So, last week I started sharing my Blurb-experiences with you. Meanwhile I finished collecting the pictures and text for my book and Blurb-day – the day I had been waiting for – arrived: I could finally upload my own book to the Blurb-website.

And then, it happened: an error!  Booksmart encountered a technical glitch and needs to close down!! My enthousiastic feeling changed in frustration. However, I wouldn’t give in: so I kept on trying but after approximately 25 times, I changed tactics and send a mail to the customer support.

I have to say it: I love their customer support! Thanks to Megan and Jeremy, I was able to order my book. Each time, I received an answer within the day! When I couldn’t upload the book making use of the Booksmart-software, they offered another option: uploading it throug YouSendIt. Yesterday evening, I received a mail from Jeremy with some very good news:

Hi Katrien,

Good news: we were able to repair the error! Please note that to do so, we had to remove the 3 lines of “byline” text on the spine (BookSmart can encounter trouble when there is more than one line of spine text).

Your book has been uploaded to your Blurb.com account and is now ready to be ordered (or will be ready in 10 minutes).

I can only say that I had a very good experience with Blurb, thanks to the great work of customer support! Thanks Megan and Jeremy!

I have something – almost obsessive – with books. When I was little, I weekly paid the library a  visit and came home with ten books (the absolute maximum), crawled under the big dinning table and started reading. And after bedtime, I secretly continued reading with a flash light hidden underneath the covers. Working for a publisher and getting paid to read books, was for a long time the job of my dreams. And still , I can’t pass a book store without going inside and buying a book. Contrary to my youth, I no longer go to the library. Instead I buy every book that I want to read. Why? I’m not sure … probably because it’s a very personal good: you laugh with it, cry with it, fall a sleep with it …. And the idea that “your” book has been in the hands of thousands of library visitors …!

So enough about my book-thoughts.

A few weeks ago I discovered Blurb, an online publisher of books. And since my mother’s birthday is coming up, the idea of making here an own personalised book was born! So, I decided that would be a very nice present (I will like it probably more than she does)!I started immediately by downloading the software … and I must say: it’s very easy. You first have to decide the size of your book and if you want one in colour or in black or white. After that you have the choice of using some starting points (lay out examples)  or starting from scratch!

I decided to use a starting point, namely the photo book. After that it is just dragging the pictures to the right place and inserting some text. And even with those easy actions, you receive help. For example when the resolution of your picture isn’t high enough, the programme tells you this!

From my point of view, the most difficult and time-consuming activity was collecting the right pictures! A process that still takes place.

To be continued…..

A new year is around the corner … the perfect time for overviews and lists the summarize the past year. Also search engine Google just published the yearly Zeitgeist- report. With this Google want to reveal a certain zeitgeist (the spirit of the times) by analysing the millions of search queries people daily insert.

Most populair search queries were: ‘Sarah Palin’, ‘Beijing 2008′ and social media sites like Facebook, Tuenti and Wer kennt wen.

Mass customisation … the buzz word … everybody knows what it means and can instantly name 10 to 20 examples of companies that provide their products with mass customisation options.

But how does the production of those mass customized products work …. how do the underlying technologies funtions? On the blog of Joseph Flaherty - founder of Replicator, Inc, a company that manufactures and sells custom consumer products – all technologies that enable personal fabrication are explained.

Everything you always wanted to know about 3D printing, Laser Cutters, Waterjet Cutters, 2D Plotter Cutters, Print on Demand, Direct To Garment Printing, CNC Milling, CNC Embroidery, Cut & Sew Construction, 3D Scanning is explained with small video contributions in his post: ‘Personal fabrication for dummies’.