Pricing Showdown for Self-Publishing Photobooks.
Photobooks are all the rage, with a wide variety of offerings to convert your digital snaps into a professionally printed and hardcover bound photo album. Since many of the books are similar in size and printing method, lets see how they compare on price. And yes, there is a clear winner. Read on.
UPDATE: Jeff Harmon of iMemoryBook corrects the pricing of longer books. He says in the comments below:
$1 per color page, $.15 per black and white page, and $12 per binding are just starting prices. When you print large, or multiple books, your price drops. You can find a book pricing calculator in the “publish” section of each book.
. Thanks Jeff!
Well, it’s that time of year. Every year, I create a printed photo album of my family photos for the year. I keep one for myself and send some copies out to grandparents who live out of state. Previously I have used Kodak Photo Gallery, Lulu and Blurb to create Photo Books. With new competitors out there, I thought I would do a pricing comparison of how the publishers stack up, price-wise.
As a reference, this year my photo album is 190, full color pages. (It’s been a busy and eventful year!) Containing roughly 1000 full color photos of varying sizes. This album is a distillation of over 6000 photos I took personally, plus the best digital photos taken by all my close relatives.
Here are the players I’ll be comparing.
- Kodak Photo Gallery
- Shutterfly
- Snapfish
- Photoworks
- Lulu
- CafePress
- Blurb
- iMemoryBook
- myPublisher
Kodak Photo Gallery
Pricing: $29.99 for 20 pages, $0.99 for each page after 20.
Books have a limit of 80 pages.
For my book Kodak Photo Gallery has a theoretical price of $198.29, but an actual price of $89.39, due to printing limitations.
Shutterfly
Pricing: $29.99 for 20 pages, $1.00 for each page after 20
Books have a limit of 100 pages.
For my book, Shutterfly has a theoretical price of $219.99, but an actual price of $89.99, due to printing limitations.
Snapfish
Pricing: $19.99 for 20 pages, $1.99 for each additional 2 pages after 20.
Books have a limit of 150 Pages.
For my book, Snapfish has a theoretical price of $189.14 (based on this equation: 19.99 + ((170/2)*1.99) ) but an actual price of $149.34 due to printing limitations.
Photoworks
Pricing: $29.95 for 20 pages, $0.99 each additional page
Books have a limit of 50 pages.
For my book, Photoworks has a theoretical price of $198.25 , but an actual price of $59.65 due to printing limitations.
LuLu
Lulu has two choices, a photobook, which appears to only be available in Softcover, but uses a similar photo organizer interface, or a Casewrap hardcover book where you must do all the layout and upload a finished PDF to Lulu.
Pricing for Photo Book: $4.53 to bind, $0.15 for each color page.
Books have a limit of 500 pages. Limited to Softcover.
For my book, a Lulu Photobook would be $33.03
Pricing for Casewrap hardcover: $17.00 to bind, $0.15 for each color page
Books have a limit of 500 pages.
For my book a Lulu Hardcover would be $45.51
Cafepress
Cafe press is a different beast altogether as they only print in back and white, and at this size the binding must be “wire-o” (similar to a spiral bound notebook) This is probably not going to meet your photo album needs. You must create your own PDF of the book. No layout assistance is provided.
$5.00 for binding and $0.045 per page
For my book, Cafepress has a price of just $13.55.
Blurb
Pricing: Varies by length of book in 40 page or so increments. Price point for books 161 to 200 pages is $47.95
Blurb hardcovers include a full color dust jacket. Blurb uses downloaded and installed software for PC and Mac called “Booksmart” to create the book.
Books are limited to 440 pages.
For my book Blurb has a price of $47.95.
iMemoryBook
Pricing: $12 for hardcover binding, $1.00 each color page. ($.0.15 for black and white)
Books have a limit of 460 pages.
For my book, iMemoryBook has a price of $202.00 UPDATE: $109.00
myPublisher
Pricing: $29.80 for 20 pages, $0.99 for each additional page.
Books have a limit of 100 pages (sides) or 50 sheets of paper.
For my book, myPublisher has a theoretical price of $198.10 but an actual price of $59.50 due to printing limitations.
Summary
So, it’s clear that most of the photo management sites are not prepared to create a photo album of the length I have created. Only Blurb, Lulu and iMemoryBook can actually print a book of this length. So unless I want to compromise on length that rules all of the photo printing services out. iMemoryBook and Blurb both create hardcover photo books using templates, while Lulu’s hardcover is a make-your-own-PDF affair.
These three are the finalists — the ones that could actually print my book
- Lulu: $45.51 — but I have to do the layout, export to PDF and upload. Sorry. No deal. This PDF would be prohibitively large, and I am not going to shell out big money to get Adobe Acrobat to create optimized PDFs., Alternatively, I can print it in softcoverand use their software. Either way, these limitations rule Lulu out for me
- iMemoryBook: $202.00
- Blurb: $47.51
The clear winner: Blurb.
I’ve used Blurb before and can recommend them. If you need to have a photo book to print. Do yourself a favor and give Blurb a try. The software is easy to use, and since it is locally installed, way faster to create and edit than a web based interface. This will be my third book printed with Blurb, and so far I have been very pleased with their books.
[tags]Mike DelGaudio, Kodak Photo Gallery, Shutterfly, Snapfish, Photoworks, Lulu, CafePress, Blurb, iMemoryBook, myPublisher[/tags]
Thanks so much for this very useful review of a service I’d just assumed was too expensive, having looked only at places like Snapfish. Blurb, which I learned about from eoin purcell’s great blog, sounds like they’re doing things right. Thanks again for this very comprehensive post.
@bloglily: My pleasure. I’m glad you found it useful. Once the book arrives, I’ll give a it a good once over on the blog so you can see just what you get.
Great and informative post Mike! I would like to comment on two things:
First: I noticed that you priced your 190 page iMemoryBook at $202. Because your book has 190 pages your price would actually drop to $109.
Let me explain:
$1 per color page, $.15 per black and white page, and $12 per binding are just starting prices. When you print large, or multiple books, your price drops. You can find a book pricing calculator in the “publish” section of each book.
It is our fault that you got that wrong. We need to make the book pricing calculator available with the rest of our pricing.
Second: I understand that your post was for comparing prices but I wanted to mention that I agree with you that web based interfaces are a little slower than great locally installed apps like blurb. But as soon as you go off line, you loose the “collaboration effect” of the internet.
For example: my younger sister is getting married in March. Using iMemoryBook we have family members from all over the country writing memories and adding photos about her and her fiance. Everyone can view and participate in the book online.
Thanks a bunch for mentioning us. Hope to win you over next time.
Jeff Harmon
Team iMemoryBook
Jeff, Thanks for correcting that pricing, nearly $100 is a big difference and makes iMemoryBook a more attractive choice. Also, good point about the collaborative nature of the web-based editor for iMemoryBook. That didn’t come into play for me with this book so it wasn’t high on my radar. It is definitely something to keep in mind for future efforts. Thanks for coming by!
Great resource, thanks for the insights into the many options. Of these I have tried Lulu, Cafepress and Blurb and so far Blurb has the most potential and best print quality.
The only drawback with Blurb for me right now is that they do not offer a reseller program (i.e. royalties on sales) if you are not a US resident. I am in Canada so until they get this in place, which Blurb Support says will take about another year, they are pretty much useless for me aside from ordering a few color proofs. I cannot imagine it is that hard to set up as both Lulu and Cafepress do this.
I note on their website that Blurb has created their “Set your own price” reseller program for books.
Wow, really helpful to have this all in one place. Were Lulu and CafePress the only ones that allowed you to upload PDFs (i.e., all others were restricted to templates)? I’d also be interested in a comparison of print quality, but I guess that would be hard without ordering from each ;)
Hi Tuffer,
You might also want to check out my Comparison between LuLu and Blurb.
I also previously posted reviews of print quality for
Blurb
and
Lulu
I have not done a quality review of CafePress because I have not ordered a book from them in several years. their quality may be different now. (It wasn’t very good *at all* for photo books back then.)
I ordered a photobook from the new lulu (better quality photo printing but more limited and much more expensive). The quality was disappointing to say the least with visible print texture. Having printed most of the images through photo printers to 8X10 I can see how much quality suffers on the same images when using a photo book. I recommend against lulu and am searching now for better quality. Here is hoping blurb can do better!
Hi-
I noticed that you missed another good contender: Viovio (http://www.viovio.com). Their bookmaker has a bit of a learning curve, but you can upload pdfs or individual jpgs of pages you’ve laid out in your own software. I’ve been very happy with the quality I’ve gotten, but they don’t offer a landscape softcover larger than 9 x 7, which is what has sent me searching for an alternative. I’ve ordered books from Shutterfly and Apple and would say their quality was as good for much less cost.
Hi Mike,
I’ve just come accross the blurb site and I’m finding your review info very helpful. I was just wondering if you have heard from anyone who has used blurb to create an art book/portfolio? I have been thinking of making a book to showcase my artwork for a while now, and didn’t realise it could be so easy! I’d love to hear from someone who has used it for this purpose. Do you think they’re at a sellable quality? I was thinking of having the books available at my solo exhibition next year – would be good for people who would rather a collection of the artwork rather than having to pay for the originals. I will have to get them shipped overseas though so hopefully the shipping fees won’t be too high!
Any info you could give me would be great!
Thanks,
Lexy.
Hi Lexy. I don’t know anyone using it as a portfolio, personally. I do think the books are of a sellable quality — in fact, Blurb has a bookstore where you can sell your books right form their site. Might be worth the 30 bucks or so to create one to see how you like it.
Great overview. I’ve been working on an interface for years. It’s called PROJECTalphabet.com and offers a way to make your own 2008 Calendar, counting book or…. alphabet book. This is the only place a customizable alphabet is available. All free. You download a PDF and print it wherever you want.
Thanks for this and the follow up! I’m about to print with Blurb (within and next month) and I’m looking forward to it. I’ve pretty much ruled out Lulu (who I started my book with) but might get a test book, but I’ve heard a ton of complaints. Thanks again!
THANK YOU SO MUCH!
It has taken me forever to dig up this info, and I love the way you broke it down. I always wondered how people could fit a years worth of memories into 20 pages.
I am going to go with Lulu, because, for me, as someone who used iPhoto to design the pages and then exported to pdf, (and as someone who owns acrobat) I prefer to have more creative control of my pages.
I am also a designer and this means that for future projects I could design my own scrapbook looking backgrounds and patterns for the pages. So for me, a printer that will print large books at affordable prices AND allows you to simply upload PDFs to them is ideal.
I can’t thank you enough for putting this page together.
Dear Mike,
I really enjoyed your article. Thank you.
I came sooo close to purchasing a book from blurb, but was put off by the fine print about rights.
The verbiage seemed to state that they’d have universal rights (royalty-free) to use anything I submit to their service. It would appear you’ve had no issues with this and so I wonder if I’ve mis-read their terms. (?)
They seemed the best alternative for me also despite that factor, as I’ve done extensive research on self-publishing.
I’d be really happy if I was wrong, so that I could give Blurb a try :-)
@MizPhoto: Clearly, I am not a lawyer, however my understanding is that they are the copyright holders on the the actual layout of the book, but all the content that you place in that layout is your copyright. It is my understanding that they cannot /will not sell your content without your explicit permission (such as adding your book to the bookstore) They don’t own what you have written and the photos you have placed in the book, and therefore have no rights to sell them.
@Luke: Let us know how the Lulu book turns out. I’m interested in your impression of the quality. It’s been a few years since I have ordered from them.
The main company I use is Creative Memories for my photobooks since the quality is superb and the pages are sewn, not glued to the spine. The Storybook Creator software is easy and scrapbook papers and elements are beautiful. I haven’t seen that in any other company. Most of the companies are within a few dollars of CM, except for Blurb and Viovio (still waiting for the Viovio album to arrive.)
I just made a book with Blurb. I wanted to try a small softcover project to test their quality before I put tons of hours into something. I must say I was soooooooo disappointed! I chose to not make my pages in Photoshop, but do them directly in their program to see the “virgin” quality. My images are from a 10MP DSLR with each photo being about 2-3 MB each, so the input quality was fine. Their output was dark, grainy, oversaturated photos. I was floored. I’ve heard such glowing reviews that I couldn’t believe it. I contacted Blurb and they offered to remake the book for me, indicating that they can only keep prices so low by not recalibrating the printer after each book. They figured mine was one of the 3% of books that were toward the end of the run. So, they sent me another book and it was the same. What a disappointment.
I have a full Excel spreadsheet comparing companies if anyone wants.
I’ve made 3 gift books from MyPublisher (I got 2 for free–good promo!) where I inserted my Creative Memories Storybook Creator layouts into full bleed pages and they came out beautifully. Since they are in my state, I received them 2 days after placing the order. That was nice!
So, now I guess I wait to see how the VioVio book comes out for a less expensive alternative for gifts and such. Has anyone on this thread received any books yet from them?
i have to agree with denise. I just got my first blurb book back, 192 pages of photos i took in Burma. The quality is supremely disappointing, especially based on the reviews I had read. i will definitely contact them to see if they can reprint it for me, but besides the texture being really rough (you can clearly make out the pattern of the different colored dots), the pictures totally lack saturation and tone. i was shocked, it has been bumming me out for two days now!
i am willing to pay up for whatever the absolute top quality service is, so if anyone has any recommendations, please let me know.
i will check out creative memories to start, let’s see if that’s any better.
@sean and denise:
I’ve read that Blurb’s small albums (7″x7″) are done on a different printer than the larger ones, and that the quality is not very high. That may be why yours turned out worse than you were expecting. I believe that the 8″x10″ and up are printed on a high-quality, high-end HP.
What about Picaboo? I liked your price comparison, though I am interested in making a smaller book. There are cheaper PDF options, but I would not trust them for such a project. How does the book creation process compare with doing it online and the various supplied software.
Thanks for the informative price comparison of photo book publishers. I am doing some research for my blog for educators and will definitely point them here for further reading.
Lisa Nielsen
Read my blog on educating innovatively at
http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com
Blurb used to print their smaller 7×7 books on a cheaper printer that offered much, much lower quality in order to keep the price down (about $12.00 for a 20 page softcover). They got a lot of complaints, so have recently (within the last week) announced that they will now print all their books on the very high quality HP indigo printers that they do their high-end coffee table books on. They also now have a premium paper option for $4.00. Really can’t recommend them highly enough.
I have done two books with blurb, both 13×11 and using the B3 workflow that allows you to use a print profile, the colours and quality have been first class.
On the second book I found a small white spot on one of the black pages, and a small crease on the dust jacket, reported it and received a free replacement book within 10 days.
The last one I am waiting for has 57 pages on premium paper with dust jacket at 13×11, and delivered for £47.
I just received my first Blurb book (March, 2009). And I agree with Denise “Their output was dark, grainy, oversaturated photos.” Unlike my originals the output was harsh, no warm tones and shadows were black and held no details. I’m giving CM a try. I have notified Blurb, they asked that I take photographs of the pages I am not happy with and send them a jpg. That would be 136 images.
Really appreciate the summary – thanks! Do you (or anyone else in this discussion) happen to know who Apple uses to print their books? I did a 100-page photo book with about that many color and B&W images late last year that turned out superbly as far as general build quality and color accuracy. Albeit, the price was $120! This was created via the built-in templates in iPhoto.
thanks so much for all the info, and the great comment section too. i have just started researching different publishers for both photo and kids books, (also cookbooks – so many ideas!) and this has been very helpful!
Thanks for all the great info. We just ordered 5 copies of our very first book. I have to say – it was stunning! We paid the extra for premium paper and the quality is excellent. We also chose the imagewrap hard cover and it makes for a handsome looking book that when we showed others they were shocked at the excellent quality. One caution for anyone deciding to use the imagewrap hardcover – make sure you read blurbs info about the layout because you need anything you don’t want to lose well away from the edges. Another recommendation for anyone choosing to do their first book – take the time to read through the blurb tutorials, faq’s and forums – time invested there will help assure a better outcome. Another caution for individuals who are doing their first book – remember your monitor images will appear brighter than on paper. I emailed one question to blurb when I was working and received a reply within a day. Delivery time was within the range they specified as well. We were pleased with the software, the information provided and the finished book.