Thoughts on My Publisher photo books
(This is an unpaid review of My Publisher, by the way!)
 |
In the last six months or so, several My Publisher photo book daily deals have popped up, and I've snagged them almost every time.
 |
Before this, I'd never made a photo book except by scrapbooking, and now I've done five. So, I thought I'd let you all know what I think so far.
 |
The My Publisher software, which is free to download, is pretty easy to use, and it allows for quite a bit of customization. I've gotten a little better at using it as time has gone along, so my later books look better than my first.
There are lots of different templates and page layouts, so even if you haven't got a good sense of how to arrange photos on a page, you could definitely do this.
 |
You can get pretty fancy, but so far, I've been leaning toward a more minimalist look.
This is definitely faster than traditional scrapbooking, and the books take up a lot less space than scrapbooks, so that's a plus.
 |
I do feel like I have more creative control when I'm scrapbooking, but on the other hand, it's not like I was getting any scrapbooking done recently.
So, by choosing to do these books, I'm not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good.
Once you make your book, you'll get hit with a lot of upgrade options during the checkout process.
You can get regular pages, which curl like this:
 |
Or you can get lay-flat pages, which are awfully nice, I must admit.
 |
Another choice you'll make is between regular paper or super glossy paper. I've ordered one of my five with regular paper, and I regret it. The pictures are not nearly as sharp and clear on the regular paper, so I'd recommend springing for the glossy paper.
The lay-flat pages and glossy paper cost about $10 apiece, but when I was paying for my books, I found that if I kept on clicking "no", eventually a pop-up screen appeared, offering me lay-flat pages and glossy paper for a discount. I have no idea if that happens all the time, but if you get that pop-up, take it! It's a great deal, and those are two upgrades that are very worth it.
You've also got several cover choices. The linen cover, which I've done for four of my books, is available at no extra charge, and you can also choose a dust jacket cover, a leather cover (which is WAY expensive), or a photo cover. One of my daily deals included the photo cover at no extra change, and I really like it.
 |
I'm not sure I'd pay a ton extra for it, but for no extra fee, I was all in.
 |
The nice thing about the photo cover is that you can put the title on the spine, and that makes it easy to pull out the book you're looking for.
 |
This is faster than scrapbooking, but is it cheaper?
Well, if you get a daily deal, I'd definitely say yes. I paid around $10 or so for my books through the deal, and then I spent another $10 on upgrades, and I know I couldn't put together a 20-page scrapbook for that little.
And really, even if I paid full price for the photo book, it would probably still be cheaper than a scrapbook because there are lots of costs even with cheap scrapbooking (at the very least, you need an album, paper, and photos.)
I don't know that I'll officially give up scrapbooking, but My Publisher is definitely helping me to work through my backlog of unscrapbooked photos, and for that, I'm grateful.
_____________________
Joshua's 365 post: Cubi Item Rubik Scriptor (I had no idea what that meant either!)
Oh my word....these are gorgeous!
Have you ever used Shutterfly or Snapfish to make photo books? Would you recommend My Publisher over them? I want to put together albums and then save buying them for when great deals pop up, but I need to decide which service to use. (I've made a free 8x8 on Shutterfly and a free purse sized book on Walgreens.com before.) Do any other readers have opinions on the benefits of various publishers?
I haven't personally, but I've seen a book from either Shutterfly or Snapfish (not sure which), and the quality of the photos was not as good as what I've gotten from My Publisher.
It takes me enough time to put these together that I'm willing to pay a little more to get a really great print quality. Otherwise, I sort of feel like my effort was a bit wasted.
Thank you! That is what I wanted to know. I'm also willing to pay a little more for quality, so it looks like I'll be checking out My Publisher. 🙂
I have used Snapfish and Shutterfly (I liked Shutterfly better for ease of use, but both were really fine) but have not tried My Publisher. I have not made many, but find it so much better for me than scrapbooking. I know some people love scrapbooking but as a recovering perfectionist :), I found it so stressful. I am not very creative and found myself very critical of what I made. I also do not have a space where I can lay everything out except for the dining room table and it was such a pain to drag it all out, do a few pages and then have to put it all away again. I have seen some beautiful scrapbooks and admire those who make them but it just wasn't for me.
I do wonder what your plans are as far as splitting them up among your children some day. I only have two kids and due to some deals I have been able to B1G1 or B2G1 free on a few books so that someday they could both have one but not sure how to handle the splitting up of the photo books in the future.
I love photobooks but haven't tried this particular program. I make a photobook every Christmas with photos and memories (scanned ticket stubs, maps etc.) from the previous year. After 5 years - including our wedding and birth of our son - the books have become treasured keepsakes.
Now that our son is older I will be doing another photobook at the end of each school year to capture his artwork, projects and events.
Photobooks also make great gifts for grandparents too! I brought tears to my mom's eyes when I gave them a book written from our son's perspective about the trip they took with us to the Caribbean.
"So, by choosing to do these books, I'm not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good."
Kristen you may have just solved a lifelong problem for me! I'm an obsessive scrapbooker. Much better these days, but I went through a stage of having to keep every receipt if we were on holiday (and scrap booking them in obsessive chronological order). I'm still a little fanatical about 'capturing the moment' - hence I take lots of photos - too many really. This has caused me endless problems, and I am currently facing almost 9 years worth of parphenalia I have kept since first finding out I was to be a mother. Without being too dramatic I'm pretty sure I was bordering on hoarding! So back to this post. I am going to seriously look at photo books going forward - they look amazing and will last a lifetime.
p.s - there's a very tasty photo on my FWF post today! My friends know me so well and got me a rather appealing photo card!
Where are you finding the daily deals? Is it groupon?
I've gotten some from Groupon and from Living Social.
I have never wanted to scrapbook in my life, but I do love photo books! We use Snapfish, since that's the only one available here in Australia (I think), and wait until they have sales.
My mum made a book for my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary last year, and everyone in the family got a copy. Then I made a photo calendar for my grandpa for Christmas last year, using a lot of the same photos. It was a great present for someone who has everything they need, and not too expensive.
Thanks for the review! I've seen these photodeals offered but hadn't tried it yet. Good to know that it's a good option! Have you seen that Aldi is now in the photo printing/photobook business? Have you tried their products?
I haven't, but I'd like to try one, just to compare.
Beautiful books. What a great way to showcase your photography skills! Which size books have you gotten? Are they the "classic hardcover"?
Yep, mine are the classic hardcover...the 8.75" size.
Thank you for posting this. I am a big picture printer. I organize my albums annually and just pick my favorites. I cannot scrapbook by any means (too tedious!) but I do manage to get photos printed and in an album. I have been throwing around the idea of doing a book like this...but I'm kind of nervous about it. Photo albums are old school, but they work. I put pictures in them as I take them. All my albums are consistent. Will I be able to create uniform photo books for years on end? Will I actually get a photo book organized and printed at the end of the year...all at once? Ugh! Decisions. Decisions.
Dear Brianna,
it's been a long time since you asked, but someone else may come by, so I will share my experience. I am both a photo printer and a photo book maker. Lately I have gone mostly the photo book way, for the convenience. It is a lot easier to caption and add little touches by ways of a photo book than it is by hand. You can also order extra copies which is nice especially after a vacation with friends or a family reunion. However, the photo quality you get in a photo book is not up to the quality you get from printing a good photo. Or from projecting it on a screen. Using glossy paper doesn't fix the problem. So, you will be somewhat disappointed comparing good quality printed photos with photo books. On the other hand, I was way behind with printing and making albums when I started on photo books. I first tried the Apple iPhoto (now Photo) service. Then I switched to myPublisher for photo books (but I still use Apple for Calendars). myPublisher gives me better printing quality than Apple did. Also there are a lot more things you can do.
I hope this helps you enjoy your photos more and for longer.
I LOVE MyPublisher! I have been making books with them for years now and always make a book of our vacations and I did a nice one from our wedding with the shower pictures, the rehearsal pictures, wedding photos (professional and not) and then after wedding celebration pictures. It is really wonderful to have these books and it makes showing off photos much easier than sitting down at the computer - this way everyone just sees the best of the best that you decided to print out.
If you are signed up on their e-mailing list, they will send you coupon codes regularly - they always have some deal going on.
I've done two of these before, and I'd also recommend springing for the super-gloss paper. It does make a difference.
I have seen some photo books, but have never done it myself. So far I have used Stampin-Up My Digital Studio for scrapbooking, which I have really enjoyed. I either print the pages at home on a laser printer or at Costco, and slip them into sheet protectors. This way you keep the album look. Photo books will be something I will have to look into. My husband suggested it to me a couple times already, but so far I have stayed away from it because I like to keep things the same (and fair), so if I start I feel I have to do one for all my kids. Maybe I'll have to just do one, for eg. from when they were born.
I've used Snapfish to make photo books. From what I've seen, you get the exact same book from any of those photo book companies--I wonder if they all get printed at the same place. The deal I used was 3 photo books for the price of 1. Since I was planning to make one for my in-laws for Christmas that year, I made a nearly identical one for my parents and for us. Just switched a couple of photos and picked different cover colors based on what I knew they'd like. I paid extra for 2 day shipping because it was so close to Christmas, but it still cost just $14 per book.
Have you ever used Shutterfly? Just wondering how they compare. I've learned that uploading the photos takes really long so I don't want to switch publishers because it takes too long...
My Publisher's software is just drag and drop, so it's really fast in that regard.
I finally did this myself last year with two years worth of photos. I sitll have a pile of photos from the first 3 years of our marriage that I printed and got materials to scrapbook but never did.
I've used Blurb's tool Booksmart because I like the freedom to download the software and choose the photos from my computer rather than have to upload all the photos to a site like snapfish or shutterfly. Blurb tends to be more expensive than those though, even with their discounts. I'll have to look into My Publisher as an alternative.
Yep, that's how My Publisher is...just download the software and build the book right on your computer. It's definitely faster than having to upload photos.
Oh, I definitely gave up on the physical scrapbooks after I made my first digital scrapbook 5 years ago - no regrets! It's perfect for me - no glue, no stickers, nothing to store, change every page a million times before finalizing what I want 🙂
I wrote more about it here http://thegiraffelife.blogspot.com/2013/01/how-i-document-my-life.html - if you're interested.
I never knew about My Publisher - will check them out!
I've done books with Shutterfly, which were wonderful quality. I love photography and photo albums, but never got into scrapbooking. I don't have the time, I refuse to cut up my photos, and didn't want to invest in all of the fancy papers, cute punches, and other doo-dads needed to make the pages look nice. These books are great, since the images can be uploaded, thus saving the cost of traditional printing.
My recently-wed daughter, as well as several of her friends who have also married within the year, are using photobooks in place of the traditional Guest Books at their wedding. The books are filled with photos of friends and family who are attending the wedding. Guests sign in the white spaces on the page of their choice. The guests enjoy looking through the album, and can write their best wishes, memories, and other sentiments in addition to their signature. A great use of digital technology!
These photo books looks great! Probably my next online purchase, thank you for the tip!
If you belong to Costco, they have a discount program with My Publisher. You have to access My Publisher through the Costco website. I have really liked the end results! My summer to do list includes making a few of these.
Wow! What a great gift and keepsake! I think this would make an excellent gift for my parents upcoming anniversary. I do have a question for you though.
Do you need to use old-school print photos or just digital? If this site only usese digital, I would need to scan some photos in for this project. Honestly, that would be the best thing, since I would not want strangers handling old photographs!
Thank you for posting this! 🙂
Yep, it's all digital.
My problem is that I have hundreds of actual photographs from the 80s and 90s. I used to scrapbook but now have little motivation for it and I'm tired of storing all the supplies. I also like the sleeker look of the photo books; I think your books look awesome.
I've been looking for a solution for these old pictures. Has anyone tried scanning them or sending them to a company to turn them into digital files? If so, how was the quality? Do you still feel the need to keep all the actual photos? Any advice is appreciated.
I've scanned many, many old photos, not only for uploading to create a photobook, but just to preserve some of these old treasures.
If you scan the photos yourself, use at least 300 dpi. However , the higher the dpi, the better the resolution of the image.
Depending on how many photos you have, it might be worth purchasing a scanner. Like most electronic items over the years, the quality has gotten better while the price has gone down. Some scanners will even scan negatives and slides. Also with basic photo software, the images can be enhanced ( scratches fixed, colors corrected, etc) to look even better than the original photo. One plus of doing this yourself is you can control the quality of the images. You'd definitely have to weigh the costs of DYI vs. a company doing the work for you.
Jessica, I just noticed your comment, so you have probably taken care of scanning by now.
But for the benefit of others let me mention that Canon scanners often come with a free copy (or download) of Photoshop Elements. That photo editing software is all, and more than, you need. I use it.
The version of Elements is probably one back from the latest one, but that really does not make any noticeable difference,
We did our wedding album through My Publisher (with a special-for-Costco deal) and are very happy with it.
i've made two my publisher books. (love them). i make life books. i'm ready to make another one but i'm having problems...has it gotten more complicated in the last 3 years? i can't upload more pictures now that i've begun book 3 (and i want to add more choices). do i have to start over if i want to add pictures? it's already partially done. also, i'm trying to match my cover pages as each book is part of a "life book" journey. is there an easy way to see the settings used on previous projects? i can view my previous ones via my account but not the settings. just wondering if you can offer solutions.
You know, I'd contact My Publisher to see if they can offer your some assistance. I've only just started using their software in the last 8 months or so, so I'm not knowledgeable enough to help you!
This is a HORRIBLE COMPANY. I downloaded My Publisher and got my photos uploaded but every time I tried to rearrange or add details, it crashed and said "error." This happened 10-15 times overall. I tried deleting the program and downloading twice but nothing worked. Having spent money on two books already, I was pretty irritated it wasn't going to be ready in time for Christmas so I called a rep. I was ON HOLD FOR 30 MIN. The rep said she would request that someone call me back in the next two days. They never did. So I spent another 20 min on hold before the rep said the call order was never put in and she can have someone call me in 3 days. Ridiculous! I demanded to talk to a manager and was placed on hold for even longer. Obviously they don't give a crap about their customers, even to the slightest degree.
DO NOT TAKE THE CHANCE with this company. You have better things to do than wait around for a crappy rep to disappoint you further.
I'm sorry you had such a tough experience. I've had to call them twice, and both times my hold time has been really reasonable.
I had THE SAME PROBLEM with the crashing that prevented me from purchasing a book I spent many, many hours on. I removed and reinstalled the software multiple times. I called tech support but I found them very polite but they were not able to diagnose the problem. I gave up - but recently retried after 1 YEAR and found the solution! I started from scratch and re-loaded all the photos from the original problem book to a new book and it discovered 3 photos that were corrupted or not acceptable jpgs. I replaced those images and SUCCESSFULLY purchased a wonderful book!!! Don't give up - retry this trick with your book.
I have used MyPublisher for years and the books are of the highest quality. I have used others - they are fine, but not as good. I highly recommend MyPublisher to all my friends and family. MyPublisher will send you emails with 40-70% discounts - take them.
I bought a Groupon and made a book with MyPublisher of my daughter's wedding. I went with a deluxe book and paid extra for lay-flat pages. I spent over a $100 on this book as it was a very special occasion.
The book just arrived today and it has glue residue on the front and back cover, the box was dented and so is the spine of the book, and the middle pages were stuck together.
I chatted with customer service online, and they told me I have to email their returns department. I've sent off the email got an auto-reply to expect a response in 48 hours. I'll report back on how that turns out.
I've ordered from Shutterfly in the past - most recently a big book of our trip to Europe. I really loved it. I thought the print quality was better.
Oh man, that stinks! I hope they make it right for you.
Good news-- I'm happy to report that I heard back within about 14 hours and they are shipping out a replacement.
Thank you for writing this review! Your text and pictures were very useful to me in deciding if I should trust my photo book project to MyPublisher.
O.K., I just ordered my first book from mypublisher and let me share my comments.
Your review does not mention the shipping cost. Then least expensive shipping offered to me was $11.99 FedEx. I do not need the fast shipping, yet there was option to pay for a less expensive one.
When you import an image into a page the picture gets resized into the aspect ratio offered on that page layout. There is no way to specify, either individually or globally, that the aspect ration of the original image be kept.
You can recreate the original aspect ratio via the zoom feature, but it takles several measurements and calculations for each image, making for a very cumbersome manual process.
This is a serious fault in the program. You do not want the proportions in your picture distorted.
I sent an email on the above (and two more things) to mypublisher's customer service. I got a canned acknowledgement, which said they were going to share my comments with the "appropriate departments".
Totally agree on the shipping charge...$10.99 or whatever it is is awfully high. My first few Groupons had shipping included or offered at a discounted rate, but lately they've been offering no shipping deals!
As far as the aspect ratio goes, it's always seem to me like the photo gets cropped to fit the shape, not stretched or squashed.
Kristen, that was a quick response! Thanks.
Re squeezing vs. cropping.
You are probably right. I just noticed immediately that the pictures did not look right.
I am serious competitive photographer (by hobby) and a stickler for composition
Yep, sometimes when I drop them into a layout, I'm unhappy with how they look (like if someone's head gets chopped off!), so I go back into my editing software and recrop them to be the shape required by the particular layout. Or sometimes I experiment with different layouts to see if I can make the photo look better.
In my comment "takles" should be "takes".
O.K. the book came today. Turnaround was fast.
It is 15X11.5 deluxe, satin paper, hardcover.
Packaged very nicely.
Cover, paper, and binding qualities are fine.
Unfortunately almost all the pictures are printed too dark.
Some of them only slightly, but almost half of the 20 images are unacceptably so. Especially dark are the distant scenery shots.
Many are "flat", meaning the range between light and dark areas is compressed.
I hasten to add that:
1. I regularly calibrate my monitor and use an instrument to do so.
2. I edit all my pictures for full tonal range. While sometimes it is appropriate to edit a picture so it would be dark, none used in this book belong to that category.
3. While I print many of my pictures, I have had prints done at four different places (including several times at Adoramapix) and they all came out perfect.
Never one too dark.
I conclude from the above that it is mypublisher's fault that pictures in the book came out too dark.
Curious to see what the reply will be when I write to them about this.
As I mentioned before, I wrote to them about the ordering process on the 31st of July. I got a canned acknowledgement almost immediately. Today is the 5th of June, the workday is almost over and no other response.
I wrote to their returns department.
What I wrote to them was the comments I entered above and asked for a re-printing.
Feedback from mypublisher was quick and pleasantly surprising.
I got no arguments from them.
The reply said to send the unacceptable book back (shipping paid ny their FedEx account). They sent me a form I have to fill out and sen with the book.
The form asks for the reason for the return (one of the choices you can check is "too light/too dark).
It offers you three choices of action:
1. Reprint the book
2. Have a credit with them for the amount I paid for the book
3. Get a refund
I am going to take the reprint for two reasons. One, I am curious to find out if they can do better. Two, if the new printing turns out to be acceptable it is a good buy.
It is possible that your photos were not in the right color profile. They need to be RGB or sRGB. I've had this problem before and the colors were very dull, greyish, and darker.
ksenia, I just noticed your reply. Thanks.
My cameras are set for RGB.
I convert the color profiles to sRGB for commercial printing, since that is what they generally require, so that was not the problem.
Since multiple print orders from Adoramapix came out very good, yet the book from mypublisher had dark and grey pictures with limited tonal range, I have to assume that the problem is with their printing, not with my pictures.
So I asked for a reprint.
They declined, babbling about "normal color variations" and refunded my money.
Admission that they can't do better.
I'd try AdoramaPix for your next photo book. I feel like the prints in the book I ordered from them are darn near perfection.
MIXBOOK.COM They are way more affordable and they don't charge extra for the pictures on the cover. Every time I've gotten codes from my publisher, I've never been able to purchase a regular sized book for under 50. An 8X8 at Mixbook is $20 bucks and only 12.99 right now. Plus, their shipping isn't outrageous.
I have experience with both MyPublisher and Shutterfly. MyPublisher CRASHED after I had spent a huge amount of time creating book (worked for a couple months, a few hours a week)--I was literally just about to send it in to be printed. Called customer service and they couldn't do anything. It was GONE. That was summer 2013.
Last year (2014), finally decided to try to recreate project as best I could. Used Shutterfly. Not nearly as user friendly and lacked some features of MyPublisher (the ability to do text and pictures on book jacked flaps, for example). Book took significantly longer to finish than on MyPublisher, but at least the site doesn't CRASH. When I went on-line to see reviews, many mentioned crashing was big problem with MyPublisher.
In summary: Shutterfly is reliable, MyPublisher is not. However, MyPublisher is more user friendly. I am now starting another book project, and will go with Shutterfly, because I can't take the chance of MyPublisher crashing.
I had that problem with MyPublisher once and it was heartbreaking!! Ugh.
From then on, I clicked "save" religiously once I finished each page.
I am sitting here crying after the My Publisher software destroyed my entire photo book. DO NOT use My Publisher! I have spent hours and hours and hours (A LOT) of time creating a photo book of my daughter's 2nd year of pictures (13 months old through 2 years old). It had hundreds of photos, text boxes, decorative accents, etc. with everything arranged just so (again, hours and hours worth of work). I decided right before I was done to delete two pages out of the book. When I did that, I noticed that the formatting/layouts on the subsequent two pages was wrong, so I fixed those two pages. Unfortunately, the more I fixed, the bigger the problem got, with the end result looking like someone had just taken all the photos, text boxes and decorative accents in the book, thrown them up in the air and they had landed haphazardly back on the pages. Unfortunately, by the time I discovered the scope of the problem, it was too late to press "undo." The photo book is ruined! All my time and effort gone! I called My Publisher, and they blamed it on me having an "old" version of the software. I originally downloaded the software 6 months ago, so its not that old, plus its not like they send you emails when there's a new version available. You're just expected to check their site daily to make sure there's not a newer version to download. I am so sick about this. I will never use My Publisher again!!
So sorry to hear about your My Publisher problem. I know how many, many hours go into those books. Good luck with the next company you use. I have used Shutterfly for many years. It has always worked well for me (but I am not too creative...maybe there is a better one out there.)
Stick with Shutterfly simply because customer service here is horrific and while the books are nice they totally catch you on their "deals" by adding up to $20 or more in shipping plus tax plus add on fees for everything else. Also if you decide you don't want something on your order after you have added it you have to start over and it's impossible to figure out how to start over. There is no "remove" button and i spent forever trying to figure it out. If you call customer service plan to hold forever and if you complain about an agent by emailing "customer service" funny enough that same agent is the one that responds to your email which makes NO sense since you are complaining about that person to begin with. Forget hearing back in less than a week or from a supervisor for that matter, and the "Karen" woman who emails you claiming to be a director of customer service in her personal email address/signature (she is the one I replied to) doesn't even exist-it just went to a general customer service inbox. I paid almost $200 for my book and for that price customer service should be better. Stick with Shutterfly and save yourself the headache.
Hi, just wondering if you have any thoughts on the premium v standard paper? And is the super glossy add on too glossy/cheesy looking?
Thanks for all the helpful info.
That's sort of a personal opinion thing. A friend of mine hates the gloss, but I like the way it makes the colors brighter.
I'm sorry that's not super helpful! =P
I'm unsure about the premium vs. standard paper. I can't remember what I chose before. I don't even remember it being an option. I wonder if it's new?
Re Super glossy
I have no idea what they mean by "super" on the glossy.
Just have one personal preference: select glossy for a photo which is definitely sharp and has fine detail.
If, on the other hand, it is only borderline sharp (for the size to be printed), or has significant areas of deep color/black, it would look better matte.
Re Shutterfly
Please read the Terms of Use carefully.
"... you grant us and our designees a worldwide, non-exclusive, transferable, royalty-free, perpetual irrevocable right and license, with right of sublicense (through multiple tiers), to use, reproduce, distribute (through multiple tiers), create derivative works of and publicly display such User Submitted Materials solely in connection with the production or provision of any product or service you request or to show you how your User Submitted Materials would appear in our products or services"
The way I, and many of my photog associates, read it they can do with your pictures whatever they want.
If, for example, you order a photo book, they can use your pictures for ANYTHING with any service that has a connection to photo books.
In my photo club we strongly discourage members to use Shutterfly.
I have used Mypublisher before and been impressed by their quality of their books but when things go wrong it is bad news for the customer. After doing several previous books with them I decided make another book with my publisher, however this time it would not upload to the site, this lead me to five or 6 calls and a month with customer service before being able to upload the book to their website which then after 3 weeks the book was mailed to the wrong address to which Mypuvblisher refused to send a replacement copy of issue a refund stating their return policy below:
All items, materials or Services purchased through MyPublisher are made
pursuant to a shipment contract. This means that the risk of loss and
title for such items pass to you upon our delivery to our carrier.
This is absurd to spend hours creating a book spend $100+ dollars on it wait 3 months and then never receive it or be issued a refund
Save yourself the trouble and use another vendor. I really like the quality of the MyPublisher photo books and the fact that they have an off-line application for developing a photobook. What I do not like is their customer support.
I have been trying for about 6 weeks now to get a photo book printed. I get an error = 0 generated by the software but no one at MyPublsiher can explain what that means. I have spent hours on the phone with them and many many Emails. I sent in an Email with specifics about the problems I was having and recieved in response "Thank you for contacting the Customer Care Team. We're very sorry to hear you've had an unsatisfactory experience with us, and will forward your feedback to the appropriate departments. MyPublisher is constantly working on improving products, systems, and providing a pleasant customer experience. Again we're truly sorry you were unhappy with your experience with us and will review your experience to ensure we use it to improve.”
They have no means for a customer to change their Email address even if that Email address is no longer valid. It must be forwarded to “the management team” and “it takes 24 to 72 hours” and only becomes effective when one places a new order. Catch-22 if one can’t place an order due to technical problems!
Be smart. Use another vendor for your photo books if you want the photo book in a timely manner. Despite the fact that I will have to duplicate my work, I am in the process of creating my photobook with another vendor. As I said I am really disappointed because I love the quality of the MyPublisher books, but if I can’t get the books, quality is irrelavent.
With regard to George's comment from January 2015, I really would NOT convert from Adobe RGB with its EXPANDED range of colors to sRGB with its DEPRESSED use of colors made for use on websites. Commercial Offset printing requires CMYK but even professional photographers generally have no need, these days CMYK is only used for Commercial Offset Printing. If one's book is published professionally through a book publisher they would give the specifics for their printing requirements in CMYK, otherwise it is not normally used. Jpeg images can be saved in RGB and should be for non-professional printing at these self book publishing sites. JPEG images saved in sRGB will dull the colors created in RGB and print flat. Thanks for all the info here, it has been helpful.
I should also add that because Shutterfly only accepts sRGB Jpeg images I am disinclined to print there. Even Walgreens where I have not had anything printed has changed their format to RGB Jpeg and one can pick up book locally with no shipping and return if inferior. I am thinking about doing that and usingWalgreens as a template to see how my work prints then ordering one of their more expensive books or going elsewhere for a more expensive book after viewing the prototype. Walgreens are currently having a half price sale. Some one posted above that My Publisher takes RGB or sRGB. That is how I stumbled onto this site. I wanted to make sure they printed in RGB mode. If a customer uploads a jpeg to a printing site and they or you convert it because they normally print in a different mode (converting either to sRGB or RGB) then one's prints are going to be "off" due to conversion process to a differing color system.
First, I'd like to express my thanks for all the great comments on this site. I've learned some good points from all of you who have written. Very helpful. 🙂
Second, for those who don't know, in 2013, Shutterfly purchased MyPublisher, although it appears that they continue to maintain separate printing divisions.
My experience with MyPublisher: Although I've made several photo books, I consider myself a novice. My other books were all made via Shutterfly & I was happy with the results, but I had a discount for MyPublisher & thought I'd give them a try.
The software & making process was a bit different from Shutterfly so I had a learning curve to overcome; I also missed the multiple background choices, embellishments, font selections, & the dozens & dozens of photo arrangements available from Shutterfly.
I created my book & then poof, it disappeared! I religiously 'save' my projects so I wasn't worried until I wasn't able to access my book under 'my account' because I hadn't yet purchased it (what a Catch-22!). I contacted customer support & they were able to help me locate it (as it turns out, it was on my desktop all along).
When sending my book, tt took a very long time for the ~160 pics in my book to upload (almost exactly one hour). I went with the basic book, photo covers, regular paper (which I was pleased to find was heavy), & the layflat pages (first time I've chosen that option, & now that's all I'll get from now on, especially when having lots of pages ... VERY nice feature!!). I placed my order for two books, then was offered the option to purchase a third for $30 which I did. And as others have posted, shipping is definitely pricey. My total for the three books was $125 which included tax & shipping.
My books arrived 9 days later & although overall they were beautiful, there was a problem with the font & text ...font was very small & text was shifted to the left side of the page / not centered under the photos. This detracted from the otherwise high quality of the books. As these were gifts, I didn't want them to have this defect.
I contacted MyPublisher & learned that the text-shifting is a known problem that happens on occasion. Hearing that, I was hopeful that my books would be reprinted without any additional charge. (Spoiler alert: yes, MyPublisher reprinted my order at no charge!!) After three phone calls & the problem persisting, my case was referred for 'tech assist' & from that point forward, all contact was with "Brian L". He was very responsive to my emails & very helpful in resolving the problem.
I was directed to resend my .dime file; Brian reviewed it, then I had to review it on the website & approve it before the books could be reprinted. Eight days later, I received my three beautiful, perfect books.
Pros & cons: I found it a bit more difficult to use the My Publisher software, missed not having more variety for photo layouts & fewer options for backgrounds, embellishments & font choices, had problems with uploading/exporting the completed book, & had the problem with the shifted text, necessitating multiple contacts with customer service. I will say that absolutely everyone with whom I had contact in customer service was very friendly, kind & knowledgeable, Brian especially. My problem was resolved, but it was 5 weeks from when I placed my initial order until I received the final, corrected version of my photo books. The books are very nice quality, I was happy with the covers, the 'regular' paper quality is very good, I love the lay-flat pages, & the colors & print quality was good.
Bottom line: I will probably use Shutterfly for future photo book purchases as I feel more comfortable using their software & like the larger selections & options they offer. In my estimation Shutterfly & MyPublisher both offer comparable, high quality photo books. Although I had a problem with my initial order, the staff at MyPublisher were all friendly & helpful & resolved the problem to my satisfaction. I appreciate their customer service.
I have been working on my wedding album for the past 3 years but when I was about to place the order on Feb 10, 2016 their system crashed. I called on Feb 11, 2016 and was advised tech ticket was created, and that technical support will call me. I followed up with 3 more phone calls ( and emails) as nobody was calling me to fix faulty software, and finally my call on Feb 25, 2016 we started working on fixing their crash. After being on the phone for 2 hours and 38 minutes of troubleshooting, I was advised the latest version of my album can not be found (half the album was lost!!), and that I will need to recreate it again. I was advised by Tina that I will be given a compensation of 300$.
Of course I will not be using MyPublisher’s services in the future, however I needed to be smart about my time, so I decided to re-create my album and use that 300$ towards it.
I stayed up at night and re-created my album, however I did not find any 300$ credit on my account when I was ordering. Today, after spending another 27 minutes on the phone, I was advised there are no notes about 300$ compensation, but they can offer me a DISCOUNT.
I had a HORRIBLE experience with MyPublisher, they have faulty software that crashes and their customer services does not follow through with what they promise to do.
Deeply disappointed.
Just completed an order for a My Publisher book. After reading everyone's comments, I hope it will turn out just as I submitted it with no problems. Over 200 photos of a dream trip to New Zealand, so it's a very special book and I'll be bummed if there are issues.
I'm here because I was researching to see if anyone else thought the software was frustrating to use (seems like some folks did). I didn't like that I could only mirror layouts, not turn them upside down, and the layout options were fairly limited. It was annoying that I couldn't create a photo box and then duplicate that box on a page so I could make sure I had the same sized photos. (On several pages I had to make my own layouts because the options didn't fit the photos I had/style I wanted.) A couple of times when I checked back through the book photos had just disappeared and I had to load them back in.
I've used Shutterfly before and it was a heckuva lot easier to use, with more options. But I think in the future I will lay out my albums in Photoshop using digital scrapbooking templates and then simply load each one as a full-page photo on any photo book site I use. The limitations these sites have are just too frustrating.
I just might be jumping on the mypublisher bandwagon. A few questions for you though:
Is the paper of archival quality?
How about the ink?
I understand that mypublisher is under the umbrella of shutterfly, and if I am not mistaken, you mentioned that you checked out someone's snapfish/shutterfly book and you were not impressed.
I am in Canada, and I don't know if I will get such good deals here or not, so, if you could answer my questions, that would be really appreciated. Thank you!
I think the MyPublisher books are better than Shutterfly, even though I know they're the same parent company!
MyPublisher's paper and ink are good, but if you really, really want great photos and paper, I'd go with AdoramaPix photo books. The photo quality there is EXCELLENT. They're a little more expensive than MyPublisher, though, so it all depends how important print quality is to you.
I don't recommend My Publisher to my worst enemies! I wish I could give 0 stars for My Publisher, actually negative stars.
I have been a customer with My Publisher from the very beginning. I have done several books and it was always excellent service, full support and great products.
Now If you are looking for an unreliable company, talk with employees who make promises they are not willing to keep and are not willing to help you or go the extra mile for the customer satisfaction My Publisher is the right company.
I had to escalate my problem to the supervisor after wasting my time talking with an employee named Yvonne who is supposed to be very knowledgeable and experienced.
She made promises she couldn't keep and after talking to another supervisor named Margaret she also was not willing to help. She asked her supervisor named Danilo who is supposed to be her boss and he said that they don’t make exception. All I needed was a Saturday delivery, I was promised Saturday delivery by Yvonne.
I called UPS and gave them my tracking number and was willing to pay the extra charge. UPS couldn’t make the change, the request had to come from the sender.
I offered to pay extra when talking to Margaret and again she said no. We don’t make exceptions. We don’t call UPS. She probably thinks that she is too important to talk with a delivery company.
All it would take was a quick phone call to UPS to make sure that the book would be delivered on the scheduled that it was promised, Saturday. The book was meant to be given on a very special occasion to a very special client and now not only it won’t be delivered on schedule but it will be delivered on Monday, when it would be too late.
Nobody will even be at that location. I trusted My Publisher, I trusted Yvonne when I shouldn’t.
I just wished I had not used My Publisher for my order, they were unreliable, unfriendly and operates on a computerized manner.
A customer service who is not willing to think outside the box in order to help a customer has definitely chosen a wrong job.
Murilo doesn’t understand the meaning of customer service. Actually the mistake comes from his boss who is not keeping an eye on him to make sure that he is trying to help a customer. To do his job.
When I started making books, My publisher was the only company in the market, the only good one.
No wonder so many new competitors are out on the market now; with time they were not able to keep up their place on business.
They don't deserve to be number 1 anymore and I only used them again due to good memories from old times when I was treated with respect and attention.
My husband was against me using My Publisher but I insisted. I remembered when I was not just one more client.
I am so disappointed and I so wished I had listened to my husband and had not trusted them for such a special occasion. My mistake, i should not have been loyal to them and now I learned my lesson.
A very, very unsatisfied and frustrated customer
Leila
ORDER#M8479507"