Comments on: My first book with Blurb and BookSmart http://www.jasperpotts.com/blog/2007/04/my-first-book-with-blurb-and-booksmart/ Jasper Potts's Blog on Java and Life Wed, 07 Jan 2009 05:13:49 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2 By: d.ogden http://www.jasperpotts.com/blog/2007/04/my-first-book-with-blurb-and-booksmart/#comment-1111 d.ogden Fri, 28 Dec 2007 20:21:33 +0000 http://www.jasperpotts.com/blog/2007/04/my-first-book-with-blurb-and-booksmart/#comment-1111 I have slurped a blogbook four times...163 pages and booksmart keeps crashing on me. Telling me it has encountered a technical glitch. I just cant figure this out. I have gotten one response from them, but it is the holidays. I turned off firewall, Norton, feedburners, downloaded firefox, uninstalled, reinstalled, deleted .settings from my documents.......it just wont open for me!! Windows XP and plenty of memory..... Anyone have any suggestions? This is a gift for a friend who has dreamed of publishing her book for twenty years. Well it "aint" happening yet! Help dogden@tds.net I have slurped a blogbook four times…163 pages and booksmart keeps crashing on me. Telling me it has encountered a technical glitch. I just cant figure this out. I have gotten one response from them, but it is the holidays. I turned off firewall, Norton, feedburners, downloaded firefox, uninstalled, reinstalled, deleted .settings from my documents…….it just wont open for me!! Windows XP and plenty of memory…..
Anyone have any suggestions? This is a gift for a friend who has dreamed of publishing her book for twenty years. Well it “aint” happening yet! Help dogden@tds.net

]]> By: Barry J http://www.jasperpotts.com/blog/2007/04/my-first-book-with-blurb-and-booksmart/#comment-900 Barry J Thu, 30 Aug 2007 22:56:59 +0000 http://www.jasperpotts.com/blog/2007/04/my-first-book-with-blurb-and-booksmart/#comment-900 Marcel, My 2 books which were 7x7 and 300 pages worked out to be $54.00. Like many others though I'm a little frustrated with their customer service as the two books were poorly bound. Trying to get a simple low res file to them has not been possible, with most emails bouncing back with some sort of error message. My background in design and photography is extensive and I've never had this conflict sending any image. Marcel, My 2 books which were 7×7 and 300 pages worked out to be $54.00.

Like many others though I’m a little frustrated with their customer service as the two books were poorly bound. Trying to get a simple low res file to them has not been possible, with most emails bouncing back with some sort of error message. My background in design and photography is extensive and I’ve never had this conflict sending any image.

]]> By: marcel http://www.jasperpotts.com/blog/2007/04/my-first-book-with-blurb-and-booksmart/#comment-897 marcel Wed, 29 Aug 2007 12:44:26 +0000 http://www.jasperpotts.com/blog/2007/04/my-first-book-with-blurb-and-booksmart/#comment-897 hi, does anyone have an idea how much the postage to london/uk will be? just roughly. 7x7 hardcover ~40pages. thanks a lot marcel hi,

does anyone have an idea how much the postage to london/uk will be?
just roughly. 7×7 hardcover ~40pages.

thanks a lot
marcel

]]> By: Don http://www.jasperpotts.com/blog/2007/04/my-first-book-with-blurb-and-booksmart/#comment-894 Don Mon, 20 Aug 2007 03:30:01 +0000 http://www.jasperpotts.com/blog/2007/04/my-first-book-with-blurb-and-booksmart/#comment-894 My first two books with BLURB last year were superb! The photos in the book came out "exactly" as I had hoped. Since then I've had some problems--more with binding and books falling apart than reproduction. I do have some friends who have had reproduction problems though. My gut feeling is that BLURB is suffering from too much success and expansion. They've probably had to outsource to a lot of vendors and quality control has suffered. However, since they are so secretive one never knows. I think they have a lot of "goodwill" out there and make a major mistake by not leveling with their customers. I ordered two books from them last week so I am not totally soured with them but I am going with ASUKA for anything that is going to a paying client even though it is almost four times more expensive. My professional reputation would be ruined if I gave a customer a book that fell apart. I just can't take a chance. I hope they (BLURB) survive their growing pains . . . whoops, I shouldn't suggest that as it is just speculation :-) Anyway - I think Blurb is trying to clean up its act and I will follow their progress. They offer a great product at a great price when they put it all together (fingers crossed). My first two books with BLURB last year were superb! The photos in the book came out “exactly” as I had hoped. Since then I’ve had some problems–more with binding and books falling apart than reproduction. I do have some friends who have had reproduction problems though. My gut feeling is that BLURB is suffering from too much success and expansion. They’ve probably had to outsource to a lot of vendors and quality control has suffered. However, since they are so secretive one never knows. I think they have a lot of “goodwill” out there and make a major mistake by not leveling with their customers. I ordered two books from them last week so I am not totally soured with them but I am going with ASUKA for anything that is going to a paying client even though it is almost four times more expensive. My professional reputation would be ruined if I gave a customer a book that fell apart. I just can’t take a chance. I hope they (BLURB) survive their growing pains . . . whoops, I shouldn’t suggest that as it is just speculation :-) Anyway - I think Blurb is trying to clean up its act and I will follow their progress. They offer a great product at a great price when they put it all together (fingers crossed).

]]> By: jasper http://www.jasperpotts.com/blog/2007/04/my-first-book-with-blurb-and-booksmart/#comment-876 jasper Mon, 30 Jul 2007 17:58:13 +0000 http://www.jasperpotts.com/blog/2007/04/my-first-book-with-blurb-and-booksmart/#comment-876 It seems such a shame that I keep getting bad feedback about blurb.com. I have spoken by email with a few people there and met one of the developers during JavaOne week. The seem like a nice bunch of people and I like the software and end product. Just a shame they don't seem their support up to scratch. It seems such a shame that I keep getting bad feedback about blurb.com. I have spoken by email with a few people there and met one of the developers during JavaOne week. The seem like a nice bunch of people and I like the software and end product. Just a shame they don’t seem their support up to scratch.

]]> By: m http://www.jasperpotts.com/blog/2007/04/my-first-book-with-blurb-and-booksmart/#comment-875 m Sun, 29 Jul 2007 05:31:39 +0000 http://www.jasperpotts.com/blog/2007/04/my-first-book-with-blurb-and-booksmart/#comment-875 me too -- i get "hiccup hiccup" -- it's not a very funny error message, is it? too bad it's a black box as far as getting support too. from what can tell on the forums, all the support tones are condescending and i wouldn't care to write in and have someone from blurb write back: "it's obvious" and still be without a product. and i was excited about blurb. sigh. me too — i get “hiccup hiccup” — it’s not a very funny error message, is it? too bad it’s a black box as far as getting support too. from what can tell on the forums, all the support tones are condescending and i wouldn’t care to write in and have someone from blurb write back: “it’s obvious” and still be without a product. and i was excited about blurb. sigh.

]]> By: Janie http://www.jasperpotts.com/blog/2007/04/my-first-book-with-blurb-and-booksmart/#comment-865 Janie Sun, 15 Jul 2007 23:41:14 +0000 http://www.jasperpotts.com/blog/2007/04/my-first-book-with-blurb-and-booksmart/#comment-865 I would like to voice my complaint against Booksmart. No phone number and no way to personally get in touch with some is pretty bad business. I had 4 books half way done but one night, after being gone for 2 days, my books had been deleted. I certainly would not delete my own books. I had put a lot of hard work into them. I decided to try it again and here is the message I get each time I dign on: " HICCUP.HICUP Booksmart encountered a technical glitch and needs to close now. Sorry about that. In most instances your book has been saved. Help us improve BHookSmart by reporting this error. PLEASE NOTE: This report does not go to customer service and you will not receive an email confirmation. If needed, click the Help botton below to access support at blurb.com." I have sent that form in, 4 times and get no where. Has anyone else had this problem? My next step to to report them to the Better Business Bureau, since I am a member. I would like to voice my complaint against Booksmart. No phone number and no way to personally get in touch with some is pretty bad business. I had 4 books half way done but one night, after being gone for 2 days, my books had been deleted. I certainly would not delete my own books. I had put a lot of hard work into them. I decided to try it again and here is the message I get each time I dign on:

” HICCUP.HICUP Booksmart encountered a technical glitch and needs to close now. Sorry about that. In most instances your book has been saved. Help us improve BHookSmart by reporting this error.
PLEASE NOTE: This report does not go to customer service and you will not receive an email confirmation. If needed, click the Help botton below to access support at blurb.com.”

I have sent that form in, 4 times and get no where. Has anyone else had this problem? My next step to to report them to the Better Business Bureau, since I am a member.

]]> By: Tom http://www.jasperpotts.com/blog/2007/04/my-first-book-with-blurb-and-booksmart/#comment-521 Tom Fri, 18 May 2007 14:01:11 +0000 http://www.jasperpotts.com/blog/2007/04/my-first-book-with-blurb-and-booksmart/#comment-521 Blurb and Customer Service, I ordered two books identical . One softcover, one hardcover. The books were delivered within two weeks start to finish and I was impressed with the speed of the process, however that was the only favourable impression I have had since. Once opening the package I discovered that the softcover book cover was ay least 20% darker than the hardcover with a color shift. After inspectind the book more carefull I discovered that the softcover book's binding were very poorly glued in the binding process. Both books were cut off center and have missing written type. Blurbs response so far has been less than stellar. They initially offered 10% off on my next order and a standard form letter apology. I again requested the books be replaced , a slow response came a week later asking for pictures of the books. At present almost a month after the initial quality complaint I have two poor quality books, one with pages falling out of one of them and no resolution in sight. Blurb offers no telephone number for customer service . What has the potential be a great service and product is falling short due to poor customer service and response. I hope they get their act together... Blurb and Customer Service,
I ordered two books identical . One softcover, one hardcover. The books were delivered within two weeks start to finish and I was impressed with the speed of the process, however that was the only favourable impression I have had since. Once opening the package I discovered that the softcover book cover was ay least 20% darker than the
hardcover with a color shift. After inspectind the book more carefull I discovered that the softcover book’s binding were very poorly glued in the binding process. Both books were cut off center and have missing written type.
Blurbs response so far has been less than stellar. They initially offered 10% off on my next order and a standard form letter apology. I again requested the books be replaced , a slow response came a week later asking for pictures of the books. At present almost a month after the initial quality complaint I have two poor quality books, one with pages falling out of one of them and no resolution in sight. Blurb offers no telephone number for customer service .
What has the potential be a great service and product is falling short due to poor customer service and response.
I hope they get their act together…

]]> By: Carl http://www.jasperpotts.com/blog/2007/04/my-first-book-with-blurb-and-booksmart/#comment-152 Carl Wed, 11 Apr 2007 20:12:52 +0000 http://www.jasperpotts.com/blog/2007/04/my-first-book-with-blurb-and-booksmart/#comment-152 Jasper, Photoshop is a hog. Yes, I hope the Blurb guys would reply. I am very interested in the findings. During the early days of Java there were books on performance tuning which help many of us. But there really isn't anything out there to show us (mere mortals) how to test and tune Swing apps well. I am very happy with Swing so far, there so many tricks. When there are many ways to do one thing and you don't know which is the best way, you can shoot yourself in the foot often. If findings are to be reported this should be on Get Java website's success stories. I'm sure you know most of the complaints about Swing. I just hope Sun continues making Swing the best desktop toolkit on the planet! Great job guys! -Carl Jasper,

Photoshop is a hog.
Yes, I hope the Blurb guys would reply. I am very interested in the findings. During the early days of Java there were books on performance tuning which help many of us. But there really isn’t anything out there to show us (mere mortals) how to test and tune Swing apps well. I am very happy with Swing so far, there so many tricks. When there are many ways to do one thing and you don’t know which is the best way, you can shoot yourself in the foot often.

If findings are to be reported this should be on Get Java website’s success stories.

I’m sure you know most of the complaints about Swing. I just hope Sun continues making Swing the best desktop toolkit on the planet!

Great job guys!

-Carl

]]> By: jasper http://www.jasperpotts.com/blog/2007/04/my-first-book-with-blurb-and-booksmart/#comment-148 jasper Wed, 11 Apr 2007 16:16:08 +0000 http://www.jasperpotts.com/blog/2007/04/my-first-book-with-blurb-and-booksmart/#comment-148 Carl, Some of the Blurb guys read my previous comments, so hopefully they will read these. My comment on 2Gb Ram is probably not fair as most of the time I was running Aperture and Photoshop to collect and edit the images going into the book, plus the usual email,browser and messaging client. As both Aperture and Photoshop are good memory hogs it is not that fair on BookSmart. Though it was frustrating as a developer as I know with a few hours looking at the code I could probably fix the memory problems. I have emailed Blurb offering to help them get it right, have to see if I hear back. BookSmart still did very well on memory considering I had 5Gb of images in the book, just a shame it got slower after a hour or two of running it. Jasper Carl,

Some of the Blurb guys read my previous comments, so hopefully they will read these. My comment on 2Gb Ram is probably not fair as most of the time I was running Aperture and Photoshop to collect and edit the images going into the book, plus the usual email,browser and messaging client. As both Aperture and Photoshop are good memory hogs it is not that fair on BookSmart.

Though it was frustrating as a developer as I know with a few hours looking at the code I could probably fix the memory problems. I have emailed Blurb offering to help them get it right, have to see if I hear back. BookSmart still did very well on memory considering I had 5Gb of images in the book, just a shame it got slower after a hour or two of running it.

Jasper

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