Blurb Reviews

My order of 21 books never showed up. I have contacted blurb several times regarding my order. Via Facebook and email. No one has gotten back to me regarding my order. I also have contacted blurb about several other issues. Ex) I couldn't see my Amazon sales, why my book priced on Amazon increased from the original listed price I set, as well as many other issues. All I have received is generic emails not answering any of my questions or concerns.

After a full week past the expected delivery date (still no books) lead to the cancellation of my book signing. Which led me to be publicly humiliated since I promoted the event all over social media. I disputed the charges like anyone else would. (Mind you the dispute hasn't been resolved) so guess what Blurb did!?! In this very moment I can't even log into my account. It now states my book and account doesn't exist! I'm sitting here trying to wrap my head around the fact that my account is deactivated. My book has also been mysteriously taken down from the bookstore but not Amazon. (I'm sure because they can continue to steal my book sales) I received a email that stated "why didn't I contact Blurb when my books didn't arrive." I DID! Which is insane! I still haven't even received any information about not receiving a statement or sales margin from my Amazon sales. Does Blurb think a Author wouldn't want to see their sale!?!? How can I receive my royalties from Amazon and Blurb bookstore if blurb doesn't have my account information? I had orders attached to that account; will my customers receive their purchases? Will I still receive a royalty check for my amazon sales? This company is unprofessional, a joke, and embezzlers. How can they randomly take someone's account down without paying them the money they have earned... we all learned this in kindergarten; all of this calls for a lawsuit... just in case this company wasn't aware that they are stealing from their customers. Overall I don't recommend anyone publish with Blurb unless you want them to take full advantage of you.

I just had tried to purchase a single book I need on priority that I have written for my college children's book class. It was supposed to be a single book single purchase for roughly 45 dollars. All went smooth until I went to the check-out section where I gave the COMPLETE CORRECT credentials for debit card, to be told that the bank's zip code was wrong (which it isn't). I tried again thinking I had made a mistake with the actually 16 digit or SCC, and it still referred to the bank's zip location. I thought that it wasn't a big until I check my account activity to see TWO pending charges of 45 dollars, without any order confirmation or receipt to justify as to why I was charged this as the order went through. Now, in all likelihood, my book will be late and my young children I'm partnered with to give the book to will be left sad without one while his classmate's enjoy theirs. All due to the incompetence, lack of solid communication methods, and integrity of this company. Take your business elsewhere. My complaint number is: 1353578. Get back to me immediately.

I decided to try Blurb for the first time with a small photo book - it was through the "Blurb.ca" site. The regular shipping ended up being more than the cost of the book and a note popped up towards the end of the checkout that informed me that I might be paying customs and other additional fees. This seemed rather stiff to me.

I could not get text on the spine of the Bookwright softcover trade book I was producing, was told I needed a minimum of 80 pages (incorrect) and only after I had given up and published without text on the spine told that my 179 page book needed to be 180 pages for such text. I could have added one more page.

Ordered test book as they suggested. Color was spot on so ordered 3 additional books. These were big books. It seems when you order the website will auto fill you with the cheap choices and if you go back and forth it will change it again to the cheap choices even though you ordered the proline stuff so just triple check all of this. This shouldn't matter though... grey, charcoal who cares right? A book is a book. Only the second order apparently went to a different print house (they confirmed this) that prints the cheaper mid grey and the new books have a green color cast. I sent them a picture but got no response from customer support except canned auto reply... for the l-o-n-g-e-s-t time... so long that I finally placed a new order and triple checked to be sure I had the CHARCOAL grey liner & cover and the colors again were good on these so I sent them out to customers in New York, Florida and Boston. Now I'm on perpetual hold trying to get my $600 back... they said they sent it to 'the team" that handles this. I never heard back. Here's a tip... order as a private consumer not a business because consumers have more rights than businesses. It will take my bank up to 6 months to get my money back thru a snail mail process which I started because wrong is wrong and they basically stole money from me. If I used my personal Am Ex card I wouldn't be out $600. This is a pretty good company when they respond with customer service but be careful on all the choices for liners and covers. Don't get the mid gray ones if color matters at all... crap, for the price of a latte get the good stuff.
And definitely lower your expectations. Customer services isn't what it use to be... it appears to be non-existent. I'd be fine with a credit for my next order but right now they have simply stolen $600 from me that I need to run my struggling small (minority-owned) business. I have three bad books and they don't give a crap. They use to have a phone number to talk to people but I'm guessing they must have had too many complaints. So it's a good place if you know all the right choices and don't have high expectations but I'm vetting other companies moving forward. I told them the printer who makes the cheap mid grey liners has color problems. What else can you do?

I ordered a book it said I would receive by March 8 I still have not received it. I have written multiple requests to their customer service with no response.

I have tried to log in this morning and it says they can't find my email address, username or password, to be honest I am very disappointed because I've worked very hard on the books I've uploaded and I am selling through your platform.
I haven't had an email with an warning it there is anything wrong, when there was something wrong you've emailed me and it was fixed, now all of the sudden I can't access my account, I was very happy the other day because I've got my sales for February and they looked really good and now I cannot access my account, I am very upset with all this, this is my business and I hope you understand why I am so upset with this issue, at least tell me if it's something to do with me so I can fix it on my side, it's only fair.

Just completed a 300 page family history/geneology book for my extended family. Created it with the exceptionally user-friendly BookWright templates. Uploaded the book on a Tuesday and 10 professionally printed books arrived on my porch on Saturday. This is about my tenth book with Blurb and have been pleased with the results of all of them. They continue to improve each year.

I ordered a small softcover book to give as a gift and paid for expedited shipping so I could get it on time. While the blurb book-making software was easy to use, it was only after the company let me pay for extra shipping that they warned it may not come on time. When the delivery day passed the company didn't even reach out to say my order had been delayed, I had to reach out to them and all they had to say was "sorry about that." When I requested a refund for my shipping (just the shipping cost) because I paid for a service that was not provided, they only partially refunded me. I found this rather insulting as it was clear they only wanted to do the bare minimum for their customers. In the end not worth it.

Do not use Blurb if you're expecting quality you'd expect from a major publisher or distributor. I've printed various types of books from them and they range from pretty good to mediocre. Don't waste your money if you're planning on mass producing books because the quality does not cut it. I've printed from other print houses and personal work for way better.

Their customer service varies. The I've contacted them a few times. Most recently, I reached out to them 3 weeks ago and never got a reply and out of no where they close my request as solved. I messaged them again and again and never got a reply. I direct messaged them on Instagram and never got a reply. So I had to end up posting publicly on their Instagram post and 1 hour later they reply back to me. Isn't that something?

If you're just trying to print a book for your family or friends through your iPhone photos then it's "alright". I printed total of 4 different types of books and I'm done with them. I don't want to spend another penny with them. Sometimes you lose and sometimes you learn, unfortunately.

I ordered a photo album on January 27,2021
I received an album February 2,2021... in less than a week.

The album is incorrect. The front and back covers are correct but the content is someone else's photo album.

Blurb was able to produce and ship the incorrect album in less than a week. But, since contacting their customer support via email on February 3,2021 to try to correct things, as of February 18,2021, I have not heard anything back re correcting the problem!
And there is no other way to contact their customer support. No phone number. What kind of business has no listed phone number?
Blurb's customer support is currently non-existent.
They have my payment for the photo book, USD $341.65, and I have someone else's photo book.
Blurb used to be good. Not any more. That is sad.

I've been working with them for over a year now. I've had all sorts of technical issues to solve, and they've always come through for me. (Customer service even seems to be working at night and on weekends.) My project had some unique challenges, so perhaps it wasn't typical. I shouldered all the technical aspects of creating the body copy and cover myself (thousands of lines of server-side code, then lots of Photoshop), so I didn't have to use any of their software. I'm amazed at the sharpness of the body copy from my pdf file. It looks a lot better than anything I can even render out myself from Adobe Acrobat. So if you've had some professional experience with design and typography and don't need a lot of technical hand-holding, I'd stick with Blurb and save a ton of money.