BINDING ISSUES
hI,
i was told by customer serivice (incident report 070629-000034) you were working with the printer to resolve printing issues… but i havent gotten a new status report yet. does anyone have any information?
Back Story – my 220 page 13×11 book had pages falling out after the 3rd perousal.
Thanks!
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Having similar issues with my 260 page 13×11 book – although pages haven’t fallen out yet, the binding is starting to look like it won’t hold. Interested in the response.
(I absolutely love my book, and so does everyone else – want it to last a long time!)
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Hi folks, we have had some issues with higher page count large format books over the past few months so we are working on some new procedures to improve the process. We have definitely not forgotten you and hope to have our new process in place by next Monday when your book will be resubmitted.
One thing to keep in mind with an on-demand process…books cannot be created with signatures, as they are in the traditional book business, which allows for Smyth Sewing. So we use a combination of binding methods depending upon the page count. While we do our best to make those bindings as robust as possible they can fail if they are continually opened flat, adding stress to the single-sheet binding.
Best,
—bw
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I was checking with booksmartstudio.com and they do stitching for this type of book, but with hardcover versions and somewhat more cost. Joe
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I too am having the pages fall out of my 254 page, 7 1/2×10” softcover book This is very disappointing because I want these books to last for more than a few viewings.
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My 100 page book (50 pages front and back, which is fairly thin for a 11×13 book), and it fell apart after the first few viewings. I am very disappointed. The printing quality is great, but I cannt sell these with this defect. I created the book to be given away as gifts and I need to order more copies, but am afraid to spent the money unless i have some reassurenaces that this issue has been resolved. I’d like to returnthe first copy i ordered and which fell apart almost immediately, and would like a replacement. Is this possible. I will order more once I knwo the binding is more robust. Andrew
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I have a 118 page book that we plan on selling for a local charity. I ordered one hardcover to check out a couple of weeks ago, got it last week and all the pages fell out immeadiatly. Then I ordered another book shortly afterwards and that made it through 2 times of looking at it and then it too had the pages fall out.
I am really depressed and hope that the situation can be rectified. In the meantime I am just going to let everyone know that my book will not be available in a hardcover version.
Otherwise I was happy with the quality, printing, color etc. but I can’t sell a large quantity of these books if the binding is not right. I worked to hard to make it the best book that I could. I hope that you all will find out what company this is and tell them the keywords are GLUE and STITCHING. :)
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Hi, I also have had binding issues. Please fill out the support form found in the help section. Be prepared to email photographs of the problem to the support team. They MAY ask to see what you are talking about, remember a picture is woth 1000 words. They WILL contact you and help you with your issue. Be patient, be kind and become a part of the solution. Any one with binding issues can help here with a little communication and patience. I believe that when Blurb solves this problem with whatever vendor is shipping substandard work, we as consumers will have a superior product. Blurb, I believe wants to solve this problem as badly as we as resellers want them to. SO lets hold on and work through this with them. I intend to be a part of the solution, not part of the problem. I can do this best with positive communication and patience. Regards to all! Pat
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I have had a similar issue with my 260 page 13×11. Blurb has had my book printed 3 times but each attempt has resulted in the pages falling out. They are working hard to resolve this. I agree with Pat and my book is currently in a beta-test at a new printer. The picture quality is very good and so I will continue to keep a postive attitude. Customer support has been very easy to work with, which is something I am grateful for. Kathie
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Hi all and thanks for the patience shown here. We have a fix now in place that should resolve these issues. As part of the fix books over 220 pages may come from a different printer than usual and you may notice some slight changes in books over 120 pages to add more strength. We think you’ll love the new bindings, especially on the high page count books! All best, —bw
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Wow. Still having binding issues. I have sold 17 books in both hard and soft cover since March to family and friends ( I stopped selling in May). All of them have come apart. I was even assured by customer service that the issue was corected by an email just like the ones above after the first draft came apart the very night I got it in the mail. After no more contact. i even found the officer number and called. No reply to what I thought was a critical issue. So, it is interesting to see discussion regarding the use of patience. Customer service in my case has been poor at best. The worest part, the printing and layout have been great, I want this to work. So, Blurb, if you listening give me a phone number and make me feel better about your commitment to customer service and making things right. Lang
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Oh, my! I’m in beginning stages putting a book together. Reading this, I’m wondering if I should even use Blurb. Are pages falling out of 7×7 books with, say, 60 pages? My first should be about that size. I like what I hear about Blurb’s image quality but, the bindings??
Ann
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Had the same issue with my first book a month ago…. I created a 110+ large landscape hard-cover book with some of my Santorini photos (btw you can check them here at my personal photo website and possibly comment on them!) Upon the books’ arrival, I unwrapped it and at the first browsing it fell off! Infuriated, I immediately wrote an e-mail to the customer support and within an hour they asked me to provide some photos of the loose book and offered to re-print it free of charge. The new book came some days ago. I have to admit that it is still in place, although I ask friends who see it to be careful etc. Unfortunately, I have hold off the re-print of copies until two things happen: - binding issues are resolved and I am certain about that
- I have the ability to sell the books through Blurb from Europe
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just got my book of 128 pages and OF COURSE Pages are falling out straight away I could almost laugh about it only with shipping it costed me some $ 60 something dollars and I do NOT find it Funny at All
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I notice support folks are responding to other technical issues on the forum. I find it strange to be pushed into an e-mail only customer service format and not be able to talk to a human when e-system fails. I suspect the binding problem is a bigger deal than they can or care to deal with. At this point I would not recommend Blurb. The chance of getting a poor binding seems to be pretty high. I wish you all luck with your broken books! Olivierlalin, keep us posted on your experience. I’d be real interested to know how you are treated and if you find quick and quality resolution. Lang
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Hi all, Lang Many of us here on the forums post for several reasons. I post because I have had great results with blurb books and a couple of disappointments. The successes FAR out weigh the failures. Out of over 20 books I have sold only 3 have had binding failure. They were the higher page count 13×11 books. Yes it is an annoying situation, but I plan to be a part of the success of blurb not its failure. I have a lot to gain if blurb can solve and handle this problem. I am hoping that blurb can hold its price point. Blurbs price points allows me to design and sell books to people and make money! Yes I am an entrenpeur and sell photography to people so I can buy the same nice things for my children and family that others wish to buy for their family. I have a lot to gain when Blurb solves this problem. Its profit to me and even a 5 dollar increase in blurb’s pricing structure will affect how I use them and how I design books. Many on the site use blurb for personal photo memories. There are others here on the site that use blurb in a business and the Blurb’s success here helps with the success of their personal bottom line. Have you purchased a Blurb book? Have you seen a book, held it in your hands, felt the smooth paper and seen the vivid colors. If you have not how can you advise others not to use blurb? If you have purchased a blurb book were you happy with it? Part of the advantage of an email customer service is keeping overhead low. Salaries paid to customer service phone answering people could result in higher book pricing. That would affect my marketing plan and perhaps others who use these inside their businesses. As I stated earlier even a $5 increase in blurbs cost to me will affect how I use them in my business marketing plan. Why not buy a book? Heck buy one of mine or design and buy on of your own. You may just be delighted. Regards to all Pat T
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Next day – after I received My appalingly put together Book – of which Pages were falling off as I first opened the pages – I still cannot beleive that no production person were able to notice the problem before sending the item ! I am now realizing that there is no other way then email to contact Blurb – No address are listed anywhere for return of the product – I did send a couple of e-mails soem 20 yours ago and have not received anything apart from some automated reply – I am now realizing that I am not the only user having problems with such issue now reading through those forum letters …. and I can assure PAT T who is seemingly part owner of the blurb entreprise that it is NO FUNNY and completely unprofessional – At this point I would look at it as an easy scam  OL waiting to see what is going to happen next
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I am not an owner, nor am I employed by blurb. I can assure you that I have thourghly researched single book production companies and blurb books stand up to the others very well. I have also experienced delay in communication, pages falling out, I am choosing to be patient and see if blurb can straighten out this problem. I have also questioned why substandard product is shipped. Where was the quality control…... I also as a business person realize that we live in an imperfect world. Life has glitches and let downs. Some vendor that blurb has trusted has let them down, that results in letting us down and it goes further to let MY customers down….. by the way I still have to PAY in advance for for books the same as you. Have you filled out a second customer support form???? I would. I would also be polite. My former post was to suggest that we all look at this from an economic point of view. I am not all that disapointed that customer suport is via email. I helps keep business operating expenses down. This yeilds economical pricing to me. Having received good service on the replacement of 2 former books (with pages falling out) I am awaiting a third replacement. BLurbs pricing is what attracted me to blurb. Its quality is what keeps me here. I am sorry the pages are falling out of your book, I am sorry the pages have fallen out my books. Blurb has replaced every book for me. I have dealt with disapointed clients. I simply tell the client the book binding wasn’t holding and a replacement is on the way. ALL my clients have been satisfied with this answer and are patient. My former post wasn’t meant to be funny. I was left wondering if the person had actually purchased a product before he comdemmed it. He is also entilted to his oppinion so am I. Regards to all Pat T
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Pat, thank you for your level headed, experienced and professional view of what is probably going on with Blurb’s bindings. I can understand the frustration that is out there but hope others will take the time to listen to your reasoned approach, take a deep breath and have a little patience.
What I have read various places on this forum suggests Blurb is having a serious problem with one of their suppliers. I suspect they are working hard to solve it ASAP and provide us quality books at a reasonable price, as is their intention.
I am a newbie here on the forum and with BookSmart software. I’ve spent the last few days just trying to straighten out use of the software and am currently waiting an email answer to my latest tech problem. I’ve never held a Blurb book but, their reputation for quality at a decent price has convinced me to give them a chance.
Ann
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I just wanted to let you all know how much I appreciate Blurb too. I also had binding problems with my previous orders, and each time Blurb customer service was courteous and really tried hard to rectify the situation. The binding problem is something that Blurb had to resolve with the printer company, and I am willing to wait and work with Blurb to resolve this issue simply because Blurb makes it possible for me to make a high quality photo book at an affordable price. Yesterday, I received my two replacement books (hardcover, 8×10 portrait, 200 pages). I was a little nervous when I thumbed through the the pages. Right away, I noticed that the books have a tighter and firmer feel than before. I hope this is the new binding that Bruce is talking about, because I am very pleased with my new books. Woohoo! Marion
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Marion, thanks for sharing the good news.
Ann
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Marion Thanks for the great news! Thank you for sharing. Ann Thanks for your post. My customer service experience in another industry makes me step back and try to look at the big picture. I have experienced far greater success with manners and patience than with rudness and impatience. Peace to all. Pat T
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alleluia
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Pat I agree that we must give Blurb a chance to get things sorted out but this does not mean that we must continue to purchase books that will fall apart until somewhere along the line Blurb gets it sorted. Your failure rate experience has been 15% which I’m sure most will agree, is too high. Would you be happy to use an airline that has 15% of their planes falling out of the sky, telling people to keep flying with them because eventually they may well get things sorted? Blurb do have a great price with what seems to be a nice product but just as one of the most important things with an airline is keeping the wing on and the engines running, a book printing company should feel that pages staying in its binding, is in the same category of "high on the importance list" for its customers and essential to its life expectancy in this business. It does none of us any good to tell family and friends or worse, customers, to please look at the quality of the printing of the pages they are holding in their hands and on their lap and all around them on the floor, and not to worry about the fact that the binding is failing on the book in their hands. I could sell you a dress suit and tell you not to worry about the stiching coming apart and the arms faling off, but instead for you to concetrate on the quality of the material and cut of the design. That however would do nothing to inspire current customer loyalty or persuade potential customers looking on that they too should go ahead and also purchase this dress suit. I really want Blurb to succeed and get their binding sorted out and I sincerely hope they have now overcome this problem. So… let’s hear from all the customers who are now receiving their books from today onwards and see if the books are in fact finally holding together. And don’t handle them like 2000 year old Dead Sea Scrolls either. These are books and should be expected to be picked up and looked through many, many, many times over without a fear of them falling apart. I for one would be happy to pay $5 more for a book that was guaranteed to stay together. It is false economy to suggest that it would be better to save the $5 dollars and hope that we get a book that stays together. If just one book stays together then something is being done correctly in the binding and that should be carried through with ever book and should be expected. You nor anyone else should be accepting a 15% failure rate. Just wanted to bring us all back to reality here and still support Blurb if they can keep their books together. They seem to have a great product with great pricing as I mentioned and if other book printers can make a product that keeps its pages in place regardless of the number of times it is leafed through, then so must Blurb be able and expected from us, to do the same. Kind regards Lucian
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Dear Lucian, I agree with you on several points. The failure rate in my book orders is a little high. I have questioned on my customer support forms the lack of quality control. I think that besides my last books pages not holding that UPS damaged the book in transit. The binding was bent. I do not sell my books via blurb badges. Yes, I have books for sale here in a public bookstore. On the off chance that a client stumbles across this website I have these books priced substantially higher than when books are purchased directly from me. I am the quality control. I inspect each book and open every page. Once I gave a book to a customer and before they could drive to their home they had pages falling out. NEVER again does a customer get a book without passing my inspection. I have only had problems with the higher page count 13×11 books. Others have had issues with the other sizes. I am not ordering ANY books until my present reprint order in my hands and am satisfied that Blurb has in fact fixed the binding issues. I have 2 books I am waiting to order. I have a wonderful client who has purchased 3 of my large format books and wants another small publication I have, but I am waiting for my reprint book before I place another order. My enthusiasm for blurb lies with the successful books I have received. I have been so thrilled with my earlier books that I found it very disappointing to have these problems. I am patient, I have adopted a wait and see attitude. If Blurb must increase their pricing I will have to see how they can fit into my marketing plan. I am hoping that they can control costs and give us a quality book. There are some overhead costs that blurb cannot control. There are other overhead costs that they can control. Blurb does guarantee the quality of their books already. I personally believe that there are many more happy campers out there than are being counted. I would love to hear about the success stories. My last communication with blurb was concerning a delay in shipping my awaited reprint. Blurb responded that there was a quality issue with my book. OK I am disappointed and elated all at once. I am not happy about the delay. I am delighted with quality control. I have a firm grip on reality here. I must admit I am looking at other book companies due to the fact that I am about to engage in a contractual obligation to provide books to a local theatre company for each of their performances in the 2007-08 performance season. I would be very naieve not to have a backup book company and include the increase in pricing for my marketing proposal. Lucian, you have raised some very thoughtful and insightful points of view. Have you had blurb success or failure or have you like myself had both? I agree that I would like to hear from those that have the new binding system in their books. I am anxious to experience it myself. Regards Pat T
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Hey! I had 4 books printed, all look great. After reading all this…I´m depressed! I have just ordered 2 new books. I´ll keep myt fingers crossed
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Hi, Since i started this thread i thought i should report back that my 2nd printing seems to be holding up. Although to use Lucian’s hilarious phrase I am treating it a bit like the "dead sea scrolls" but i am not sure its necessary to do so…
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blurbed emailed me stating my order "experienced a small production delay during its construction". which is fine. (i got this email the night before i originally theought i’d get my books). it recieved a tracking number saturday, but as for now it doesn’t work. i’ll post how they turn out when i get them
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My 222 page hardcover book had the pages fall out. Pages also fell out of the replacement book. The next replacement was a bit delayed but seems to be a superior construction. The book is actually slimmer and tighter, and so far the pages have stayed in! Throughout the entire process, I have found Blurb to be quite responsive and accommodating. I love making the books and have been very pleased with the quality.
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what about 40-50 page books.. pages gonna fall out of that??? i’m intending on selling these.. extremely nervous
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I am inclined to think that Blurb will eventually get the binding problem under control. The print quality on my books has been excellent. Unfortunately, I have had three out of three portrait 200 plus page 8×10 hardcover books fall apart! I wish Blurb would give us an idea if there is a smaller page size that would hold up. I would have no problem dividing my books into several parts and making them two or three 100 page books rather than one 200-300 page book….if I thought this would help. I too would be willing to pay a little more for better binding since the print quality is okay.
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I decided to scan all the family photos in my pre-digital camera era photo albums, and get them printed into books for each of my three daughters, plus all of our digital photos that are hiding on CDs in the closet. And I intended to print photo books for each daughter for all the photos we take from here on. Lots of books – giant project. But Whoops! Cancel that! Now I have to wait until I see that the binding problem is resolved for sure. I do not want to deal with calling the company and wading through all the hassle of getting them to send me a good product on a project that large. How is it that man has been making books for so long, and now we can’t keep the pages from falling out? Reminds me of the American auto manufacturers who seem to be building cars for the first time each year. Blub – visualize $100 bills with wings flying away into the bright blue sky and say, "Bye-bye, money!"
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Sadly I have to report that my second copy of my first book is having pages fall out of it too. It took 2 days rather than 2 hours with the first one, but it was clear from first opening that it wasn’t going to last. Blurb were great at quickly arranging for a new copy to be printed after the first failure, and the reprint arrived faster than the first version, but all to no avail. I’ll be reporting this one and see how we go for version three. BTW, both failures were medium size books with 196 pages, printed in Holland.
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It is implausible that Blurb does not step up efforts to resolve what is potentially a business venture killing matter. Without implementing a zero defects policy for their product, customers will soon migrate to others that do focus on quality.
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has anyone confirmed that small page books pages fall out? i intend on selling these.. this is extremely dissapointing..
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I just received my 1st reprint of my 260 page 11×13 book (pages started falling out of the first one). Blurb was very helpful in arranging for the reprint. However, the quality of the printing is much worse than the 1st book. The pictures are grainy and blurry and dark – and this wasn’t the case with the first printing. The paper is also thinner and cheaper feeling. I’ve contacted Blurb again to get this resolved. My two cents: The Blurb pricing is fantastic – however, I would much rather pay another $5 or $10 if that’s what it takes to get a quality printed book that doesn’t fall apart.
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Has anyone had problems with the binding for hardbound books (10×8) for around 100 pages?
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Hi,
I’d like to revive this topic to find out whether the binding situation has improved. I ordered a 200 page 13×11 book in June as a present for my mother and I was very pleased with the result. I saw the book last night and was disappointed to see that a section of the pages were falling out. It has been looked at about 10 times. The pages seemed to be glued in place rather than stitched. The book was printed in Holland. Has anyone had recent good experiences with binding of large format books with many pages, especially in Europe?
I saw a comment from a Blurb staff member who said that the binding depended on the number of pages, which makes sense. Perhaps it would be good to have some guidelines on the site about the number of pages to include to ensure good, stitched binding.
Jenny
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Following up on my post from above. On the third attempt Blurb arranged to have my book printed in the US rather than Holland. And while it took a little longer to arrive, and thankfully I wasn’t paying UPS, the book that arrived was perfect. Good colour, neutral B&W photos and most importantly, the pages were stiched in place. This has been a great copy to show friends. The trouble is, how do I know I don’t have to go through the same procedure for each copy?
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I don’t wish to go through this degree of hassle when I make a book, and I certainly don’t want the pages falling out. I shall keep coming back to this forum in the hopes of hearing that the issue has been resolved.
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For all you whiners on the Blurb forums (we can’t get in touch with Blurb, they don’t have a phone number, why do we have to email customer support, etc., etc., ad nauseum): A simple GOOGLE search (the internet search engine) turned up this information: Blurb Inc 580 California St Fl 3rdSan Francisco CA 94104-1024
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Your left out the important part. But will anyone answer?
580 California St Fl 3rd
San Francisco CA 94104-1024
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Folks, Blurb does not offer phone support and as such we’ve edited those numbers out of postings that include them. All support inquires need to be placed via our support page here Please do not continue to post Blurb phone numbers as you’ll just get frustrated by lack of response. Thanks, —bw
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Seems to me that if Blurb spent as much time trying to fix the issues they have with printing, binding, and their software as they spend reading and editing people’s posts, they’d have a much better product and way fewer complaints!!!!
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Judging by the number of books that are being published daily, I am thinking the percentage of problems must be relatively small. I received my 166 page 11×13 book, and am very happy with the printing. Numerous people have looked at the book (some not so carefully) and the binding has been fine. I am confident that if I have a problem in the future, I will go to the support page (rather than the forum) and my issue will be resolved.
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I found this site because a co-worker passed around a book he had made, printed in the US. We all looked through it extensively. It is a 11×13 book with over 200 pages and after over 50 viewings it was still impressive! I was surprised when I saw this topic. I can imagine there are some problems, but probably a small percentage.
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I’ve been using Blurb for over a year and ordered over dozens of Blurb books (about 40 to 60). And yes binding is an issue. I’ve emailed Blurb but they swear it’s not an issue and mine are just isolated incidents. I’ve purchased 18 orders, each is 2 books and some were 4 to 6 books. And honestly I don’t know if the bindings will hold. I sell my books, but those that I kept felt apart after some flippings. I really LOVE Blurb, that’s why I’ve been using it for over a year. I’ve told Blurb that I don’t mind paying a higher price for a better binding option. As a book lover, nothing annoys me more than bad binding (and bad paper, but blurb paper are great). It’s good to know that I am not the one having this issue. Blurb, please see to this problem and offer a better binding option!
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Uh oh-<del>- I just ordered an 80-page 11×13 book of photos for my dad. I plan to sell them too. But on first viewing the first few pages fell out!!
I have sent a message to blurb via the help page</del>-this was just a moment ago, and it’s the weekend, so I don’t expect a prompt response. But I do hope they replace my book—and with better binding too…
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Add me to the list of bad bindings. My 120 page 8×10 hardcover was only good for a few flips, and the first page started to break off, and at the middle of the book, the binding split from top to bottom. I sent an email yesterday & got no replies, so I followup with a message thru’ the help area, hope someone will get back to me soon.
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I just received my reprinted books (they reprinted because original shipment arrived with 2 defective bindings) The binding on one of the reprints is defective, already split down the middle, with pages falling out. Its an 8×10 350 pages. This is so frustrating! If someone had quality checked these books before they went out they could have saved me and blurb customer service reps the aggravation of having to deal with another defective book.. In my experience the printing success rate has been pretty bad – 3 out of the last 4 books I have received have been defective. I really hope they fix their printing situation asap, because clearly there are some underlying issues here.
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