way for the reader to develop an emotional connection to your book.

Our advice? Don’t just tug at the heartstrings, try to rip them.

Book Blurb Example: Use Emotion

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan does this well:

She Who Became the Sun reimagines the rise to power of the Ming Dynasty’s founding emperor. To possess the Mandate of Heaven, the female monk Zhu will do anything . “I refuse to be nothing…” In a famine-stricken village on a dusty yellow plain, two children are given two fates. A boy, greatness. A girl, nothingness… In 1345, China lies under harsh Mongol rule. For the starving peasants of the Central Plains, greatness is something found only in stories. When the Zhu family’s eighth-born son, Zhu Chongba, is given a fate of greatness, everyone is mystified as to how it will come to pass. The fate of nothingness received by the family’s clever and capable second daughter, on the other hand, is only as expected. When a bandit attack orphans the two children, though, it is Zhu Chongba who succumbs to despair and dies. Desperate to escape her own fated death, the girl uses her brother’s identity to enter a monastery as a young male novice. There, propelled by her burning desire to survive, Zhu learns she is capable of doing whatever it takes, no matter how callous, to stay hidden from her fate. After her sanctuary is destroyed for supporting the rebellion against Mongol rule, Zhu uses the chance to claim another future altogether: her brother’s abandoned greatness.

Each description in this blurb aims to leave a pang behind in its wake. It stirs up the emotions felt by the main character enough for the readers themselves to feel it too.  It works because the stakes are emphasized in each paragraph, making the heaviness of the premise clear to the reader.

Cash in the endorsements

Don’t hesitate to show off a glowing review above or below your book blurb. 

A one-liner endorsement by a recognized figure like a famous author or publication will give the back cover of your book the edge it needs to sell readers on why your book belongs in their personal library.

The one-liner review should be something substantial that perhaps you haven’t said in the blurb itself, or further emphasizes what you wrote in the blurb.

Book Blurb Example: Show Off Endorsements

Sometimes you can put a few reviews together, as Lisa See has done for The Island of Sea Women :

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “A mesmerizing new historical novel” (O, The Oprah Magazine) from Lisa See, the bestselling author of The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, about female friendship and devastating family secrets on a small Korean island. Mi-ja and Young-sook, two girls living on the Korean island of Jeju, are best friends who come from very different backgrounds. When they are old enough, they begin working in the sea with their village’s all-female diving collective, led by Young-sook’s mother. As the girls take up their positions as baby divers, they know they are beginning a life of excitement and responsibility—but also danger. Despite their love for each other, Mi-ja and Young-sook find it impossible to ignore their differences. The Island of Sea Women takes place over many decades, beginning during a period of Japanese colonialism in the 1930s and 1940s, followed by World War II, the Korean War, through the era of cell phones and wet suits for the women divers. Throughout this time, the residents of Jeju find themselves caught between warring empires. Mi-ja is the daughter of a Japanese collaborator. Young-sook was born into a long line of haenyeo and will inherit her mother’s position leading the divers in their village. Little do the two friends know that forces outside their control will push their friendship to the breaking point. “This vivid…thoughtful and empathetic” novel (The New York Times Book Review) illuminates a world turned upside down, one where the women are in charge and the men take care of the children. “A wonderful ode to a truly singular group of women” (Publishers Weekly), The Island of Sea Women is a “beautiful story…about the endurance of friendship when it’s pushed to its limits, and you…will love it” (Cosmopolitan).

This blurb uses professional book reviews to highlight the hook while giving a few more details the blurb hasn’t shared. The reviews are uniquely strummed together to make a cohesive paragraph that aptly caps off the book blurb, tempting the reader to, excuse the pun, dive in .  

Set the Scene

Sometimes the best way to describe your story is to let the story speak for itself.

Take a scene from the beginning of the book and shape it into a book blurb.

Book Blurb Example: Scene From The Book

Emily Henry’s Happy Place gets us right into the thick of it:

Go to your happy place, I think desperately, only to realize I’m literally in my happy place . And he. Is. Here. The very last person I expected to see. The very last person I want to see. Wyn Connor. My fiancé.

It sinks the reader into the pit in Harriet’s stomach in this short excerpt. It smartly drops the book title while hinting at the story’s conflict – which is also the hook.  The blurb neglects one of the main character’s names (Harriet) but rather drops us straight into her mind instead. Then it confirms who the other main character is.

Compare your book 

Your book may be different and interesting…but you should try to have a comparison lined up. Readers will have their eyes popping out of their heads when they read the title of the book that they loved being compared to yours. 

In some cases, it will almost guarantee a sale. 

Book Blurb Example: Making a Comparison

Only Love Can Hurt Like This by Paige Toon uses comparisons to her benefit:

In the spirit of Colleen Hoover and Jojo Moyes’s Me Before You, an unforgettable and heartbreaking love story with an earth-shattering secret at its core that asks the question: is love worth risking everything for? An earth-shattering secret. A life-changing love story. When Wren realizes her fiancé is in love with someone else, she thinks her heart will never recover. On the other side of the world, Anders lost his wife four years ago and is still struggling to move on. Wren hopes that spending the summer with her dad and step-family on their farm in Indiana will help her to heal. There, amid the cornfields and fireflies, she and Anders cross paths and their worlds are turned upside-down again. But Wren doesn’t know that Anders is harboring a secret, and if he acts on any feelings he has for Wren it will have serious fall-out for everyone. Walking away would hurt Wren more than she can imagine. But, knowing the truth, how can she possibly stay?

This book blurb doesn’t just use a well-known book in Me Before You but also uses the trending author, Colleen Hoover.  Both comparisons are excellent choices to get fans convinced. Because sometimes the best way to persuade is to say, “If you liked these books, you’ll LOVE this.”

About the author

Your book or book blurb does not exist without you. Depending on the genre and the type of author you are, a quick biography could go a long way to sell your work.

For a fiction book blurb, you may want to boast about your successful works, and for non-fiction, you can go into a bit of detail on your qualifications and expertise.

Readers love connecting with the authors in some way, whether it’s to solidify their trust through your credentials or to relate to you on a more personal level.

Your biography should inform the reader why your story is special and why they should be interested because it’s YOU who wrote it.

Top Tip #4: Remember to leave space for your book blurb to breathe and not clutter up the back cover of your book. Try adding your bio to the sleeve of your book if it exceeds one line.

Book Blurb Example: Mini Bio

The Memory of Animals by Claire Fuller does this mini biography really well:

From the award-winning author of Our Endless Numbered Days, Swimming Lessons, Bitter Orange, and Unsettled Ground comes a beautiful and searing novel of memory, love, survival―and octopuses. In the face of a pandemic, an unprepared world scrambles to escape the mysterious disease’s devastating symptoms: sensory damage, memory loss, death. Neffy, a disgraced and desperately indebted twenty-seven-year-old marine biologist, registers for an experimental vaccine trial in London―perhaps humanity’s last hope for a cure. Though isolated from the chaos outside, she and the other volunteers―Rachel, Leon, Yahiko, and Piper―cannot hide from the mistakes that led them there. As London descends into chaos outside the hospital windows, Neffy befriends Leon, who before the pandemic had been working on a controversial technology that allows users to revisit their memories. She withdraws into projections of her past―a childhood bisected by divorce; a recent love affair; her obsessive research with octopuses and the one mistake that ended her career. The lines between past, present, and future begin to blur, and Neffy is left with defining questions: Who can she trust? Why can’t she forgive herself? How should she live, if she survives? The Memory of Animals is an ambitious, deeply imagined work of survival and suspense, grief and hope, consequences and connectedness, that asks what truly defines us―and the lengths we will go to rescue ourselves and those we love.

The book blurb delves into the plot and leaves it all on the table for readers to engage with. But the first line, even though it’s short, says a mouthful about the author’s accomplishments and previous works. And let’s be honest, who doesn’t get persuaded by the words award-winning ?

What makes a Bad Book Blurb?

Your book blurb has the superpower to make or break your book’s success. And being able to write a good one includes knowing what not to do.

Avoid the below at all costs:

• Wordy sentences and paragraphs that can’t be skim-read
• A book endorsement quote that’s too long or too general
• Unclear description of the plot, conflict, or genre
• Typos and grammar issues
• Use of cliché or unoriginal lines that will make your book sound dated
• A summary of the book’s plot
• Revealing a spoiler
• Irrelevant details that don’t add to the description and tone of your book blurb
• Long character backstories
• Too much worldbuilding
• Information overload
• Too much information about the author

Your Book Blurb ‘Template’ 

There’s sadly no exact formula that works for every book blurb. But no matter how you go about writing it, there are 3 things it should always have:

• Problem: What is the current situation and conflict for the main characters
• Possible resolution: How could the characters possibly overcome the problem or what could happen if they don’t resolve it
• Emotion: Evoke the feelings the reader will have while reading it by looping in some genre-specific keywords

Similarly, this can be applied to non-fiction book blurbs too:

• Problem: What problems are the readers facing
• Possible resolution: How does your book solve these problems
• Emotion: Make the reader believe that this book will bring relief and positive change in their life.

Should You Ask For Help?

In most cases, the author and marketing team write the book blurb together. But you can hire someone to write the book blurb for you.

Pick someone who is able to carry through your voice and the book’s tone seamlessly, or your blurb and the book will feel worlds apart.

But…we suggest you write it yourself. No one knows the story better than you. No one loves it more than you. 

We know that no author likes writing a book blurb. But your book deserves every shot at success. 

If you must, ask a professional for help in refining your blurb so it gets the advantage of you writing it and a professional editing it.

It Doesn’t Stop At The Blurb

Now, that you’ve taken the time to learn more about the long, albeit kind of annoying, process of writing a book blurb you may think you’re definitely going to get that sale from this blog’s intro.

We’re here to tell you that…we don’t know if you did. The thing is, a book blurb is your foot in the door. Sometimes to finally see those dollar signs, your efforts have to be continuous. 

One marketing tool that could take some of that weight off is an author website . It’s a professional online presence that readers from all over the world can find. And it represents you in your glory.

We love helping authors on their journey to a successful career and we’ve built too many custom author websites to count.

Fill in this inquiry form if you’re ready to house your irresistible book blurb on your author website.

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Photo Reviews, Tips and Deals

Review: Making a Blurb Photo Book

Blurb is a little different from the standard photo book companies. It has free book-making tools for everyone from the beginner to the pro level. You can make one book for your own use or self-publish and sell it on their bookseller platform. You can either create it using their online editor or download their Bookwright software (PC or Mac) to your own computer. There are several other book-creation options that I’ll get into a bit later.

What I like about Blurb is the flexibility it offers, from the range of tools to cover styles and paper choices. The quality is very nice and you can create your own personal coffee table book for a reasonable price. Blurb books can be made for all occasions from chronicling the family vacation to creating an elegant, professional quality wedding album portfolio or publishing and selling your own book. Instead of relying on lots of fancy backgrounds and embellishments, template designs focus on photos and text.

What Makes Blurb Unique

• You can create and save your own custom templates for future use.
• Books can have as many as 400 pages! Other companies usually max out at 100-200 pages.
• You can import photos from Facebook, Flickr, Instagram, and Smugmug as well as from your computer.
• There are choices of standard, premium, and pro-level papers in a variety of finishes.
• The company used 4-color printing like books in bookstores.
• There are self-publishing tools – You can sell your creation online via their online bookstore or Amazon.
• Blurb’s design interface is embedded in Adobe Lightroom Classic and there’s an Adobe Indesign plugin for pros.
• Books can be converted to ebooks for iPad.
• You can hire an expert for editing, design, and illustration.

Photo Software Options – From Instant Books to Full Creative Control

There are six different ways to create your book depending on your experience level and your needs:

Bookify™ Online – This online design tool is great for beginners because you just need to choose from one of four pre-designed templates (just as a starting point to customize) and upload your photos. You can have the software place your photos and create your book automatically or else drag and drop your images as you like. Either way, you’re free to rearrange and resize them.

Blurb Bookwright® – This is my favorite option. It’s a free software download that gives you full control over customizing your book and it’s very easy to use. You can either use the provided layouts or create your own custom layouts that you can save for future projects. The software is well laid out with lots of page layout options and there are trim and safe guidelines so you can make sure nothing important will get cropped off when printing. There’s also optional, automatic image enhancement that will brighten and sharpen your photos. You can download Bookwright here .

The software allows you to create two-page spreads and to use a photo as a background, but surprisingly, there is no capability for changing the opacity of an image. You would need to do this in other software such as Photoshop before you import the image. One nice feature is that if you change your mind, you can change to a different book size after you started. The software will copy your pages into a new layout.

Blurb for iPhone and iPad – A welcome new addition is Blurb’s free mobile app . You can use it to automatically flow your selected phone and Facebook photos into pre-designed templates. There are three layout options for portrait, landscape, and square photos. You can add captions and then share your book from inside the app. Unfortunately, at this time the app only works for Apple products. Books are available in 5×5 or 5×7 only.

Adobe Indesign Plug-in – There is a free Adobe Indesign plugin that you can install that will give you blank templates plus full typographical and layout control using your Indesign software and CMYK color space. You can upload your page layouts from within Indesign.

A dobe Lightroom – Blurb’s book creation software is embedded in Lightroom Classic so you can build and upload without ever leaving the program. Access it from the Book Module.

PDF to Book – If you already have a book in PDF format, you can adjust it to any of Blurb’s book sizes using their PDF calculator and upload them for ordering.

Unlike companies such as Snapfish or Mixbook, Blurb does not have a giant collection of themed templates and embellishments for events or holidays. From the Blurb website, you can choose a general photo book theme including travel, baby, cookbook, portfolio, and family. These are very basic theme layouts of image boxes and text areas. The idea with Blurb is that you are in full control of your book layout and design. You can apply an unlimited range of background colors to the page and choose from a huge array of fonts and unlimited font colors. If you’re looking for a full array of digital scrapbooking embellishments and backgrounds, this is probably not the photo service for you; Mixbook or Shutterfly would be a better choice. However, Blurb offers superb creative control for layout and fonts and you can create complex designs.

You can also make planners and notebooks and convert your book to an ebook for your iPad.

There are lots of options here:

• Standard 80# paper (118 GSM) – with a smooth semi-matte finish.
• Premium Lustre 100# (148 GSM) – has a very faint gloss and is 35% heavier than standard paper.
• Premium Matte 100# (148 GSM) – no gloss, 35% heavier than standard paper.
• ProLine Pearl Photo 140# (190 GSM) – slightly more gloss than Premium Lustre with a pearlescent finish and a nice weight to it. This paper renders contrast well in color and B&W and is of high quality.
• ProLine Uncoated 100# (148 GSM) – Mohawk superfine matte with low contrast and probably not the best choice for color.
• Standard Layflat 100# Double Thick (432 GSM) – This is a heavyweight paper that will make your lay-flat book layout luxurious looking. Layflat is lovely for travel and wedding photos as well as portfolios.

If you are unsure about which paper to use or you are printing a fine art book, you can order a paper swatch kit. It includes endpapers and sample colors and b&w prints on each type of paper so you can compare weight, finish, color, and saturation.

Book Sizes and Cover Styles

There are numerous sizes, but I find some of them are rather odd. I was disappointed that there wasn’t a 11×8.5 landscape like most other companies; you have 10×8 or have to jump to a 13×11 large landscape. They have a 7×7 square book instead of the typical 8×8 and having made numerous 8×8 books in the past, that’s as small as I want to get.

The soft cover has a glossy finish, as does the dust jacket. The image wrap hardcover has a matte finish. If you go with the dust jacket, there is also an option for a linen cover underneath the jacket.

Prices are quite reasonable if you are using standard paper. A Mini Square 5×5 softcover book starts at $12.99 (20-80 pages). The popular 20-page 8×10/10×8 hardcover image wrap book would cost $36.99; additional pages are only 25 cents each, so a 40-page book is only $5 more – that’s a great deal! Upgrading to Premium paper costs about $4 more for the above 20-page book. Upgrading to ProLine Coated paper adds $11 (20 pages). If you want the Blurb logo removed from your book or replaced with your own, add a whopping 25% to the total price. That can really add up to a lot if you’re making a big book, but it’s a feature pros will appreciate.

Print Quality

Blurb uses HP Indigo digital offset presses and claims “bookstore quality.” This proves to be accurate. The color is right on, the finish is beautiful and the dots aren’t really visible to the naked eye.

Final Verdict

Blurb is a very good choice and well-priced for the average person wanting to document their vacation or family events, as well as for the pro making a wedding album or high-end coffee table book. It’s best for people that want photo-focused books without a lot of embellishments and fancy backgrounds. If you prefer a more scrapbook-like design, you might be happier with a different photobook company. On the other hand, it’s ideal for graphic designers and Indesign users that want to create complex layouts. Go to Blurb now .

To help defray my website operating costs I belong to several affiliate programs.  In some instances, I may receive a  small commission for products viewed or purchased via my referral. Opinions are solely my own and I try my best to write honest reviews and only recommend products I would use myself.  

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Blurb Photo Book Review: Design, Print and Self Publish Your Photo Book

To keep the lights on, we receive affiliate commissions via some of our links. Rankings remain impartial.  Our review process .

Visit Blurb’s Website

Article Overview

• What Is It?
• Pros, Cons & Key Features
• How Does It Work?
• My Personal Experience
• Customer Reviews
• Conclusion & Other Tips

What’s Blurb?

In 2006, Eileen Gittins was looking for a simple and cost-effective way to print a book of her photos. Through frustration came Blurb: the world’s first self-publishing platform, paving changes in the publishing industry and riding the wave ever since.

What started as an idea is now an award-winning website and also one of the fastest growing media companies that employ more than 100 passionate book creators worldwide. Over the years, Blurb has printed and delivered over six million books to a half million customers . So, Blurb has the experience and expertise of a large business, but with the personal attention and customer service of a mom and pop shop.

Key Features

• Create your book using a number of online and offline tools
• Distribute your book using third-party resellers or on your website
• Cost-effective way to print in bulk
• Variety of lower-priced and fewer page options
• Easy for novice users to learn

Blurb Pricing

• Softcover Photo Books : starts at $14.99 (for 7×7″)
• Trade Books : starts at $2.99 (for 5×8″)
• Magazines : starts at $4.95 (for 8.5×11″)
• E-books : Starts at $9.99 for iPad and $4.99 for PDF

Blurb Promo Code

How blurb works.

There are three basic steps to creating a book. Pick a size, paper quality and format (soft, hard or dust jacket cover), upload and edit your photos, then print and enjoy (or share with others). They also have a new lay flat format that is a great option for photographers and a way to have photos span across two pages.

1) Pick A Blurb Format And Size

First, you’ll want to determine the purpose of the book, so you can select the proper format and size. Here’s a quick overview of the various Blurb book printing types you have to choose from.

• Photo Book – Whether you’re printing one book or a large quantity for family and friends, photo books are printed on high-quality matte or gloss papers and come in a variety of sizes and covers. You have three options for the cover (soft, image wrap or dust jacket) and you can do square, landscape or portrait orientation. There are also five types of papers to choose from, everything from the standard semi-matte up to the premium semi-gloss or proline pearl. You can print up to 440 pages which gives you plenty of room to squeeze in memories to share for years to come.
• Trade Book – The trade book format is a lower-cost printed book that comes in three sizes and either color or black and white. Trade books have the same three options for covers (soft, image wrap or dust jacket) and two options for printing methods: standard or economy (which affects the quality and type of paper). If you’re looking to distribute your work internationally or beyond friends and family, this is a good option for you.
• Magazine – Blurb magazines are another economy printing method to mass-distribute to a larger audience. Magazines are one size (8″x11″) but come with two printing options: economy and premium. Premium is printed on slightly heavier stock and has a more glossy newsstand look and feel. Either way, you can print just one copy or order in bulk (discounts for 10 or more).
• Ebooks – Ever dreamed of reading your work on a digital device? Blurb makes it possible to publish e-books in digital format with the click of a button. Blurb can convert your books to either fixed-layout (for Apple iPad) and reflowable (that works for iPad and Kindle devices). They even help you with getting it uploaded/approved by retailers like Amazon and iBooks (more on that in the next section).

From foil stamping to embossing, headbands and ribbon markers, Blurb has a number of special add-ons as well.

A good place to start is their pricing calculator to select variables like size, format and quantity and then see what the breakdown is per book.

2) Create Your Blurb Book

Once you’ve selected the type of book you want to create, the next step is to find the tools to help bring your ideas to life. Blurb caters to all levels of experience.

You can use their online editor, download their own software to your Mac or PC or sync with other programs like Adobe creative suite (and they are all free to use assuming you already have a computer and the software it integrates with). Here’s a quick overview of each option.

• Online Photo Books – A fool-proof, simple way to make a book using their free online editor. No software or plug-ins required. It is a little more limited than using Booksmart or Bookwright but does allow for some basic customization like fonts and colors. You can auto-import your photos from a number of services like Instagram, Flickr or Facebook and begin designing in a matter of minutes!
• BookWright – Their free software to create your book and/or a PDF using one project file. It requires you to create an account, but after downloading and installing it’s very user-friendly and has a number of bells and whistles.
• Booksmart – An older, original software that Bookwright replaced, but is still available. It allows you to import blog content, or photos on Flickr as well as add page ornaments, decorative backgrounds and borders. Although a little more limiting than Bookwright, it gives you a lot of freedom to adjust layouts, crop photos and add your own personal touches.
• InDesign* – Use a number of pre-designed templates or start from scratch on your own using software you’re already familiar with. And when you’re ready you can upload your files to Blurb’s site without leaving InDesign.
• Lightroom* – Another option for integrating with Adobe’s existing photo editing software — it’s great for photographers and photo books because of the enhanced photo re-touching capabilities.
• Upload – If you’ve already created your book in another program, you can simply upload your document as a PDF or Word Doc using their specifications and handy step-by-step guides.
• Hire Help – Not feeling creative or are you short on time? Use Blurb’s online collaboration database of pre-approved contributors that can assist with everything from ghostwriting to illustrations and more.

*Note: Both Creative Suite plug-in options require you to buy/download Adobe software.

3) Print And Distribute Your Book

After you’ve worked on your book, it’s time to print and enjoy! However, you might be interested in sharing it with others (and perhaps interested in making a little money too?). Blurb’s biggest differentiator from other online photo book sites is their ability to help get your book out to others (friends, family and the general public).

The great thing about using Blurb to sell (besides not having a garage full of books and being out a big investment upfront) is they deal with all the back-end logistics like shipping and payments as well as handle the customer service and support. If a book is lost or damaged, the buyer will work directly with Blurb (instead of you) to get it fixed.

You’ll have the Blurb team support so you can focus on creating quality content and not processing refunds or tracking packages. Blurb also partners with some of the industry’s top resellers to help you get your books to a global market. Below is some more info on the ways you can sell your book online with Blurb.

• Blurb Direct Sell – Blurb gives you a widget to embed your store directly within your existing website or Facebook page, so a customer never leaves — making for a seamless purchase. They also give you an online dashboard to track your sales, and when you make a certain amount, they’ll deposit the money into your PayPal account. Just copy and paste a little snippet of code and you’ve opened up your own mini bookstore.
• Amazon – By selling through Amazon you might get a lower margin, but you’ll gain a larger audience by tapping into their ability to compete in search results and marketing. Blurb takes care of the submission process with Amazon and once approved your orders will be printed via Blurb and shipped by Amazon.
• Apple iBook Store – Blurb makes it easy for you to sell your book for iPads. They submit your book to Apple for consideration and after review and upon acceptance, you’ll be able to share a download link for your book in the iTunes store! It’s a little more rigid process and not guaranteed, but if you’re not approved the first time, they’ll give you suggestions and you can always resubmit.
• Kickstarter – Want to raise funds for your book prior to creating? Use their crowdsourcing option as a way to gather the financial support and take orders in advance.

My Firsthand Experience With Blurb

We had the chance to try out Blurb’s photo book service, but it did not affect our opinion. We tested Blurb so we could give a more accurate review and share our firsthand experience with you.

I should preface this by stating that before we had the chance to test out their book printing service for this review, I was already a user of Blurb for personal projects. I used it in 2012 and then again in 2018 to write this review. I was hoping that there would be some significant upgrades and improvements in the six years since I used it last. However, it was more or less the same as before. I guess if they have a good thing, then why update it right? Except competition has improved so it might be time to consider some bigger upgrades, Blurb.

I previously chose Blurb over other photo book companies because it offered more freedom and flexibility with design and layout than most other online photo book services . Some other services come with too many bells and whistles (stickers, cheesy layouts, etc.) whereas I’m more of a minimalist when it comes to book design, wanting the photos to speak for themselves.

I used the BookSmart app previously, but this time I used the online editor so I could auto-import photos from Instagram. Both were super straightforward and very user-friendly. My favorite part about the software is you can edit in offline mode (this perk kept my project moving along while on vacation with limited internet).

I also used the BookSmart in the past to create a cookbook for our family. I printed it with the magazine-style . This saved me quite a bit of money by allowing me to publish in bulk for the whole family. Also, I was able to send everyone the link in case they wanted to order more or share with a friend (since everyone contributed recipes).

When I used their service back in 2012, customer service was extremely responsive and helpful in ensuring that every package shipped to the correct location and most of them arrived ahead of schedule.

When I used Blurb this year, I didn’t experience any major issues except for when the  online editor was not saving my layout. This was pretty frustrating. I went with their new lay-flat design this time around, and was super impressed by how it turned out (see below).

Not only are the pages thicker, I love the matte finish on the cover and overall premium feel. Definitely looks like a quality coffee table book that you’d want to put on display versus hide on a shelf. While the design elements were nothing fancy, I think their lay-flat design is a good option for those wanting a high-end book without the hefty price tag (and turn around time was pretty fast too).

What Do Others Think Of Blurb?

Positive blurb reviews.

I printed a magazine with Blurb and it was perfect! The Indesign template was easy to use, as was the uploading my final PDF – Blurb identified lower quality photos and made sure everything was ready to print. They were printed quickly and sent internationally in a good time. I was thrilled when they arrived, the quality of the colours and the clarity was amazing! I will definitely be using Blurb again! – Grace G., SiteJabber 12/3/2017 The overall quality of the book is very good. Both covers are as good as expected and both seem very resistant. The softcover is somewhat thin, but not much thinner than the cover of any paperback you can get from any major publishing company. Bindings are very good and both have survived the “stress test” they were subjected to, including opening wide each and every page and applying a reasonable tension on the binding itself. – The Grey Blog, 3/21/2012

Negative Blurb Reviews

I was very unhappy with the quality of my blurb photo book. Many of the photos had a yellow cast over them, and the focus was not sharp. A couple of photos were cropped more than indicated on the initial preview. The photos were of my daughters wedding, and were provided by a professional photographer. I am confident the photo quality is not at fault as I have had the same photos printed at another cheaper provider and the outcome was excellent. – Judi G, SiteJabber 6/9/2018 I found BookSmart easy and even fun to use, but it performed a bit sluggishly at times on both my work computer and personal computer system. My work PC has a 2.99-GHz Pentium 4 CPU and 512MB of RAM, so I’d understand if BookSmart didn’t work so well on that system. My MacBook, however, has a 1.86-GHz Intel Core Duo CPU and 2GB of RAM. I experienced a noticeable lag when switching from page to page, which became annoying, though the service sped up once the images were loaded and saved to the program’s cache system. – Errol P, PC Mag 5/29/2008

Blurb Behind The Scenes Video

So you’ve clicked “order.” Great! Now, you can sit back and relax. While you’re waiting for your book to arrive, take a behind-the-scenes look at Blurb’s production center to see book printing in action and all the people who ensure your book arrives in good quality and on time.

In Conclusion

While it takes a little learning up front on the software (I used the Smart Book app), I do like that once you import all your photos from your online source, you can then edit in offline mode.

I also used the BookSmart app to create two photo books for my parents’ anniversary. Doing them soft cover saved me quite a bit of money and I was able to print two for the same price as one hardback book. And, their customer service was extremely responsive and helpful in ensuring they shipped to the correct location and they arrived ahead of schedule.

More Tips & Inspiration?

From attending industry conferences and festivals to hosting their own online workshops via webinar, Blurb has a plethora of support and tools to help you along the way. You can call them with quick questions, refer to their FAQs or submit an online ticket for more specific technical questions. For instance, as soon as I placed an order, I realized I had selected the incorrect shipping address and they were able to fix it within minutes.

If you’d like to read a more in-depth list of pros and cons on Blurb including pricing and more, read our photo book comparison article . Need more inspiration? Check out our photo book idea article . And if you’re looking to brush up on some photography skills, you might invest in a DSLR camera or use one of these photo apps to get the most out of your phone’s camera.

What tips or tricks do you have for creating the best photo book?

Disclaimer: the information provided through this website should not be used to diagnose or treat a health problem or disease; it is not intended to offer any legal opinion or advice or a substitute for professional safety advice or professional care. Please consult your health care provider, attorney, or product manual for professional advice. Products and services reviewed are provided by third parties; we are not responsible in any way for them, nor do we guarantee their functionality, utility, safety, or reliability. Our content is for educational purposes only.

About The Author

Sadie Cornelius

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After a couple years of using Blurb we are all but finished with dealing with them. Every year we try to publish are family yearbook (about 50-60 pages) and without fail we are unable to upload the book and have to go back and forth with AWFUL, TERRIBLE AND CONFUSING customer support reps. As I write this we are going into the 2nd month of working with customer service to get a book uploaded. Nothing but regular pictures. Nothing fancy. We’re going to have to try something new going forward.

Blurb is not worth the headache! Our experience with them was awful. First, it has none of the basic things you would expect from a photo book (no backgrounds, cannot customize exact size of boxes, copy text formatting, and so many other simple simple things that made editing insane. If you’re looking for completely plain finished product (using their templates only), you might be OK with the result, but the WORST, things was that the program is glitchy when saving. I had to re-do the whole project TWICE before I gave up and moved on to a better product. So much wasted time. The help desk took more than 2 days to get back to me to say that I should use the “retry or recover” (Really? Gee, thanks!)

Overall, so frustrating! Just trying to save other people from making the same mistake!?

I made a my buisseness book… but don’t know.. how can i get it out? i want to print out this book. but can’t do. can you help me? please tell me how can i get it out?

I have just used BookWright to build my first Fixed Layout e-book. It was a bit of a learning curve, but for anyone used to photo software, it is not that difficult to understand and come to terms with. It has quirks that you will either get over, work around or hate with a vengeance. I got over them.

Okay, writing, proofreading, editing and photography are part of the photojournalist’s territory and is always hard work. That is as clear as tap-water. What isn’t so clear, and in fact is rather muddy-water for UK authors, is the US law on taxation and the fuss we have with getting either EINs, ITINs and W8-BEN forms. Should we really need these and should we have to register our details with the IRS, when Blurb could easily supply proof of UK citizenship via home addresses etc., to Apple and Amazon or to the IRS? Is it a bureaucracy thing that Governments have to make taxation a pain in the butt for it to work properly (which it doesn’t half the time)? Many first-time UK self-publishing authors have been caught out by 30% withhold tax that they shouldn’t be paying at all. Will someone please get this anomaly fixed, so that writing and self-publishing can be fun from start to finish, not the nightmare that it can be for some of us.

My family’s first two photo books printed by Blurb looked great. But in the third photo book, printed a couple months back, half the photos printed too dark. I’m a long-time photographer who preps photos in Photoshop, so the photos I provided were top quality. I mailed a copy of the book to Blurb and asked them to provide a partial refund or reprint the book. They refused, saying the darker photos were within “printing tolerance.” I sent a letter to the CEO and never heard back. With this kind of attitude, they have totally lost my and my family’s business. These books are expensive to print and so I expect top quality.

My novel arrived perfect and I haven’t experienced a bad product yet. It consisted of 370 pages of text, the cover, and image at the back of the trade book.

Avoid using Blurb at all costs. My photo book was delivered with extremely careless and low quality binding, and with matte paper instead of the lustre (glossy) paper I had ordered. In response to my complaints, lack of Customer Support (note the sarcasm) provided me with a promo code to use to reordering the book free of charge. Yep…you guessed it…the promo code didn’t work, and so far lack of Customer Support hasn’t responded to my newest issue.

I love blurb for many reasons. I am frustrated though that I keep losing my customized page layouts. I like to use about 10 of my own layouts for my books, but seem to lose them from book to book and can’t figure out why. It’s very time consuming to recreate them for each book.

Please advise.

Be careful with Blurb . Their software is very glitchy and they offer zero customer support. When you call the support number you get only sales help Zero technical support. When you use their email support, it can often take up to a week for a response. This should be for patient, experts only.

What is their customer service phone number, please?

Phil, so sorry to hear you had a difficult time and bad experience with their customer service. We appreciate you sharing and will definitely keep this in mind whenever we do an audit/update to this review! Agree, it’s very technical and thus for more advanced users. Thanks again for sharing your story with us and good luck making your photo book!

Hmm, I just sent them a support ticket today to ask them about their pricing and to get some assistance with setting everything up, and they got back with me in about four hours. I’ll print my book and see how it all turns out. Wish me luck and hope for the best!

So, Ash, how did the book turn out?

Blurb Review

Blurb offers unique designs and features with its online photo book service. unlike other services, blurb gives you free rein over the design of your book. you can upload a pdf with an indesign plugin, or upload word and google docs to get started..

Early Verdict

Blurb’s image quality and binding are decent, but the layout limitations and the lack of premade customization features make this a service best left for professional book making.

Blurb gives you more creative control than most with the option of uploading your own PDF.

The options for multiple image layouts aren’t very good.

Why you can trust Top Ten Reviews Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test .

Blurb offers unique designs and features with its online photo book maker. Unlike the other best photo book services, Blurb gives you free rein over the design of your book. You can upload a PDF with an InDesign plugin, or upload Word and Google Docs to get started. You can also use the Blurb Bookify interface to make custom designs and layouts. The size and cover options are limited, though, and we found this online photo book maker harder to use than most others.

Blurb’s 8 x 8 hardcover photo books cost $30.39 before factoring in shipping and tax. That makes this the 5th most expensive service we tested. The price for additional pages depends on the size and cover type of your book. The most it can cost is $1.50 per page. Blurb does charge shipping and tax so the total price for one book will likely go up an additional $10 or so.

All of the books we made for testing had hard covers, but the book we made with Blurb got high marks for its extra-sturdy cover. We ordered only the default, standard pages from each service. Our expert testers said that Blurb's pages were noticeably thicker and nicer than some other samples we got. Some of the photo reproduction seemed a little off, though, with a pinkish hue and some graininess. It also bothered our panel that the pages didn't lie very flat.

Many of our testers noted that the image layout didn’t show the photos off to their best advantage. That’s because Blurb doesn’t offer a lot of multiple image layouts and the ones they have aren’t very good. This service’s best layouts only allow you to add one image per page. If you want a service that offers better collage-centered photo layouts, consider Walgreens Photo .

Blurb focuses more on creating professional books for publication. So unless you are a professional photographer or want to sell your books, this isn’t a great service to use. If you use the online photo book editor, you can change the background color and layouts of the pages. The autofill feature places all of your photos for you.

Blurb offers atypical sizing options. For instance, the portrait book is 10 x 8 inches instead of the standard 11 x 8.5 inches. On the other hand, the cover options are standard and limited. There are no lay-flat, leather or fabric cover options. Instead, you can choose from a soft cover, a hard cover with a dust jacket or an image wrapped around a cover.

While cover options are limited, you can choose from five types of high-quality paper for your photo books: standard, premium matte, premium luster, uncoated and pearl-finish photo paper. Standard books have semi-matte pages that don't show fingerprints, a protective front and back page, and a sturdy cover. The quality of the images is sharp and vivid if you used high-resolution photos, but if you use lower-quality photos for your book, it is noticeable in the final product.

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The average time to process and ship your book is four to five days. When you need your book fast, Blurb offers overnight shipping. The company's website features a FAQs page as well as email and live chat options in case you have problems while using the service.

Blurb is not the best photo book site for an average user, but the level of customization available will appeal to photographers and other pro users. While the books do not come in standard sizes and offer few cover options, the binding and paper are high quality. However, some of the images in our book didn’t print true to color.

Rebecca is a writer who has covered everything from photo books to graphic design and small kitchen appliances for Top Ten Reviews. Now a gaming writer for Future Labs, she's also contributed to big publications like TechRadar, Windows Central, Android Central, Reuters Legal Solutions Blog, iMore, and more. She no longer works for TTR.

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Last updated on Mar 22, 2024

Print on Demand Books: The 6 Best Services in 2024, Compared!

When it comes to picking a print-on-demand (POD) service, today’s authors are spoiled for choice. In fact, it has never been easier and more affordable for indie authors to sell quality print versions of their work, closing the gap between the world of traditionally published and self-published books .

To help you confidently decide which POD supplier to trust, we’ve actually tested some of the most popular services available on the market.

The best print-on-demand book services:

1. KDP Print 2. IngramSpark 3. Draft2Digital 4. Blurb 5. Bookvault 6. BookBaby

How does Print-on-Demand for books work?

Before we examine the pros and cons of each service, let’s briefly explain how print-on-demand book publishing works, and how it’s different from its counterpart, offset printing . 

Offset printing involves ordering a large quantity of books (e.g., 1,000 copies) from a printing company and paying them upfront. This means you’ll have to store and ship the copies yourself, likely without any guarantee that they will sell out. For most authors, this option is both logistically and financially impractical. 

Conversely, POD enables you to list your book on platforms such as Amazon or Barnes and Noble, and when a reader orders one or more copies of your book, the company prints and ships them, taking a distribution fee (typically 30%-55% of the list price). Your royalty is the remaining amount minus the printing costs.

Let’s now dive deep into the best print on demand book companies.

The best Print-On-Demand book companies

Here’s a quick overview of each print on demand company across a variety of important factors:

*Price for one trade book copy as of January 2023: 6”×9”, 328 pages, softcover, black and white interior. Note that, aside from your book specifications, print costs may also vary by country and are subject to change due to inflation.

To test each service, we printed How to Market a Book by Reedsy’s very own Ricardo Fayet. Here’s what the copies looked like when they arrived in the mail:

1. KDP Print

💸 Setup fee : None 📚 Printing cost : $4.5 🚢 Shipping timeline : 1-3 working days 💰 Royalty : 40%–60% 📐 Trim size : 16 paperback options, 5 hardcover options

KDP Print is Amazon’s own print-on-demand service for indie authors, operating through its Kindle Direct Publishing platform. Printing a book on Amazon is straightforward, and since most authors opt to self-publish on Amazon through KDP anyway, it's pretty convenient to use the same platform. 

Setup & user experience

From your KDP “Bookshelf,” you can start the process in a couple of clicks, filling in basic details about your book and choosing your printing specs. KDP Print has by far the best visual representation of different types of paper quality and color options in this setup stage. 

One thing to note is that the book cover file you upload must match the trim size you’ve selected perfectly, or else you won’t be able to move forward. The best way to make sure of this is to use KDP Print’s book cover calculator and share the template with your book cover designer .

💅Most readers judge books by their covers. Hiring a professional designer can help you sell significantly more books. Explore some of the most talented designers on our marketplace. 

MEET COVER DESIGNERS

Get an amazing book cover

Let readers judge your book by its (professionally-designed) cover.

Print quality

Our copies from KDP were slightly less polished than the copies we ordered from the other POD services. The black and white images within the chapters were slightly lower in contrast, and there was a small issue with the binding, which meant the book didn’t fully close when laid down flat.

In terms of typesetting , the text was perfectly aligned on the page with good readability on both the white and cream paper versions. 

KDP Print users have historically reported variations in quality, often changing with the season and supply chains. We don’t expect the issues we encountered with the binding and image quality to appear in all KDP paperbacks — it simply hammers home the fact that not every copy printed will be perfect. 

Costs, distribution, and royalties

In terms of costs, KDP Print offers one of the lowest printing costs on the market, and Amazon notably offers  up to 60% in royalties for paperbacks sold on its marketplace.

If you opt for Amazon’s  Expanded Distribution plan, which leverages Ingram’s distribution , you’ll get the same royalty for sales on Amazon, but only 40% (minus printing costs) for sales from outside retailers like Barnes & Noble. On Amazon’s site, you can calculate your estimated print royalties .

Note that earnings might differ depending on which Amazon marketplace you sell from, but generally speaking, they are 2 to 3 times higher than other services (for copies sold on Amazon).

The verdict

Amazon’s KDP Print is a strong POD service, offering low costs, high royalties, and lightning-fast deliveries, so virtually every author should list their book on it. And in today’s self-publishing scene, regardless of genre, most of your online print sales will most likely come through Amazon, so maximizing your royalties by using their dedicated POD service makes sense.

If you want to distribute your book via non-Amazon retailers or brick-and-mortar stores (and enjoy better royalties on those sales), you should use other services besides KDP print.

Remember that Amazon doesn’t allow pre-orders for print books, but you could get around this by using IngramSpark or Draft2Digital for this purpose, as we’ll explain in the next section. That said, you now have the option to schedule a release date for print books up to 90 days in advance. While the book's detail page remains hidden, this gives you more control over the launch date, and allows you to place author copies.

📐 Need to format your manuscript for publication? Use our free book creation tool.

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2. IngramSpark

💸 Setup fee : None 📚 Printing cost : $5.8 🚢 Shipping timeline : 2-3 working days 💰 Royalty : 45%–70% 📐 Trim size : 3 paperback options, 3 hardcover options

IngramSpark is the premier POD platform for authors looking to distribute their books to the greatest range of brick-and-mortar stores. With a distribution network of over 40,000 retailers and libraries, this might be your best option if you’re looking to stock your titles in all the traditional places where readers get their books. 

The one downside of IngramSpark is that the platform is a bit clunky and text-heavy, making it the least user-friendly option of the bunch. As a first time author, you’ll likely go through IngramSpark’s Book Building Tool and have to read through the long and wordy book cover specifications to upload your manuscript. It’s easier if you have your files prepared, so make sure to use a professional writing app and collaborate with a book cover designer who is used to the industry book size standards .

Once you manage to upload your title, your book will undergo an automated and manual file review which takes approximately 5 business days. All in all, it’s a thorough but time-consuming process 一 not ideal for low-tech authors, especially given IngramSpark’s minimal customer support.

🔍 For an insider look at this service, you can also check out our full IngramSpark review .

Our IngramSpark copy had perfectly aligned pages and a solid binding. For a result that feels closer to the paperback novels you’d typically find in bookstores, we’d recommend the cream-colored stock over the white paper option.

IngramSpark’s glossy cover had a slight texture that made it feel a bit more premium and pleasant to hold compared to KPD and Blurb's equivalent covers. Again, very tiny differences but to some, this may be important.

Besides competitive printing costs, IngramSpark offers direct distribution to over 40,000 retailers in the United States, from Barnes & Noble to your local bookstore. You’ll also be connected to Ingram’s global printing partners in Australia, China, the United Kingdom, and more. 

Ingram’s logistics network is so well-established that even other retailers like Draft2Digital and Blurb use it. This means that if you directly choose IngramSpark, you avoid some of the middleman fees you’d have to pay with other distributors. But you'll have to pay a market access fee of 1% of your title's list price for every copy sold (e.g. if you want to sell your book for $10, you'd need to pay $0.10).

In terms of royalties,  Ingram’s wholesaler discount ranges between 35%–55%, but it recommends the latter for maximum distribution. For our book, the printing cost came to $5.87, which means we’d have to price our book above $13 if we want to make any profit (at the 55% discount). You can find out how much you’ll make per book by using IngramSpark’s pricing calculator .

Finally, you’ll have to choose whether you want to  make your book returnable or not. Many brick-and-mortar stores won’t order books that can’t be returned if they don’t manage to sell them, but this option puts financial pressure on authors, who’ll have to bear the printing costs and delivery fees of the returned copies ($3 per book in the United States).

Due to the potentially high cost, perhaps even exceeding earnings, most authors are terrified of offering returns. But usually bookstores won’t order your book unless they can see there’s enough demand for it, or you actively ask them to do so (as a book promotion strategy), so the risk should be calculated. That said, you should be prepared to deal with the potential financial impact of returns, for example, by setting your book to be “destroyed” instead of delivered back, so you’d “only” pay for the print cost.   

If you're looking to sell through major chain and indie stores, digital and brick-and-mortar alike, IngramSpark is by far the best option. The prices are cheap enough to make some profit, and its distribution reach is unparalleled. You’ll only need to arm yourself with patience to deal with its slow interface and review process.

Of course, as we mentioned earlier, you can always combine KDP Print and IngramSpark to get the best of both worlds. To do that, buy your own ISBN number , then set up your book on KDP and IngramSpark separately, making sure you list your book on Amazon first and do not select the Expanded Distribution option.

As mentioned above, you can also use IngramSpark (or Draft2Digital) to set up pre-orders on Amazon. But since Amazon does not play too well with external vendors, you could encounter “inventory issues”, shipping delays, or “out of stock” warnings on your Amazon listing. If you go down this route, one option is to create two slightly different versions of your book, assign them two different ISBN numbers (that you own), and list them separately on both platforms (e.g., Amazon and IngramSpark) 一 so that they’ll be treated as different books.

🤔   What are the minimum requirements to get stocked in bookstores? ⛔ Don’t distribute with Amazon’s expanded plan. Many bookstores are “at war” with Amazon and won't order from it. It’s better to use platforms that  have a good relationship with bookstores, such as IngramSpark, for example.  💸 Offer a 55% retail discount. This is the industry standard 一 physical bookstores, both big chains and indies, will not stock your book otherwise.  🔁 Make your book returnable. Again, many bookstores will pass if it’s not. 

3. Draft2Digital

💸 Setup fee : None 📚 Printing cost : $5.6 🚢 Shipping timeline : 2-3 working days 💰 Royalty : 45% 📐 Trim size : 6 paperback options, 0 hardcover options

After being in beta for a long time, Draft2Digital’s Print on Demand service is finally open to all authors. Draft2Digital (D2D) relies on Ingram both for printing and distribution, but its competitive advantage is in the user experience.

D2D’s user interface is intuitive and clean, making it easy to upload files and information, as well as preview your book interior and cover crop lines. Moreover, if you run into trouble, D2D’s customer support is very helpful, and it also has a hotline you can call. 

Moreover, if you run into trouble, their customer support is very helpful, and they also have a hotline you can call. 

As mentioned, Draft2Digital relies on Ingram to fulfill their print orders, which means that your customers should receive similar quality copies no matter which of the two options you go for. Our take? The print quality is good and should serve most authors well, so long as their book files are formatted correctly.

🔍 For more info on this service, you can also check out our detailed Draft2Digital review .

As previously mentioned, D2D relies on the Ingram network for printing and distribution, which means similarly competitive printing costs. But unlike IngramSpark, which offers a 45–70% range of royalty, D2D has a flat (and standard) 45% royalty rate. You can easily calculate your profit per copy by entering your book’s trim size, page number or word count, and sale price.

It's also important to note that D2D doesn't allow book returns, so if you want your book stocked on brick-and-mortar shelves, you should use IngramSpark instead.

There’s a lot to like about D2D’s Print 一 it leverages the printing and distribution capabilities of Ingram, but offers a much better user interface and solid customer support. Its heavy reliance on Ingram's networks could, however, cause problems that it can't directly and quickly fix, so keep that in mind. Also, if you’re hoping to publish hardcover editions of your book, you’ll have to look elsewhere.

🤔 Can self-published authors get their book into bookstores?  Indie authors can find support from many book sellers if they meet the minimum requirements listed above and, as The Hot Sheet suggests, develop a relationship with them. To do that:  participate in regional bookseller conferences,  offer pre-orders exclusively to one store,  organize live sign-ups and other special deals.  Importantly, look to booksellers in your immediate community, where your book will be more likely to be sold.     

💸 Setup fee : None 📚 Printing cost : $10 🚢 Shipping timeline : 2-4 working days 💰 Royalty : 45%–60% 📐 Trim size : 3 paperback options, 3 hardcover options

Blurb’s POD service is certainly more expensive than the other options in this post, but it provides a great user experience and high-quality products. 

Blurb’s platform is modern, fast, and intuitive, making for one of the smoothest upload experiences of the bunch. If your print files are ready, you can set up your book for sale in under 10 minutes. Their software automatically detects and corrects potential issues in your files, then clearly previews how they’ll look on paper. And should issues arise, Blurb’s customer support is stellar.

One minor difference, compared to other services, is that the matte cover finish is only available for hardcover, whereas the softcover can only be glossy. 

Though we’ve mentioned before that most of the POD services offer similar print quality, it should be noted that the copy we received from Blurb did have a slight edge over the others. The colors on the cover design were the closest to the original files we uploaded, and the contrast of the print was stronger — making for an easier read and overall more professional feel.

The attention to color and clear printing is not surprising when you consider that Blurb’s strength lies outside just printing standard-sized trade paperbacks ; they also offer a range of high-quality photo books (with landscape and portrait options), as well as magazine formats, giving you more choices for designing your product. There is, however, a cost trade-off, so if your book is mainly text-based and has very few to no images, Blurb may not be worth the extra pesos.

Blurb is rather expensive: the printing cost per copy of our book is over $10, which is twice as much as what many other services offer. The reason is likely the slightly higher print quality, but that’s hard to justify for most authors.

As for distribution, there are two main options on Blurb: the Global Retail Network, which distributes through Ingram, and Blurb Direct Sales, which is Blurb’s own bookstore . If you go with the latter, you'll lose significant discoverability, but will be able to make more profit per sale since there is no distribution fee. If you choose to go global instead, you can pick either a 40% or 55% wholesale discount, with the latter being the recommended choice. 

With our test book, we had a base cost of just over $10. To benefit from the widest discoverability, we’d have to set our wholesale discount at 55%, meaning that our retail price would have to be at least $22.38 if we wanted to make a single cent of profit. The price is almost certainly prohibitive for writers of fiction and memoir, whose readers are used to buying paperbacks for under $17. 

Blurb is a well-rounded service that offers great print quality and distribution, but it’s not for every writer. We’d recommend it to those who can support a “premium” price (i.e., writers who want to publish photo books, children’s books , or heavily illustrated books), those who particularly care about print quality, or those whose top priority isn’t turning a direct profit from book sales (e.g., if you are publishing a book for business leads or for family members).

🤝 We’ve partnered with Blurb to make it easier (and a bit more affordable) for authors to format and print their beautiful books. Find out more here .

5. Bookvault

💸 Setup fee : $25 📚 Printing cost : $6.2 🚢 Shipping timeline : 4-6 working days 💰 Royalty : 40%–90% 📐 Trim size : 6 premade paperback and hardcover options + a custom option

Bookvault is a POD service that specializes in direct sales fulfillment. It integrates seamlessly with Shopify, WooCommerce, Wix, and PayHip, allowing authors to sell print books directly through their author website .

Modern and easy to navigate, Bookvault’s app is solid, though the user experience still has room for improvement. Setting up a title is quick and straightforward, and it’s fairly easy to order an author copy and manage distribution options.

Based on our experience ordering test copies, we’d suggest that you double-check your printing specs throughout the process. Early in the process, we accidentally chose a format size that wasn’t compatible with our book file. The issue wasn’t automatically flagged, which resulted in us receiving a test copy that was… a little off.

To their credit, Bookvault corrected the issue promptly and free of charge 一 which was nice on their behalf.  

As expected, the quality of the final books we received from Bookvault was on par with IngramSpark. The colors on the cover design were reproduced faithfully, and nothing was out of place within the body of the book itself.

Bookvault comes with a setup fee, but also low printing costs and a generous royalty scheme. 

Bookvault distributes through The Great British Book Shop , which has its own retail network but can also list your book on channels like Amazon, Gardner, and Adlibris.

When you choose a retail price and play with the wholesaler discount, you'll see the estimated earnings after printing costs.

If you use one of their integrations, you can sell directly on your website, avoid paying retailer fees, and keep the earnings minus print costs. If you don’t use ecommerce services, but you still want to sell “as directly as possible”, you can point your readers to buy from The Great British Bookshop and enjoy a rather high royalty payout.

Historically, Bookvault’s printing facilities were exclusively based in the UK, making worldwide shipping for US orders very expensive (ranging between $14 and $32 per book). However, Bookvault has started collaborating with US partners in order to print and ship books locally, at a competitive price, making it an exciting new option for American authors. Currently, only specific bindings and paper stocks are available, but they plan to continue expanding their offer. 

💲 Bookvault discount for Reedsy authors: Use the code JP23-REEDSY to get 50% off your title setup or 5% off your production costs. You can use the code on both services, for a maximum of 5 times in total.  

Overall, Bookvault is a perfect option for authors who can sell directly from their site, and sell mostly to readers in the UK and, now, in the US too (as long as your book printing specs are supported.) The company is striving to provide excellent service to independent authors by maintaining prices that are either comparable to or slightly lower than those of the competitors. 

Disclaimer: Reedsy used their services to print 200 hardcover copies for the SPS Live 2023 conference, and we plan to use them again for two additional book conferences in the United States.

6. BookBaby

💸 Setup fee : $399 for the expanded distribution plan 📚 Printing cost : $6.20 🚢 Shipping timeline : 5-6 business days 💰 Royalty : 10%–50% 📐 Trim size : 5 options for both paperback and hardcover

BookBaby is a platform that provides a range of publishing-related services, as well as a POD option for authors.

When you begin the setup process, you’ll be asked how many copies of the book you want to print. This may be confusing, as POD entails printing only after you make a sale. The reason is that BookBaby uses a mix of POD and offset printing : first, you have to make a bulk order (between 25 and 2,000 copies), then your book will be made available for POD. 

If you don't want to place a bulk order, you can print a single copy of your book, but it will be quite expensive compared to a bulk order, which comes at a discount. Overall, this is a great option for authors looking to order a bunch of physical copies for promotional purposes and in-person sales to begin with, but not for those looking to get a single author copy before distribution.

Setting up your book for printing is relatively easy and only takes a few minutes. The process, though, is not super intuitive: to choose your paper type or cover finish, for example, you need to first create a project, then “go back” and edit it. That said, if you have your files ready, the upload is fast, and you can quickly preview how they’ll look. 

The quality of the test copies we received from BookBaby was up to the standards set by their rivals over at IngramSpark and KDP, with perfect alignment and a solid finish on the cover. However, for the price that Bookbaby charges for their services, one would hope for a little bit more.

To join BookBaby’s POD program and distribute to Amazon, Ingram, and other major retailers, you’ll need to pay a setup fee of $399. The price is high, especially when compared to other distribution networks like Ingram’s, which costs a fraction of it. You could also choose to sell exclusively on their Bookshop for $149, but this would mean renouncing distribution to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all other major retailers. 

If you choose to “offset print” a single copy, for a 6"x9" trade book it will cost you $138 ($99 for the book, $38 for shipping), while a batch of 100 copies will cost you $1,430 ($1,270 for the books, $160 for shipping). This approach won’t make sense for most self-publishing authors , unless they want to order a much bigger batch for marketing purposes and have a storage solution ready. 

Why is it so costly? BookBaby claims to offer a more professional service than their competitors. According to their marketing materials, a skilled staff member (as opposed to automated software) reviews your book project and identifies any issues, ensuring everything is okay. They do this within two business days and print it just as fast in their facilities. From our experience, BookBaby has excellent customer support, with helpful team members answering the phone when you call.

We chose BookBaby’s expanded distribution plan for our book, which gave us a minimum retail price of $16.03. This covers the book’s printing costs and the retailer's wholesale discount of 55%. When we did the math, each copy would cost us around $6.20 to print, which is more expensive than any other service except Blurb.

At an average retail price of $16.99 for a paperback, you’d be looking at a meager $1.39 profit on Amazon or B&N sales. Royalties are much higher in their Bookshop, but again, this is equivalent to selling directly.

BookBaby's offset printing discounts, and direct sales option through their Bookshop page might appeal to authors with a dedicated and hungry print readership. If you know you can sell thousands of copies at in-person events, then the $399 setup fee won't scare you that much. However, if that’s not the case, you should be better off using some of the other cheaper services mentioned in this post.

Each print-on-demand book service has strengths and weaknesses, making it hard to pick a one-size-fits-all option. Hopefully, our review and analysis will give you a clearer picture and will allow you to make a more informed decision about what fits you best. It’s time to place some orders — after all, nothing beats flipping the pages of a physical copy.

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Blurb vs Mixbook Photo Books

Professionals and beginners alike can have a difficult time finding a printer they love. Whether you’re looking to expand your portfolio by having some of your best shots printed professionally or just looking to document your niece’s sixth birthday, choosing a printer you trust is vital.

While it’s important to sort and compare your options, sifting through dozens of printer websites can be a waste of time, time that could be spent doing something you love.

For those who would rather devote their free time to furthering their photography passion, we’ve compiled an in-depth comparison of two heavy hitters: Mixbook and Blurb.

Continue reading below and check out our Blurb vs Mixbook comparison chart, which can assist you when selecting which printer is right for you!

Blurb vs Mixbook Photo Books:

When you buy through links on our site, we may earn a commission at no cost to you. We evaluate products independently . Commissions do not affect our evaluations.

How to Choose a Printer

Before we get much further into our side-by-side review, it’s important for you to take a minute and decide exactly what kind of features you’re looking for. Keeping your needs in mind can simplify the decision process and make your job easier. In general, there are four things to consider when choosing a printing company:

• What will you be printing? Those looking for a hobby photo book will have different criteria from those looking to have single photos printed. When researching reviews, be sure to narrow your search to match your needs.
• What is your budget and is there any wiggle room? If you’ve got a strict budget, the best use of your time may be in narrowing your search to companies that cater to your budget. If you’ve got wiggle room, don’t be afraid to look at some higher-end companies: some have better deals than you’d expect.
• Will you need extra features? Some printers offer a level of customization in your prints that professionals will be especially interested in, while other companies target a demographic that wants these things automated. Pay attention to what optional features each company offers.
• What kind of delivery will you need? For those looking to receive their product on a tight schedule, it’s worth it to compare shipping prices from a few companies. Also, keep in mind that not all companies will ship internationally.

Comparing Blurb vs Mixbook

Blurb , founded in 2005 in San Francisco, CA, has stood out among other photo book companies, largely because it is a self-publishing company offering a very different selection of services. Blurb ships to over 70 countries and has delivered more than 14 million books. Most photographers will be interested in Blurb’s fantastic photo book abilities. While they may offer fewer services than others, they more than make up for the deficiency with high-quality printing.

Blurb Product Range

While Blurb does offer options for traditional printing, we’re focusing on their gorgeous photo books. The books are available in six sizes: 5×5″, 7×7″, 8×10″, 10×8″ 12×12″, and 13×11″. Rivaling the paper options of Mixbook, Blurb also offers six paper options, meaning you won’t have to sacrifice your love of customization when going with Blurb.

Currently, they offer Standard, Premium Lustre, Premium Matte, Proline Uncoated, Proline Pearl Photo, and Standard Layflat. Their covers are available in three different styles:

• Glossy Softcover,
• Hardcover ImageWrap with a matte finish, and
• Hardcover Dust Jacket with a glossy jacket over black linen.

Impressively enough, the design aspect of their photo books is what really sets Blurb apart from Mixbook and other competitors. While it does offer a fantastic browser tool, it also offers a desktop and mobile version. For those who are looking to really personalize their photo book, there’s also an option to upload directly from popular professional tools such as Adobe InDesign.

Also, Blurb offers you a free desktop software (see Blurb.com/Bookwright) to create your own books, magazines, and ebooks.

Related Posts

Blurb Prices

Depending on which size, cover, and type of paper you’re looking at for your photo book, the price will vary. To give you a general overview, we’ve listed the price range for the photo books offered by Blurb based on their sizes:

• Small Square Photo Books (7×7″) will cost anywhere between $14.99 and $44.99. Keep in mind, additional pages for this book will cost anywhere from $0.20 per page to $.0.40 per page, depending on the type of paper you choose.
• Standard Portraits (8×10″) can cost between $21.99 to $52.99. Additional pages for this size tend to run between $0.25 and $0.45, making it a reasonable price bump from the Small Square Photo Book.
• Standard Landscape (10×8″) matches the Standard Portrait price and can be as low as $21.99, although can go as high as $52.99. Additional pages for these also mirror the Standard Portrait pricing guide, between $0.25 and $0.45.
• Large Square (12×12″) will cost anything from $55.99 to $84.99. While this may seem like a price jump, it’s important to note that this size is not available in a soft cover (which is the cheapest option and results in a lower price for other sizes). Additional pages are between $0.50 and $0.70 per page.
• Large Landscape (13×11″) can cost between $58.99 and $87.99. Once again, this larger size is not available in softcover format, which results in a more expensive base price. Additional pages for this size mirror the pricing for the Large Square size and fall between $0.50 and $0.70 per page.
• It’s important to note that a huge benefit to ordering through Blurb is their quantity discount. Those ordering between 10-19 books will receive 10% off; if you’re ordering between 20-49 books, you’ll be eligible for 20% off. For those who are planning for more, anyone ordering over 50 books will receive 25% off.

Blurb Reviews

An important step in any major purchase is taking a glance through customer reviews. For the purposes of simplicity, we’ve narrowed our search down to three of the most reliable sources: the Better Business Bureau, Top Ten Reviews, and Cnet.com.

• Better Business Bureau: A+. Earning a 4.12 average from 9 reviews left on the site, Blurb has a solid rating from the BBB. For the majority of the negative comments left, it does seem as though Blurb has left some feedback and offered an apology when necessary. Whether it’s a good sign or bad, most of their complaints are not about the product and are actually related to the chat-based customer service. Overall, reviews from the BBB indicate the product received is high quality.
• Top Ten Reviews: 5.8/10. While the score left by TopTenReviews.com leaves something to be desired, it’s important to note that the two major factors leading to the poor score are the less than intuitive user interface and the lack of size options available. For those who are looking for the option to upload via PDF or Adobe InDesign, this still may be a viable option for you to look into. Reviewers still loved the quality and amount of customization offered, although they were disappointed with the few templates offered.
• Cnet. While the Cnet.com review does not offer a number or letter grade, the review is overall pretty positive and in line with what other review companies have said. The quality is great, the paper is phenomenal, but it can be difficult for a beginner to use. The reviewers at Cnet do agree that the flexibility offered by Blurb, for those who are comfortable using it, makes it worthwhile.

“Blurb was the most flexible of the bunch in terms of large swaths of text. It also turned out to be the most frustrating to use.” – Cnet.com

Related Post: Blurb Review

Blurb: Our Overall Impression

Blurb is a fantastic company. While their prices for high-quality paper may intimidate some, you get what you pay for. Their Mohawk brand paper is top-of-the-line; however, this may not be the best option for those who are looking for a quick drag-and-drop book creation. Blurb seems to better fit those who are comfortable with technology or have used programs like this in the past.

Based in California, Mixbook is an online photo service center. Offering a high level of customization, this company has exploded in popularity since it was founded over a decade ago. Interestingly enough, Mixbook was designed by Andrew Laffoon and Aryk Grosz as a way for high school students to design their own yearbooks, making it clear why this company has built a cult following for its photo books.

Earning praise as “one of the best photo book-making sites” by CNET and being featured on The Today Show for their gorgeous canvas prints, it doesn’t look like Mixbook plans on slowing its expansion anytime soon.

Mixbook: Services Offered

While best known for its photo books, Mixbook actually offers a pretty comprehensive line of services.

• Photo books. Mixbook has been renowned for its quality photo book prints, offering a high level of customization for even the pickiest of photographers. Their books are offered in a variety of covers and papers, and can be designed to fit most budgets. For the professional, keep an eye out for the premium flat-lay option. Hobbyists, take a browse through their extensive theme library.
• Cards and Magnets. Available in a variety of papers and styles, Mixbook is a fantastic option for those looking to create cards. With themes for everything from party invitations to save-the-dates, you’re pretty well guaranteed to find a theme to suit your needs. Uniquely, cards can be made with a cotton-like finish, ultra-thick cardstock, and even made with foil highlights to add dimension. Custom photo magnets are also a viable option as an alternative to traditional cards and remember to check out their custom address labels and stationery to match your theme.
• Calendars. For those looking to start their year off right, the calendars offered by Mixbook are a great option. Fully customizable, their calendars offer an assortment of sizes and formats. You’ll be able to choose from their theme library or, for those who want more control, design it from scratch yourself.
• Wall Prints. While these are categorized on their website as “home décor,” they’re best explained as wall prints. For those looking to put their photos on display, or make your latest family portrait the center of attention in your sitting room, Mixbook offers several options: canvas prints, metal prints, acrylic prints, acrylic blocks, and even poster prints.
• Photo Prints. Finally, Mixbook offers simple photo prints for those looking for a professional print. With their online photo editor, Mixbook boasts that you’ll no longer have to deal with the local copy store accidentally cropping your heads out of your Christmas cards. After uploading your photos, you can choose from a variety of sizes. While the most common is 4×6″, 5×5″, 5×7″, and 8×10″, they also offer larger 36×24″ prints.

Related Post: Best Photo Book Printing Services (Top 11 Amazing Picks)

Mixbook Prices

Part of what has made Mixbook such a popular option is its amount of customization. This had led to the company offering an option for every type of photographer and for any price point you may have in mind. While it can be hard to give exact prices, we’ve collected some average price ranges for their products below:

• Photo books can be tricky to price out, considering there are so many different options for cover, size, and varying page numbers. A softcover will be priced anywhere from $15.99 to $24.99, making them the cheapest option. Meanwhile, if you’re looking for a premium lay-flat hardcover, they’ll be priced anywhere from $59.99 to $124.99. Keep in mind, anything over 20 pages will cost you extra. Be sure to check the per-page cost before ordering on their website so you know what to expect.
• Photo Prints are pretty reasonably priced for Mixbook. Their 4×6″ shots are priced starting at $0.15 a piece, going up to $3.99 for each 8×10″.
• Cards by Mixbook vary in price, largely due to their high levels of customization. If you’re looking for a simple satin finish, the price can be as low as $0.69. If you’re looking for a luxurious ultra-thick card stock, they’ll start at $1.99. Their Premium Matte and Pearl Finish are both available from $1.09, while the Cotton Texture will start at $1.59.
• Calendars are priced pretty affordable. A typical square calendar at 12×12″ will start at $29.99, while landscape calendars will start at $24.99.
• Wall art can vary in price for the site. Their Acrylic prints range from $49.99 for a 6×6″ to $199.99 for a 30×20″. Their canvas prints will cost anything from $49.99 for a 10×8″ to $164.99 for a sizable 36×24″, while their metal prints run anywhere from $19.99 for a 6×4″ to $249.99 for a 36×24″. Lastly, their posters seem to be the most affordable option, ranging from $7.99 for an 11×14″ to $31.99 for a 36×24″.

Mixbook Reviews

In order to keep our reviews as fair as possible, we’ve gathered the reviews for Mixbook from the same professionals we listed for Blurb. Take a look at some of the fantastic ratings this company has garnered:

• Better Business Bureau: A+. Currently, Mixbook has a 4.1, based on 6 customer reviews in their system. Of the few negative reviews left on the BBB website, it does seem as though Mixbook has been pretty prompt in contacting the customer to rectify the issue, something that tends to reflect a decent level of customer support. As with all BBB ratings, there’s no way to verify many of the complaints, but it’s a good sign that none of them are regarding the same issue.
• Of these companies compared, Mixbook has come out as the top company, earning an impressive 9.73.
• The largest complaint is that there’s no option for in-store pickup, something that may impact your decision if you’re looking for the quickest delivery time.
• Other than that, reviewers were impressed with the quality, customer service, and the variety of themes offered by Mixbook.

Related Post: Best Pro Online Printing Service Providers

“Mixbook offers a vast selection of design elements and makes everything really easy…” TopTenReviews.com

• Cnet published an impressive review of Mixbook, comparing it to other industry leaders. After raving about the ease of use when accessing their website and design process, reviewers voted Mixbook the superior company, topping even names like Shutterfly.

Related Post: Mixbook vs Shutterfly

Mixbook: Our Overall Impression

Honestly, one of the things that makes Mixbook such a major brand has been its level of customization. The themes offered by the company are top quality and there’s something in their library for everyone.

For those who are looking to venture away from themes and really create their own unique design, there is also an option to start from scratch. All of their products come in a variety of finishes, and there is sure to be something that will fit your budget and that you’ll love.

Blurb vs Mixbook: A Side-by-Side Comparison

Looking to get a better understanding of these two companies from a distance? Take a look at our chart below to learn which features are offered by which company.

• While both of these online printers are fantastic, they do cater to two different audiences. Those who want total control over what they’re getting may feel more comfortable with the capabilities of Blurb.
• For those who are just starting out you may want to take a closer look at Mixbook.

Overall, it’s fantastic to see two great options available to photographers at any experience level. Be sure to let us know which one you prefer!

We are a team of enthusiast photographers crafting every piece of content to help you become a better photographer. The PhotoWorkout Team is always curious about the latest photography gear, post-processing software, up & coming photographers, and innovative ways to print your photos.

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20 thoughts on “Blurb vs Mixbook Photo Books”

Do either of these companies help list your book on Amazon or B&N? Thank you!

Hi Kristen,

Yes, Blurb has options to sell on Amazon and B&N. You can find out more about that at these two links: Selling Blurb Photo Books Through Amazon and Blurb Ingram Integration . Good luck if you go that route; let us know how it goes!

I have used Blurb often to do same book. 7”by7” and 12”by12”. Very frustrating experience over all. Ordered my last 12by 12 and pages(looking at the spine) are all wavy. Quite unprofessional. Contacting them is always a nightmare. No live chat and no phone#. U email them and wait for days sometimes to get an answer. Was quite pleased w/ their printing on Mohawk Pearl. Am waiting to see if they might send me another copy where pages are flat. Payed $200 for just one book 12”by12”. For this price, the pages (49) should be flat. Jamesleestern@gmail in santa monica

Nothing about this review talks about the quality of the printed photographs. “Good” and “excellent” are not qualitative terms. For instance, with Blurb, what printer do they use for their Mohawk paper? What is their ink resolution in dots per inch? How many ink colors are used? Thank you, David

I’m looking for a high-quality photobook online company that does not have censorship oversight. While Blurb does not censor, their “printing partners” do, and can preempt an order. Is there an online photobook company that won’t censor erotic/nude photographic material?

I’ve made several Blurb books and one Mixbook lay-flat book. A few things I encountered:

1.) Both turn out a good hard-cover book, and I highly recommend image-wrap covers, not a dust jacket (looks good, less annoying).

2.) Blurb is mainly designed for computer software based book-making; the online tool didn’t allow nearly as much customization as Mixbook’s. But…Mixbook’s required doing it online. If you want to access your project and work on it from different computers in different locations but maintain customizability, Mixbook has a strong advantage.

3.) Mixbook had a number of page backgrounds (think varied colors and photo backgrounds; not a whole lot, but better than Blurb, which could change color and that was about it), and it was easy to insert clip art from their extensive included collection. I’m not a big ‘scrap book’ type, I mainly make an annual photo book with lots of photos and text captions in various size containers, a number of which I customize. So if you like enhancing background pages for your photos, and putting cute little clip art accents around them, Mixbook is the clear winner.

4.) But Blurb does one thing Mixbook doesn’t that’s usually a deal breaker for me. Blurb has a small added cost option to generate a PDF version of my book. This provides me an ‘ebook’ I can distribute copies of freely, and a way to keep copies very compactly (in a folder on any computer I wish). Mixbook doesn’t do that.

So for me, it’s mainly Blurb. And I like the large landscape Blurb books – 11×13′. Couldn’t find quite the same thing on Mixbook; got more of a really big square shape. But that Mixbook lay-flat book I make our daughter is a thing of beauty.

I have used Blurb for years but I just tried to upload and print a travel book using Bookwright. It was 270 Mb and took many hours to upload and then failed to process. I tried 4 times and also sent 4 emails over a week asking for technical support with no response. Very disappointed with the lack of support. Will never use them again.

Thanks for your feedback. Yes, I also agree that designing and ordering your photo book should work from within the Internet browsers. Hence, Mixbook would be a better option. – Andreas

You have plugins for major Adobe softwares and a dedicated and simple to use Bookwright and you still have problems to upload your book? You can make the book in any software you want then exported as pdf. Talk with your internet provider if you have problems with 270mb upload.

Can you please offer a comparison on image quality between the two companies? I have used Mixbook in the past, and although I love how easy it is to use, I was a little disappointed with the “graininess” of the photos. I’m curious about Blurb, and would like to know if they offer more “crisp” and sharp photos.

Yes, we will be doing a comparison with image quality. Right now we are comparing Mixbook against Shutterfly, next up will be Blurb.

Great and detail review. Blurb is an online publishing and originated from a professional photographer. If you are a photographer, you might not wanted to print your book at those site as they are made for mass production and have very little of color control. My suggestion is to print the book in artifact uprising.com or flipchap.com. Both of them pay detail attention in color management and handmade photobook. the finishing will surprise you everytime. Remember my first time order from flipchap, i was surprised by how they personalized my books with tons of free gifts. gifts like mini calendar, book mark, dust jacket and mini book(Cutest gift ever). all of them printed with image i upload to make the book. the mini book was the highlight as they make a tiny version of my book into a keychain size book. Their delivery is a little bit slower, since they explained that all their books are hand made and need to do it book by book. i turned it to artifact uprising because of the environmental awareness as all their paper was recycle material and i am happy to play a part in this environmental role while still enjoying a book.

Thanks for sharing your experience of printing your photo books. We will certainly look into and test artifactuprising.com and flipchap.com soon and add them to our list.

Hello, Just getting started. Am I required to download Blurb’s BookWright program in order to create a book? As far as I know, Mixbook and the others don’t require this. Am I mistaken? Thank you.

Yes, you are right. You have to download the bookwright software at blurb.com. Mixbook doesn’t require that. That way, Mixbook is a better (easier) option. We are about to publish a detailed Mixbook review soon.

I live in the Netherlands, and it’s no problem ordering a Blurb-book here. Since 2007 they print and ship in the Netherlands to accomodate the European market.

Thanks for sharing your Blurb photo book experience.

P.S. We just updated the comparison table and changed international shipping at Blurb to: Yes. That was a mistake form our side and is now rectified.

In the comparison section, the websites are in the wrong column.

Thank’s for pointing out the mistake in the comparison table. We just rectified it.

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

Ripley review – Andrew Scott is absolutely spellbinding

This scintillating and noirish adaptation leaves Matt Damon’s 1999 version in the shade. It’s largely thanks to Scott – who is just mesmerising

H ere he is, then: every ounce of his talent, ineffable charm and lightly reptilian hotness on display. Andrew Scott steps up to play Patricia Highsmith’s titular antihero in Netflix’s eight-part adaptation of The Talented Mr Ripley (the first volume of a series of pulpy novels now known as the “Ripliad”).

When we first meet him, Tom Ripley is living in a borderline flophouse in New York and scratching an inelegant living as a petty, white-collar criminal; diverting people’s post and cheques, and running fake debt collection agencies. But you can’t keep a bad man – or a good fraudster – down for long. When Dickie Greenleaf’s father offers him the job (the only one of Dickie’s friends who will entertain the idea) of heading out on an all-expenses paid trip to Italy to try to persuade his son (played by Johnny Flynn ) to give up his wastrel life in Europe and come home, he grabs the opportunity. By which I mean: runs with it clutched to his chest with both hands, as far as it will take him.

Soon, Tom has inveigled his way into Dickie’s life, gaining his trust and gently moulding himself around his friend’s personality and needs, while the golden boy’s coolly appraising girlfriend, Marge (Dakota Fanning), watches with increasing suspicion from her increasingly sidelined position. Fans of the book and what has come to be seen – until, possibly, now – as the definitive screen version of it, Anthony Minghella’s The Talented Mr Ripley (released in 1999, starring Matt Damon as Tom, Jude Law as Dickie and Gwyneth Paltrow as Marge), will know the plot. But its fresh execution is quite something.

Ripley is shot entirely in black and white, and the noir element is not soft-pedalled. Rainy nights abound. If there are puddles, we will see Ripley reflected in them. We hear every hiss and crackle of every cigarette, and watch every plume of smoke from those resting in (occasionally fateful) ashtrays. It looks, as we swan around Italy, utterly gorgeous.

It also moves incredibly slowly. For those who can lean in and appreciate the capture of a sensibility summarised in Graham Greene’s description of Highsmith as a “poet of apprehension”, this will be one of the best things about it. The careful mapping of Tom’s every move, whether in furtherance of his deceit or the covering up of his crimes, allows the tension to mount exquisitely. That’s even before Inspector Ravini (Maurizio Lombardi) arrives to investigate the death of Freddie Miles (Eliot Sumner) – at which point you may have to take a breather and nip for a walk round the block. Doubts and shadows gather in corners. The details of massed lies accumulate, any one ready to be plucked out by an astute girlfriend, police officer or bank teller, bringing the teetering pile down. Malevolence bleeds into everything. Every moment of beauty ultimately ends up poisoned. It’s wonderful.

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At the heart of it all, and in virtually every scene, is Scott. He has said in interviews that he didn’t want to diagnose or define Ripley too closely , which could have been a recipe for either blandness and confusion. Instead, it makes him a wellspring of possibilities. There is something for everyone to relate to in him – a dark everyman figure. There is the natural envy of the fortunate. There is the curdling into rage and hatred when they do not appreciate it or when, like Freddie, they seem to take joy in excluding others from their world of comfort. Is Tom in love with Dickie – or just his way of life? Is assuming his friend’s identity better than being with him, or did extraneous circumstances just force him into it? Or are we attributing too much of our own humanity to a sociopath, who takes from others because it is as natural to him as breathing? Scott’s Tom is everything and nothing, and mesmeric either way.

The supporting cast is uniformly excellent, too. Flynn’s Dickie is not a mere spoilt brat; rather, he is a weak but still warmly likable man. We may hope that Tom gets away with everything, but not because his victim deserves his fate. Fanning’s Marge radiates intelligence of the specific kind that tells her not to move against Tom until she can be sure of winning. And Lombardi is compelling, going toe-to-toe with Scott in their many scenes together. You can’t take your eyes off either of them.

With those who find it initially slow, or the relentless monochrome beauty slightly exhausting or pretentious, I understand entirely. But stick with it; allow yourself to yield to both and let Ripley seduce you. There is magic at work here.

• Andrew Scott

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