I’ve been asked about the book I made a lot lately so I thought I’d post kind of a FAQ here.

A Creative Year

Hanna, can I buy your book online?
Yes, you can get your own copy and it is only available online as print-on-demand (POD) from lulu.com !

Where can I buy it?
Visit lulu.com to preview the first few pages - and buy it fresh from the printer!

But how do I buy a copy?
You click here, then the Add to cart-button next to the image of the book cover. Then you fill in your information and send your money to lulu via paypal or your account (using a VISA card). Thanks for asking!

Was it expensive to make?
To upload a book cover that you’ve designed and the content of a book (a manuscript) costs nothing at lulu.com. To make it available for others to buy costs nothing. I have bought one copy of my own book so far, and I paid just as much as everyone else gets to pay. The price is at lulu for everyone to view and consider! I make about 2 dollar from each book sold I think.

Have you checked out blurb.com too?
No, I had not heard of this site before I started this project. But now when I’ve viewed their prices and book sizes I think the prices are about the same but Lulu has more book options like different binding types and sizes of the book to choose from. My book is 6 x 9 inches (=15×23cm) and that was exactly what I wanted!

A Creative Year - my book

What the heck is POD?
POD is short for print-on-demand which means I don’t have a pile of books to sell or give away. I just can’t afford to get a stash of my own book! Instead Lulu prints a new copy for every order they get via their site. These costs a bit more for the buyer because the printing process is more expensive when they print one copy instead of 2000, but it makes it possible for a poor creative girl like me to make a book without taking a bank loan! I like that.

What do I get if I buy your book then?
My gratful thanks - and a beautiful 240 pages soft bound book filled with ideas, inspiration, projects and colour photos on almost every page! It would make a great Christmas gift…

Can I/anyone make a book?
I don’t know! It took a lot of time for me, and I’ve done both layout and design before, so it probably depends on how much time you have and how good you want your book to look. To upload a manuscript is not difficult at all and then the rest is easy, so if you want to have a book of your own I think you should go for it!

I had a good year last year, it was very unlike this one I’m working through right now. I’m glad I picked 2006 to become a book. I had so much then that I’ve now lost and miss greatly. And when life goes on constantly a book can be ended on a nice day where the future is bright. I really like that about a book, that you have the power over what to include and what to exclude, when to start and when to stop. I love books with a good ending so my ending is bright and glorious!

Diane has posted about my book here in her blog, and next month she’ll post an interview she did with me over Skype last week! Then you’ll be able to hear my sweet voice… (sic!)

In her review of my book over at the lulu-site she wrote;

    If you make things, or want to be more creative, this book is a treasure.

Isn’t that nice?!

It was fun talking to Sister Diane even though I was so very nervous that the butterflies in my stomach were almost escaping! I was stuttering and forgetting words all the time, so I’ll be impressed once more with Diane’s show if she can edit my talk to sound nice. She asked a lot of great questions though that made me think and reflect on the book and why I made it.

If you have any questions please comment and I’ll answer to the best of my knowledge!

Thanks for your visit!

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8 Responses to “A Creative Year - this book is a treasure”

  1. on 24 Oct 2007 at 0:35 sUzi blU

    I have a Question!

    What program did you use for your layout and is that the file that was used to upload the manuscript with?

    vEry cool and inspiring what you did

  2. on 24 Oct 2007 at 0:38 trea

    Well, congratulations for your book, I’m sure it is fanatstic. I just discovered your blog, j’adore…

  3. on 24 Oct 2007 at 18:06 Cre8Tiva

    i commend you for doing this…making your creative year available to others to see is very giving…thank you…blessings, rebecca

  4. on 25 Oct 2007 at 19:08 hummmlan

    Vad coolt! Den ser jättefin ut!
    Jag gjorde en egen barnbok med illustrationer på
    “Gör din egen bok”, http://www.gordinegenbok.se/index.jsp
    Det var hur kul som helst! Och vilken lycka att få hålla den i sin händer! :-)

  5. on 29 Oct 2007 at 11:36 iHanna
    Suzi BlU,
    To answer your question I used Microsoft Word to
    edit the text that I copied from my blog. The images
    moved around a lot, but in the end it looks like I want it too. I downloaded a word document from lulu.com where the borders/margins were correct to the book format Iwanted and when you upload the document lulu-site converts it to a pdf, but you can also do that before you upload it so really you can use any program (for layout I recommend Quark Express or Illustrator or InDesign if you know them) and send the file as a pdf to lulu. I hope that helps?

    Good luck, can’t wait to read your books everyone!

  6. on 10 Nov 2007 at 4:51 dawbis

    wow, this is really great :) i’m happy for you and hope someday to purchase your book!

  7. on 19 Dec 2007 at 20:14 Cheryl Hagedorn

    Hi. I’ve got two posts about your blook and your process. I was hoping that you would take a peek and let me know if I missed anything. Yours is the first blook I’ve found that was from Sweden. If you know of any others, will you let me know? Thanks. And by the way, congratulations on your book!

  8. […] Once I did decide what layout to go with all I had to do was make it perfect for each spread. Again, easier said than done. And again (I’ve made a print-on-demand text book before thought this is my first photo book) so time consuming! Extremely time consuming. Because each photo has different colors the text blocks need to be positioned just right. One box moved a few millimeters this way - does it look okay? Will it print well? Is the background too busy? Should that text be black or should I change it to white? And so on, page by page for 70 pages! I think one could fiddle with it till the dawn of time without ever feeling completely finished… But in the end, there has to be and ending or you won’t be making books (just vasting time). One should really test print the whole thing, but just a few pages of full bleed pages kind of run me out of ink; […]

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