I received a lot of emails in the days and weeks
following the announcement of Ancestry.com's retirement of their My Canvas bookmaking
services. Many were upset, with projects in partial completion, we all felt
like the rug had been pulled out from under us.
However, this week there was great news on this front. Alexander’s , a printing company based out of
Utah will be acquiring the My Canvas software.
Alexander’s is already in the
business of printing family history books so this is not a new area for
them, in fact they have been the long time printer of the My Canvas books. Therefore, we should expect a smooth transition. The move will not take place until next year;
however your projects and services will remain intact at Ancestry.com until the
transition takes place. I’ll do my best to keep you up to date on changes with
My Canvas as they become available.
I did reach out to Alexander’s and asked about the
availability of shipping of My Canvas books to Canada. They assured me that
this service will be provided. That’s good news for Canadians who have longed
to be able use the My Canvas software for formatting their books.
Perhaps, Alexander’s acquisition of My Canvas software and
keeping the printing in house will bring the cost down, time will tell. While My Canvas is a great product, it is
pricey. Love to see it become a little more affordable for all.
You can find the full news of the My Canvas news from
Ancestry.com here.
Also on the printing and publishing front, one of my other favourite bookmaking companies is Blurb. Blurb announced some of their own news today. Blurb has established the Blurb Global Retail Network which will not only get your book into digital stores such as Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble but also into brick and mortar stores using the services of Ingram Distribution. Pretty much any book you pick up in a retail store was distributed through Ingram Distribution.
Ingram provides books to 38,000 retailers, libraries, schools, and distribution partners in 195 countries. And Blurb is your way in. You’ll be able to set any of our new Trade Books (made with Blurb® BookWright® or our plug-in for Adobe® InDesign®) up for distribution, choose your Share and Wholesale Discount, and send your book out into the world.
You can read more about Blurb’s
new services and in the meantime, I’ll be exploring Blurb’s new offerings and report back, we will also keep an
eye on the My Canvas move. Stay tuned.
