MyPicTales Review

MyPicTales Review

by Marcus
(Denver, CO)

This is a user review. Click here to see Make Your Own Photo Book's MyPicTales Review.

I have used quite a few different photo book websites, and so far, MyPicTales has been the best all around. I have done 3 books with them so far, and am happy with the results.

WEBSITE:

The website is very simple, but easy to navigate. I would desire something more like Blurb's, mainly for sharing purposes, and I think it would boost their business.

To be honest, I initially skipped over their website, just because it looked so basic. Don't be fooled, this does not reflect the quality of the books. If I had anything to suggest to MyPicTales, it would be to model their website to Blurb, and this would greatly increase their business.

BOOK OPTIONS:
One of the main things that drew me to them is the size options and the image wrap options. They just announced that they have eliminated one or more of their sizes, with the release of the updated software. Hopefully it is not one I am interested in. I was happy to find an 11x17 size, which is virtually unheard of in the non-professional photo book world. I did my first book with this size, and it came out excellent.
Their image wrap for the customized cover is a glossy one and looks extremely professional. I was unhappy with Blurb's imagewrap as it is more matte and dull.

SOFTWARE:
Their software is very similar to Blurb (I have not tried their most recent update). It is a software that you download, and allows you to work on your book, offline. I make my own pages in Photoshop, so I don't know how the premade page layouts compare to the rest of the photo book makers.

SUPPORT:
I have contacted support a few times and they were very responsive and helpful.

SHIPPING, ETC...
They completed my initial book very quickly (one day) and had it shipped the following day. My second book took a little longer, but still quicker than most. They have various shipping options, and I had mine shipped regular US Mail (for the cheapest price). This cost me about five dollars and it got to me within two days from the ship date. Also, they offer coupon codes for a per cent off, on their homepage. They have done this every single month since I have joined them and the savings range from 25-50%, which is huge. They have competitive prices without the discount, but with the discount, they can't be beat. Getting a coupon code for Blurb is like finding a needle in a haystack. (Sorry, I don't mean to knock Blurb, as they are my second favorite, but I compare to them since they are so popular and the best I found until MyPicTales).

OVERALL RATING:
I give them a 4 out of 5 rating, not a 5 because I feel their website could use some asthetic and functionality improvement, but in the end, it really affects them more than it does me.

Another nice thing is that you can preview the entire book on the website (Blurb you can only preview the first 10 Pages) You can preview my 11x17 book, 'Unseen Vermont' at the link below:

My Unseen Vermont Photo Book

Comments for
MyPicTales Review

Average Rating

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Jul 22, 2011
Rating

Wrong Item Shipped; took a month; no customer service
by: R. Kaufmann

After a month after I ordered a photo book for my elderly father's birthday, a package finally arrived. Three written inquiries in the interim were ignored. When the package arrived it contained a photo with frame (and not the book that I had created). Customer service did answer and said that I should take an electronic photo of the wrongly delivered product and append it to an email back to them. My father really would not be up to that task. Then they suggested that my father take the original box and product and go to the post office and have it sent back, at his cost. There happens to be a heat advisory (in excess of 95 degrees today), so I am not putting my father through that. All in all, a terrible experience.

Jun 22, 2011
Rating

Really?
by: Anonymous

What a disappointment. Low quality, little or no proofing, I received a book with someone else's cover photo, both my calendars were the wrong format. Live and learn and move on.

Mar 23, 2010
Rating

Update to my previous review
by: Marcus

I want to do an update to my previous review:

I think mypictales may have gotten too much business to handle. Quality and processing time used to be great, now it is so inconsistent. The second to last book I ordered from them was my wedding album 12x12. The first copy had streaking on many of the pictures and there were some bends on the last pages. Customer service was responsive right away and they did send out another book. It was definitely better, but I still noticed some of that streaking. I decided to live with it. I ordered another copy for my mother-in-law after that (I had formatted the pages just for mypictales so I did not want to redo it on another website), and her copy came out with the good quality I had previously experienced through them a couple years ago. That is the inconsistency I refer to. I had also started a book from pictures from our honeymoon to maine, prior to receiving the wedding book, so I again didn?t want to start over on a different website. After I ordered that book, a month went by, and the status on their website still stated ?in production.? I contacted them and they indicated that they were having issues with either the binder or printer for that size book, and they had to do the books ?manually.? Another week went by and it still was in production status. I decided to just cancel my order and redo my book somewhere else.

I went through mypublisher, and I am very happy with the results. The thickest paper I have ever seen offered, attention to detail, professional, great quality, and extremely fast turnaround. They recently dropped their prices as well, as they were a bit steep before. They offer a buy one get one when you first sign up, which is awesome, and they send out coupons via email periodically. The 11.5 x15 book my publisher offers is very close in size/dimensions to the 11x17 book that I really liked that mypictales offered. The biggest downside to mypublisher, is that they can only do up to 100 pages. Most of my books that I have done exceed this, but luckily the one I did for my honeymoon in Maine was about 75. I really wish they would kick up the pages to at least 160.

That all being said, I haven?t experienced the non-responsiveness as others, from mypictales. Their customer service has emailed me back timely and has addressed the issues to some extent. However, I did feel that I shouldn?t have been the one to contact them after waiting a month. Sorry mypictales, but I don?t think I will be using you again. I will probably go through blurb for anything over 100 pages.

Apr 14, 2009
Rating

Beautiful Two Page Spread
by: Anonymous

You are a talented photographer and I enjoyed looking at your book you put together. There were two different two page spreads that look really great. I know you put your book together with photoshop -- but I wonder if that can be done with the software they provide?

I always try to put so much in a book to take advantage of the number of pages -- your book really shows that less is more.

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