Extra Tart

Haven’t tried out the blog in awhile, hope it hasn’t gotten too rusty while I’ve been away. It’s a bad sign when you’re asked to update WordPress every time you log in.

And so but anyway, I got my first free Hotprints book today. On the one hand, it really is free; you don’t pay shipping or anything. On the other hand, it really is free; “quality”, not so much.

The process is very easy - they don’t have any photo editing tools, but who doesn’t have those at home? I had a problem with the uploader and had it pull my pics from Facebook. It took probably an hour to learn the tool and make the book. I’m seeing some mistakes now (that I made, nothing they did), but nothing major. One thing I’ve learned - if it looks like the font is too small on the screen, it really is too small. GO BIG.

I’m not crazy about the layouts; the pictures all seem kind of small and lost on the pages. Most of the pictures are about 2″x3″ - tiny if you’re used to getting 4×6″ prints. There is no layout customization; you pick from a static list. There isn’t a large selection, either, but I’m not holding that against them because it is pretty new and I expect them to add more as time goes on.

The paper is thick and somewhat matte; think Target’s Christmas catalog, but not so shiny. (Which is actually what I thought it was when I got to my mailbox, and wondered why it was showing up so late.)

The pictures themselves aren’t bad. They’re small (even when you select 1 print per page) and somewhat dark - definitely use one of their border options, as that really helps them stand out from the background. The pics are better than you’d get printing at home but not as good as getting prints from Costco. Of course, they’re much cheaper than either of those options - home prints are around $.50 per page, Costco 8×10s are $1.49, and this is FREE.

Advertising: The reason these books are free is that they come with an advertising page. (You can choose to pay and not get ads, but I wouldn’t.) The are the center two pages of the book, so you can easily pull them out, leaving no indication that they were ever there. VERY happy about this. (I mean, they said you could do that, but why would I believe someone who was giving me a free photobook?) Interestingly, the only ads I got were for HotPrints itself. (Get a free book using the “free4friends” code and your FaceBook account.)

In summary, I’ll be continuing to use the service. I’ll try manipulating my prints a bit to make them lighter/more contrasty, and always remember to use a border. If you’re looking for an heirloom keepsake, this is not the service to use; if you want a fun memory photobooklet, go for it.

We got half a dozen Wii games for Christmas. December 26th? The Wii stops reading all discs, which is a major send-it-in-for-repair failure. Ah well.

Went to the National Book Festival on Saturday. It’s a lot of fun, with tons of books and readings and gobs of great swag. Aaron and K were even in the program this year (from getting their picture taken last year, not like in the author bios or anything).

But we totally missed out on seeing Jan Brett, because stupid Laura Bush took over the children’s tent, and of course she’s way too special to have to conform to the schedule, and her stupid security line was so backed up that there was no hope. (Memo to whoever set up the “security” there - it’s a freakin’ tent! Not even the kind with view-obscuring walls! If I’d wanted to assassinate the first lady, I would have skipped the line and just shot her from one of the sides. Would have saved everyone a lot of trouble.)

But we did get to hear Susan Meddaugh read Perfectly Martha, which was good enough for K. And we got to do crafts, and went through the Magic Schoolbus, and hugged Clifford, and I got to see Neil Gaiman (and so did K, and she actually cared once I reminded her that he was the guy who wrote The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish), and that’s not too bad.

(Neil Gaiman was, of course, fantastic. If I’d brought my copy of Good Omens last year, Terry Pratchett could have signed it, and this year I could have gotten Neil Gaiman to sign it, and how awsome would that have been? (Well, not that awsome, because it’s just a signed book, it really doesn’t mean anything, but it’d still be kinda cool.))

Last year was better, as far as authors we all wanted to see, but this year had more kids’ stuff, so I declare it a draw and look forward to next year.