OK, so after much fuss it seems I *have* acquired a batch of my Blurb.com book to bring to GFM. More on that later...
I've also ordered myself a single copy of the hard cover version which Blurb offers, so I thought other potential Blurb users might be interested in my impressions. In short, it's even nicer than the paperback product. The dust jacket is gorgeous: Very, very nicely done. The hard cover and binding seem good. In all, it seems a major step up in quality, albeit at a major step up in price ;-) The hard cover book is an extra ten dollars more than the paperback. I don't think I'll be stockpiling any of *these* for future sales! But it's nice to have one of my own. Now, getting the books to bring to GFM is a story in itself. Since I'm going to be taking the motorcycle this year, packing space is at a premium. Fortunately, Scott Loveless offered to solve this problem by bringing the books down for me, so I ordered a few to be shipped to his house directly. UPS delivered the books to Scott's place on Wednesday. ...but Scott reported they were nowhere to be seen. Major bad news. He was home that day and had checked the porch, where the books supposedly were left, about 30 minutes after the alleged time of delivery. Nothing there. Many frantic emails to and from various parties ensued. I must say I was very disappointed in Blurb's response, which was basically, "Yeah, if they're really lost/stolen we'll reprint them in a couple of weeks" (long after GFM). I realize that it wasn't their fault at all (except for choosing UPS as their shipper), but I also know that if one of *my* customers had a problem like this, I'd be bending the rules to put their re-order at the head of the queue and get a replacement shipment out ASAP. (I know because I've *done* this kind of thing for my customers who've had problems come up.) Anyway, the problem solved itself: What had happened was that after UPS had dropped off the package at Scott's house, the U.S. Postal service guy had come and taken it away(!), thinking it was an outgoing shipment... Peace and tranquility was restored on Thursday when the Postal Service realized their error and returned the box with the books. This may be the first time in history that the U.S. Postal Service has delivered a package for UPS. Or, knowing the general competence level of both those organizations, maybe not... -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
