I’ve used Blurb several times now, most recently for my City & Guilds Level 3 book, and I’ve been very impressed, certainly with the hardback books.
Blurb are on of a number of ‘Print-On-Demand’ publishers who allow you to self publish a book, with a minimum print run of just 1. And if you want more, just order as many as you want, when you want. And you can also sell your creation through Blurbs own online shop, or via your own website if you have one.
Compared with a lot of the online photolabs who do photobooks, the main benefit is flexibility – you can pretty much do anything you want with your book, and have it look exactly as you want it. So you can use the numerous templates for the pages, or select a blank one and then design and create your pages elsewhere, save them as a jpeg, and them import them in.
I’d strongly recommend going for the premium quality paper as it really makes a difference in my opinion, although it does add to the cost. And unless, you’re in a major hurry, stick with the standard postage – it’s not very quick, but it is cheap. You really pay a premium if you want it quickly!
Mechanical Landscapes 