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I have been blogging since 2009.
As of this writing, I have published 1,036 blog posts over the last nearly 9 years.
I’ve written about our days living in Hawaii, and the end of Matt’s time in the Marine Corps. I chronicled our 40 day cross-country road trip before we moved back to Minnesota. The beginning of my photography business is memorialized on my blog, as is the progression of my work as I blogged most of my sessions and weddings since I started.
The purchase of our first home was documented, and I photographed and wrote about adding a new furry member to our family in 2013. Matt’s triathlon career made many appearances on my blog, as did the addition of my first niece to the family.
And most recently, I wrote about my pregnancy and the birth of our son, Raleigh, followed by my journey into motherhood.
I began my blog as a 23 year old woman who was nearing her 2nd wedding anniversary and embarking on a brand new entrepreneurial career as a photographer, leaving behind her nursing bachelor’s degree.
Here I sit, writing this as a 31 year old mom of a baby boy and a feisty dog. Matt and I will celebrate 10 years of marriage this year.
The majority of the last decade of my life has been captured and written about on my blog.
It is precious to me.
For a long time, one of my goals has been to somehow get my blog printed into a hard copy book form. I’ve heard about people doing this, and I always thought what a cool thing that would be to have.
This winter, I researched my options and decided to finally do something about this goal.
Through my research, I found a company called Into Real Pages. They specialize in turning blogs into books, and from the looks of their site, they do a great job with it.
So, despite the big investment needed to turn my huge blog into book form, I decided to go for it.
The company has limits on how big their books can be. The biggest options is 700-some pages. Because of this limit, I had to break my blog up into separate volumes in order to get them printed.
Volume 1 is 2009 and 2010. This includes our Hawaii days, our road trip, and the beginning of my photography business. It includes all of the shoots and weddings from my first full year in business.
The book came and I could have cried. It was PERFECT.
Even better than I could have imagined. All of the time I took to photograph and write those posts – it is now in hardcover, printed glory at my home.
I loved the first volume so much that I immediately ordered a second volume: 2011 and 2012.
Soon, it too arrived and like the first, I adore it.
Digital to print is profound.
I still have to print the third volume: 2013-2016. I posted a lot less in recent years so I think I will be able to fit all of those years into one book. I’m waiting on a new coupon code before I order it because it’s going to be another BIG one.
My plan as of right now, once I’m all caught up, is to continue to print annual blog books from here on out. The annual books will be much smaller than the first three volumes but that’s ok with me. I will continue to build my collection.
Every time I see these books, I feel a lump form in my throat.
Knowing that I have tangible proof of all the time and effort that I put into my blog is gratifying.
Knowing that no matter what happens in the future with my site or heck, even the internet in general, I will have these books that chronicle so much of our lives these last nearly 9 years… That’s an emotional, priceless feeling.
I am so glad this company exists and even more happy that Google pointed me in their direction.
***Edited to add: After efforts of my own, as well as comments from many others on the non-existent customer service response from Into Real Pages, I went looking for another company to use to print my remaining blog books. I found BlookUp.com and used them to print the remaining 4 books of my blogging career to date. I wrote an extensive post about BlookUp and the blog books they publish. If you’re considering printing your blog into a book, I highly recommend BlookUp for their quick and easy process, gorgeous books and amazing customer service!***
woohoo!
Hi there, I was just reading your post on using “Into Real Pages” for blog printing. I too have been blogging for a decade and have hundreds and hundreds of posts that I’m interested in getting printed. So I found “Into Real Pages” and printed one of my blog years. I love the book but there were some glitches, a few pictures that printed incorrectly. I emailed them, and emailed and emailed and can’t get a response. I have gone through every avenue possible to communicate with them and it’s radio silence. Have you had success with communication with them? I would love to print a dozen more books but I’m nervous that I won’t be able to get a perfect product because they won’t respond. Anyway, too much information for you, I wondered if you had any specific successes with communicating with them. Or if your books just printed correctly the first time and you never needed to communicate with them? Your books are gorgeous, maybe I did something wrong!
Hi Chelsea!
Thanks for reaching out to me! I’m sorry to hear that you’ve had issues with your Into Real Pages blog book.
I wish I had better news, but unfortunately I have not had any luck in communicating with them either. I didn’t have any issues (that I have noticed) with my books, but I wanted to know about any upcoming coupon codes and I contacted them through multiple avenues and didn’t hear anything back. I think it’s a big shame because it’s such a great company and fills a huge need but their communication is really lacking.
So, I know that’s not what you were hoping to hear! I doubt you did anything wrong. The books are pretty much populated automatically so it’s likely a glitch in the system somewhere.
Do they have a phone number at all? I know they’re based in Europe so no idea if you could even call if there was one listed, but I never did try to contact them beyond email and twitter.
Good luck! If you do get ahold of them, I would love to hear what the cause of the glitch was and if you have been able to print your additional books without trouble.
Laura
I’m trying to turn my blog into a book using Intorealpages but I can’t get it to work. Every time I press “build the book” I get an error code. Have you used the site recently? I’m wondering if it’s my error somewhere or if their site isn’t working.
Hi Renee!
I’m sorry to hear about the trouble you’re having with Into Real Pages. How frustrating!
I have not used them recently, no. Not since I wrote the blog post about my books. It’s possible they are having trouble with their site?
Have you tried it on different browsers at all? I wonder if that would help?
Or maybe clearing your cache?
I have no idea if that will help or not, but it’s worth a try?
Unfortunately, their support seems to be lacking; people haven’t had much luck in getting a reply from them. I hope you’re able to get your book to print!
If you do get it working, let me know! I’m interested to know the outcome. I have more books I need to print, but haven’t tried recently.
Laura
Just found your blog when searching for “Into Real Pages” reviews.. and I’m going to throw my two cents in as well.. radio silence from them.. for over a year! So so frustrating. Does anyone have any leads on other sites that offer similar services? TIA 🙂
Hi Carla! I’m so sorry to hear that you haven’t heard a reply from them either. It’s really unfortunate for them. As far as another site, YES – actually, I just posted a blog post about BlookUp, the company I used to print the remaining 4 blog books just last month. Here’s the link to the post: https://www.lauraradniecki.com/turn-your-blog-into-a-book-blookup/ – they are AMAZING. The company, the book quality and the customer service is top notch! I highly recommend BlookUp. I think I’ll put a P.S. at the end of this post directing people to my new BlookUp post because it appears people are finding this post with the same complaints which is sad. But maybe people can use BlookUp and avoid the headache. Good luck!!
Hi Laura, hope you are doing well! For most of 2018 intorealpages indeed was down because of very unfortunate personal/family reasons. However, in cause you haven’t noticed, we are back since november 2018 with a completely renewed and improved service that many people are using to print their blog again. So Laura, in case you are planning to print another blog book and want to give our review a follow up: let us know ;-))
Maarten
Thanks for the update, Maarten! People searching for Into Real Pages and landing here will be happy to hear that!
Great – thanks so much for the reply 🙂
Hi.
Intorealpages is back !
I was waiting for a long time, but I did a wonderfull book with them last week.
I tried Bloockup before and it’s really not the same quality.
Bye
Mathieu