I’m creating a digital scrapbook for Jameson for his first year which I don’t plan on publishing until after his birthday in December. So I’m a little ahead of the game when I started researching where I would publish his photobook. But because I had some specific requirements (square format, lay-flat binding), I wanted to make sure ahead of time that I could create exactly what I wanted.

I have ended up selecting a site called My Photo Creations, in connection with Digilabs who print for real photographers (So I have to think their quality is good). I had to limit my size though to 10×10 instead of 12×12 like I originally planned.

Anyway, this hunt started me on the search for photobook deals. I spent some time on the (confusing) site of Photobookgirl to help me determine where to begin my search for a square, lay-flat binding book and read some of her reviews. My top picks were:

• Adorama – Best quality! But expensive. Has real photo books.
• My Photo Creations – which again, seems to be the best compromise for what I want to do, but max size is 10×10
• Picaboo – Best pricing with groupon that runs pretty regularly, but cheap quality according to reviews.

Anyway, during this hunt I also uncovered a $20 free gift card promotion with My Publisher (Note: you cannot combine special offers). They have these new mini books that they were also running free shipping on — so I received 8 mini books for the cost of tax (no guarantees for how long this promotion will be running). However, I wasn’t impressed with their photo book software which I had some difficulties with before successfully placing my order (pages being duplicated, unclear direction, etc.)

A couple days ago, Brian uncovered another photo creation site from slickdeals.net which I hadn’t heard of called Paper Coterie who are relatively new to the scene. They are running a $40 free promotion until May 8th (just extended). I purchased two spiral bound photo books for the price of shipping and a little extra, since my books were $22 each.

I like this new site because it doesn’t require you to download any software, and they layouts seem pretty flexible. And it was really easy to do a two page spread. I am excited to receive my order, since their facebook page has all kinds of customers raving about their customer service and the quality of the products.

In addition to photo books, they have some really nice looking unique calendars and other products. I’ll post a picture of my book when it arrives!