why I use My Publisher

 There are countless online photo sites to choose from to make a photo book. I have used a few different ones, including Shutterfly and Snapfish, for smaller projects but have always chosen My Publisher for my family books, my big books. And this is why:

My Publisher runs the best deal for books with lots of pages. About three times a year they will offer their "free extra pages" sale. Their classic book, with 20 pages, starts at $29.99. For each additional page over 20, you pay $0.99. That adds up when you have a 100 page book. So I make my book and then wait for that great sale that lets me buy my 100 page book for $30. I haven't found a better deal. {They actually run a lot of sales, but this one is the best, even better than a BOGO sale.}

My Publisher has software that you download for free onto your computer so that you are not online when making your book. Perhaps you have a speedy internet connection. Good for you. We do not. It saves me much frustration to not be dependent upon the internet when working on my projects.

A nine-photo layout example from the book I did for my brother's wedding. I mixed developing tints as sometimes lots of color on lots of pictures on the same page is over-stimulating. 

I kinda got stuck on "twelves" last year. It made for fun shooting goals throughout the months. This is a picture of one of the pages from my 2012 book, with a 12-photo layout option. 

Any photo book company is going to offer the option to "auto fill" your book for you or for you to manually choose the page layouts and placement of pictures. If you are wanting to try this family photo book thing but are a bit overwhelmed by it all, auto fill your book. You can then go back and tweak what you want, add text, move photos, but it essentially makes your book for you in a minute.  I, however, really like choosing page layouts, getting creative with texts and all that, and I think My Publisher has great manual options for letting you do whatever it is you want to do. Shutterfly seems a bit more restrictive in their templates.

Here is a screen shot of my desktop with My Publisher open. I made cover pages for each month with highlights and favorite memories journaled in. This picture background is of my kitchen window,
 a place a spend a large chunk of my time.

Another screen shot with MP open. See the little "My Style" at the bottom center of the page? With this turned on, your layout possibilities are endless. 

And lastly, MP has good customer service. I received a book once that was bound a little crooked, okay, it looked very crooked to me, but I called them, took a picture of the issue and emailed it over, and they sent me a code for replacement book just like that. No need to ship back the imperfect book (which is huge, because a trip to the post office with little boys to correct their error is no small thing).

Now, go poke around their site. I think next topic will be selecting pictures for your book,  as you can save yourself some work if you are choosy with your photos before importing them into the program.