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1968 Your Book is Complete Buy Now!!!

68 GTCS

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 26, 2006
Messages
130
Location
KERSEY, COLORADO
Is there any way to order a couple of dust covers? When I ordered the books I didn't order the ones with the covers, so I won't get the inside quotes!

Kevin
 
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hookedtrout

hookedtrout

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Mar 28, 2003
Messages
1,929
Location
Idaho
Is there any way to order a couple of dust covers? When I ordered the books I didn't order the ones with the covers, so I won't get the inside quotes!

Kevin

I'm not sure Kevin, you would have to pose that question to Blurb, for a small fee I would think they would do just about anything but I could be totally wrong. Glad to know you guys read the little inside flaps, it took me a long time to come up with the right quote and saying to try and express my feelings.

Cory
 

nates68

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Joined
Nov 7, 2007
Messages
169
Thanks cory, got mine ordered. Thanks again for your great work.



Nates68
 
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hookedtrout

hookedtrout

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Joined
Mar 28, 2003
Messages
1,929
Location
Idaho
They are selling like Huckleberry pancakes, the good news, there's a never ending supply. 30 books sold so far in the first two days along with my 3 for a total of 33.

Can't wait to get mine in hand.

Cory
 

68gt390

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Joined
Feb 22, 2004
Messages
2,021
Location
Columbus, Ohio
Cory;
I know it's already been said by everyone else but, thanks a ton. I now have a book to go along with the diecast and the car. What a deal.

Don :grin:
 
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hookedtrout

hookedtrout

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Mar 28, 2003
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Idaho
Cory;
I know it's already been said by everyone else but, thanks a ton. I now have a book to go along with the diecast and the car. What a deal.

Don :grin:


I've said it before too but here's another big You're Welcome, I never tire saying it, it was a blast. On that note read the next post for a little insight.
 
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hookedtrout

hookedtrout

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Idaho
How I did the Book.

It's kind of a long read but I had a member of the SAAC group interested in doing a book and asked me to explain the process I went through so I started typing it all out, not in very good order but I tried to capture as much as I could bring to mind while typing and once I was complete I thought I might as well post it here for a little insight if you want to read it all. There are a ton of other little things that go into the book making but this was my process in general. At least I won't have to retype it now if someone else asks, I can cut and paste and I got really good at that during the book. Cory

Ok here goes, not knowing what you have for computer skills or computer equipment and software I will talk in terms of what I have and used. The project took me about 3.5 months and I compiled 52 or 53 members stories and photo spreads. They wrote the stories and sent them to me along with pictures, I proof read, spell checked and was the organizer of the information and photos.

First I would say you want a big enough computer to hold a lot of pictures and pictures take up a lot of space and you need specific sizes of pictures to work in the book, probably the hardest part of the book was getting them to send the right size, not many but some just didn’t have a lot of digital picture knowledge, including myself. I went down and bought a Maxtor external hard drive to insure I had a big back up with lots of room so I didn’t lose anything.

It takes patience and compassion to deal with everyone as you will get very computer literate members and then you will get those that have a longing desire to be a part but have no computer skills and it takes some compassion to work them through it. I actually had to set up a photo shoot to get all of Bob Teets the HCS Registrars photos taken in Colorado because he had little or no digital photos.

The first thing I did was announce the book on the web and asked the admin to sticky the topic and then I explained how to be a part by asking them to email me with “You In Book” in the title and I set up a rule in my email to automatically send any email with this in the topic to a folder so it wouldn’t get lost or deleted by accident. I just got names to start and asked that no one send me any stories or photos until I requested them as I didn’t want to get flooded and miss something in the email. If I requested 3-4 at a time I was specifically watching for them and expecting them to come in and that way if they didn’t respond I could contact them and find out why to insure I never missed anyone sending me their information.

As they came in I created a photo album and gave each person a folder in the album with their name on it and transferred all their photos to that folder. I then took their story and pasted it into the Word document. I had an email folder for each person individually and two folders called in process and complete. I moved all their information to the in process to start and once I had enough to start 4-5 people, I did up the introduction chapters and all the stuff I wanted in front and then did their chapters one at a time and as I completed 2-3 I would request the next 4-5 people send me their information so I was prepared as I completed, as it moved on I could request 10 at a time as I got quicker. I would move the completed ones to the completed folder to give me a visual in email and color them on the Excel spread sheet as well.

I used a Microsoft Word document to compile the stories as they came in and on occasion I would get the stories in a format that I didn’t have and couldn’t open so I had a back door email group from the CS.com web site (Thanks you guys/gals) that I would fall back on and typically one of them would have the means to open it, that or I would walk the person through cutting and pasting it into an email. I used Microsoft word to change all the font so it was the same size and the same font because it comes in, in a variety of fonts and sizes and then used it to spell check it as well because Blurb has a spell check system but you can’t teach it anything meaning it doesn’t recognize names etc and you can’t tell it to skip them all or add it to it’s spell check list so it stops constantly on every name or place or whatever so spell checking in Blurb is not easy which opens you up to mistakes once you cut it from Word and paste it in the book. At least you couldn’t teach it names with the version I was using, Blurb software is pretty easy to use and pretty awesome and they continue to improve the Blurb software so it may be better by the time you were to get to it.

I also started the Excel spread sheet and listed each persons name on it with their email address and the date their information came in and I colored the cells yellow once they were complete. Simply a visual tool for me to keep track.

I created an Email Chain in my email called GTCS Book so I could email updates and ask the entire group by only having to use one email address rather than list them all separate.

As I described I had separate Email folders for each person that I moved from the in process to complete as I did them.

Once I got down to the last half a dozen or so I established a deadline for anyone to enter and participate expecting to get some last minute entries which I did, I got one lady that entered on the last day and 2-3 that asked to be a part within a few days after the deadline which I let them in and did their chapters. The deadline was simply to put closer to it and I expected some to enter after so it was fine as long as I wasn’t done. Once I was done I would not have accepted anymore but I didn’t have to worry as no more came in.

A brief description of Blurb, you have to pick the size of book you want and you can’t change once you start without starting all over. I did two complete books and had to do them both separate of each other so I could offer two sizes. Blurb book software is free to download and use, it is very easy if you have computer skills, it will let you cut and past the stories right in very simple, that’s why I used Word to do all the font and spell check so I could just cut and paste it in. Then you can select the page type you want, text, photo, text and photo mixed in a large variety of layouts all at your choice, to put the pictures into the picture pages you simply drag them from your photo folder to the page and there they are, you have to move and adjust the size until it looks like you want it as it will apply the photo at it’s narrowest points to the slot which means it will go beyond the edge on the widest spot of the photo if the photo isn’t the exact shape as the photo slot but you can reduce the size and it works very easy. There are a lot of little quirky things that it does that you have to keep checking like page numbers and headers. If you insert a page randomly it can mess up the headers or page numbers but it’s easy to fix and I can walk you through that stuff if you try it.

It’s a lot to digest so read it a couple of times and ask any questions you may have.
 

robert campbell

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Joined
Apr 10, 2007
Messages
4,321
OH MY GOD Cory...... Wow.... I wish I could say more.... Words cannot describe the thanks I have for what you did and I hope all can begin to understand the time and effort you put in!

Thanks again! If the member from SAAC can get it done, he/she to will appreciate what you have accomplished!

Rob
 

PonyGal

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 14, 2006
Messages
555
Location
Loomis, Ca
Cory,

You did an amazing job on the book!! Sounds like you had everything pretty well organized and were able to take care of any little glitches with not too much trouble. THANK YOU again for doing this!!! Can't wait to get my hands on my copies!!!
 

CALIF GIRL

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Joined
Oct 10, 2004
Messages
643
Cory,

Thanks for the hard work. Can hardly wait for my books... Any answers on the extra dust covers?
 

PonyGal

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Joined
Dec 14, 2006
Messages
555
Location
Loomis, Ca
Both Kevin (68 GTCS) and I contacted Blurb. This is what they had to say...

"Hi Renee,

Thank you for contacting Blurb.

I am really sorry but Blurb does not currently offer an option to only purchase a dust jacket.

This is a popular request, and is an option we're exploring for the future. However, it is not something we expect to offer anytime soon.


Please let me know if you have any further questions.

Best regards,

Jeoffrey
Blurb Customer Support"
 

68 GTCS

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 26, 2006
Messages
130
Location
KERSEY, COLORADO
Cory,

Thanks for the hard work. Can hardly wait for my books... Any answers on the extra dust covers?

I contacted Blurb and just got a response back. They told me that they cannot sell the dust jackets seperate at this time or in the near future. The only way to get the dust jacket is to order the books with the dust jacket on them. Hey Cory!-----How is your color copier working:grin:, Don't tell me I have to buy two more books to get the dust covers! Are you sure that the hard cover imprinted doesn't have the inserts?:wink:

Kevin
 
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hookedtrout

hookedtrout

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Mar 28, 2003
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Idaho
Heck we could sure try and print some dust jackets out? That's a great idea. I'll see what I can put together once the books get here and I know what size I need. I think my printer only prints 11 wide or what ever a normal piece of paper is. Worth a try.

I play around and around and see where I end up..

Cory
 

Mosesatm

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Joined
Jan 18, 2005
Messages
9,003
Heck we could sure try and print some dust jackets out? That's a great idea. I'll see what I can put together once the books get here and I know what size I need. I think my printer only prints 11 wide or what ever a normal piece of paper is. Worth a try.

I play around and around and see where I end up..

Cory

Mine prints 19x13, I think. Is that big enough?
 
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hookedtrout

hookedtrout

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Mar 28, 2003
Messages
1,929
Location
Idaho
I would think that should be plenty big enough the books are 11 x 13, the biggest book and the narrow side is 11. I don't know how well they would hold up with ink jet ink but it might work. Heck if nothing else I could send everyone the two inside flaps and you could print and laminate them one on each side for a book mark and then you would have them. I would think we could replicate them in Microsoft Word or something?

Cory
 

di81977

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Joined
Jan 15, 2006
Messages
438
Just got a confirmation email. My book should arrive tomorrow. Can't wait to see it.
 
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