If MyPublisher wants Mac users to continue to use their service ...

[ericke]

... would you please fix your software? You don't seem to know that Microsoft has stopped developing Internet Explorer for the Mac (last version was 5). And the upgrade to 2.5 seems not to work without error messages appearing.

Please address this issue promptly.

[yg2k]

I downloaded MyPublisher to use to get the 50% discount and stopped using it within minutes. It was terrible compared to iPhoto. Limited templates, not an easy or friendly interface, and just plain difficult to use and ugly. Tried it three times with same result. So, I did not use it. But I did order books through MyPublisher using iPhoto and am waiting to see how well they are printed. For now, I am discouring my friends from using the software.

[laselva]

I was wanting to have some more creative control over printing book jackets in the deluxe book and designed a custom book cover image with my own titling, since the existing font choices in BookMaker a limited, to say the least.

I had a truly STUNNING photo - and thought that by NOT submitting any text, title, or subtitle, my image would show through completely.

WRONG!!!

My jacket cover was ruined because they printed a large white rectangle with NO DATA. How stupid.

See the original image here: http://www.carmichaelvisual.com/book_jacket.jpg

...and then see the ruined image here: http://www.carmichaelvisual.com/ruined_jacket.jpg

I had paid for next day shipping to make sure I had the books before leaving on a trip to Thailand and Bali - where I would provide the books as marketing materials for trying to get new business there.

I've submitted an email to "customer service" - talk about a misnomer! No phone number to actually SPEAK to someone in person? What's up with that??? And their response rate/percentage to email inquiries is about 30%, with about 70% of my email totally disregarded.

Anyway, I submitted an email asking for them to reprint the cover AS I SUBMITTED IT. I even tried to email the one image file to them for them to be able to print the cover jacket again with just that image alone, but their email gateway restricts attachments to 3MB. So then I uploaded the image file to my website and resent an email with the url for them to be able to download it and reprint it for me. But they will have to do this tomorrow morning, and then FedEx it back to me for Saturday delivery in time for me to bring it with me when I leave at midnight on Sat. AT THEIR EXPENSE.

Will they come through???????????????


Stayed tuned, because you can be sure I plan to let the entire myPublisher user community know whether or not they DO have any real customer service.....


Rick Carmichael
CARMICHAELvisual
7 Vista Drive
La Selva Beach, CA 95076
(831) 684-0420

rick@carmichaelvisual.com
http://www.carmichaelvisual.com

[mypublisher]

Hi Everyone -

I just wanted to reply to Rick's book jacket question, as our customer service team sees this inquiry quite frequently. We do have a book jacket where you can use a full bleed template and create your own layout or have no text at all. There are actually two. In BookMaker, they both appear to have a gray box to represent the full bleed photo, and then have a transparent text box on top of the photo. You can choose to input text or not. If you do not input any text, your full bleed photo or template will show through with no blank boxes. Please use PREVIEW to ensure your book is correct prior to printing. PREVIEW is set up to be an exact replica of what is printed. If you see a while box on top of your photo that is empty and have selected that layout, that is what will print. Alternatively, if you use the 2 full bleed photo book jacket templates that are available, you will not see any white box.

We are investigating Rick's inquiries into Customer Service to ensure we didn't miss any.

Please reply back if you have any further questions on templates!

Sincerely,
MyPublisher

[laselva]

Well I said I would repost with updates - and so here's the latest.

I WAS contacted by not one, but several people from myPublisher trying to address my concerns.

Here is one thing I learned - when they tell you to ALWAYS look at the preview before submitting (because that will show you exactly how the book will print) they MEAN IT. That white box DID show up in the Preview before I submitted my book to be printed - but I was thinking, "well, that's NOT going to print that way because I haven't entered any text in those fields."

But apparently Preview does show you EXACTLY how the book will print, in terms of labels/captions, page layouts, image sizes, etc.

I also received a detailed email from one customer service rep email with instructions to help me see why my selections in the cover "page layout" caused the cover to print the way it did.

Using the button in the bottom left center of the BookMaker window for Book Size and Style, I had selected the Deluxe Hardcover for the size, and then Just Photos only for the book style and then Book Jacket for the cover style. The default value for the page type is Cover.

But where I made my "mistake" is that for some reason, it never dawned on me to click on "Page Layout" to see what the options were there. I have to admit that it took me several minutes and trial and error selecting of the options shown there - as there are no labels to help you distinguish the different options. But, once I spent that time, I did see that the last two options shown with solid gray backgrounds (where the image is going to be placed) had transparent text/title areas (in that the gray of the image would show through... i.e no white boxes over the image), and also did not have any rules/lines surrounding the title area. Selecting either one of those options, and then NOT filling in my own titles/headline etc does give me exactly what I was hoping for in the cover - when viewed in Preview mode.

So, now I know - though again, what the various options mean is not immediately obvious as there is NO labeling at all.

I also want to ramble on about one other issue, because this will lead to a glowing praise for myPublisher.

Since I had the 3 covers with the white boxes, I called around yesterday morning and found a local printer and spent 2 hours onsite with him reprinting my cover jackets. (Again, because of wanting to use my corporate font/logotype on the cover, I had embedded it in the Photoshop file for the cover.)

He was able to fit me into his schedule - but it cost me $25 per cover to print.

Overall, I am pleased with the results and am very happy to not have to use the covers from myPublisher with the empty white boxes.

But... when I compare the covers side by side, there is simply NO COMPARISON, IN TERMS OF QUALITY! THE COVERS FROM MYPUBLISHER ARE FAR, FAR SUPERIOR! Both in terms of color saturation, but also in terms of gloss. (Maybe they apply a varnish as a final step in printing.) The myPublisher cover jacket gives the book the appearance of a VERY HIGH-QUALITY, SHOW-THIS-PROMINENTLY-ON-YOUR-COFFEE-TABLE book.

So, based on my experience with printing the other covers, I've come to appreciate even more what an incredible value the myPublisher service offers for printing books of this caliber.

Hopefully, next time, I'll know all the right choices to make when I print my next book. Because I'm absolutely sold on this service.

(And also hopefully I can provide some user experience and advice that might help them improve their user interface so that the process and choices are more obvious and intuitive.

- Rick