Thursday, January 7, 2016

Recording your travels in a blog book

On Facebook I was sent an update on a New Year sale or reduction in prices for making a blog book turning all my travel blog pieces into a book. I did this once previously with my Facebook pages.

Facebook Edited Travel Book
When I did the Facebook page, I discovered somebody had sent me (they claimed forwarded by a hacker or troll) a rude cartoon which was totally inappropriate. I had completely forgotten about it. When I saw it in the book, I was very upset. I thought of covering the page with a piece of white paper. But a day later I cut it out completely.

I then went back into Facebook. I wrote an appeal to everybody to ask how to delete an old picture message and found out how to do it.

I now also know how to edit my own posts in Facebook as I write them. You simply click on the tiny almost invisible symbol of a hormonal pen on the top right. Up comes a choice of words Edit or Delete. If you forget to click on this, you keep typing your edit and nothing happens. Eventually I learned what was going wrong.

Obviously many people know this. Other don't, because many posts appear with spelling and grammar errors. Some are because the writer does not know how to edit. Others are when you click send but haven't had the time to read back what you wrote and check for errors.

On Facebook you can now have a general page, for faces of family and friends, plus amusing pictures and jokes and funny videos of beautiful places from the internet.

You can also have a dedicated page for travel books or a travel business. If it starts free, later you will probably be asked for money (which is OK if having a business page for an idea or a start up or a hobby and being business like is eventually earning you money). If the system remains two tier, with the basic system free, only the more complicated system for businesses costing money, that is fine for a non profit making venture.

Travel Book on Blogger
Now I'm going to tell you what I discovered when I tried to turn my blog on here into a book. Firstly it is prohibitively expensive. Only worth it as a one off book for your records, not something you can sell.

The high price is cause by all the coloured pictures. you could produce a cheaper book just with text to make it shorter and lack and white. You could turn photos into black and white and use Lulu dot com.

Do you want to make a book about your travels? Here's how to do it cheaper and neater.

You might run a travel blog to advertise your business or books. You might do it to keep an ongoing record for yourself and your family. You can make your collected posts into a book. Why? To promote a business, for a record, in case the site collapse or goes out of business, as a gift to the family.

Self-publishing Collected Posts
The blurb book people collect all your posts. They can either separate each one onto a new page or run them consecutively.

Self-publishing through Lulu or Another Printer
You would find that quicker, if you are not adept at computer software, to copy and save each post into one document on a daily basis, then publish at the end of the year.

Expenses and Tax
If you were using it as a tax loss or expense for promotion or to keep for records to consult, then the cost would not matter.

Cost of Book Record
When I consider how much you might spend on a dress for a woman to go to a PR event, even a travel bag or suitcase, tick proof socks, UV protective clothing, a tent, a camera, the airfare, the cost of the book as a record of one trip or all the trips is no out of proportion to those other expenses. But it is one more expense for each trip or each year.

Editing Posts
When I went through the blurb book it was an interesting exercise. I found I had re-used photos, both mine and other people's (eg Wikipedia) for follow up posts not he same subject. For example, a picture of Elvis on all my posts on Elvis. This took up a lot of space in the book and looked as if it were a mistake or unnecessary repetition. I now realise that although if you click onto a picture on a post it should be large, when you are making a book you may have to reduce the repeated pictures to postage stamp size.

It will now take me a day or two to go back and delete duplicated photos. That will have the advantage that my book is cheaper, less bulky, less heavy, and looks more professional.

Editing Time Needed
It's worthwhile starting to look at the system even if it is too expensive for your current budget. Then next time an offer comes up you are ready to go. I received the sale ends tonight message (written in Americanese).  Sale is 'about to wrap' - it took me two days to work out that meant finish. So I have now missed the deadline.

However, I shall revise my posts and keep in mind the picture size and picture novelty rather than reputation for the book when creating new posts. The offers come around on a regular basis. But you have to be able to choose the date if you want an exact year, instead of up to now. So printing your blurb book every year on December 31st or Jan 1st means you get the exact year (and don't have to wait). Of course you could adjust the date of the posts you want them to print (I think this is an option).

So you could run a book for the tax year, the school or college year, a religious year, a Chinese year, any other calendar year, a year in your new home, first year of your child's life, first year of marriage, first year of retirement, first year of your business, or your student gap year travels, or first year of your blog. Happy travel writing, travel trips, photos, saving into books!

http://www.blog2print.com/print-my-blog-book/

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, researcher, author and speaker. (Books on Amazon and Lulu.com )

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