blurb vs aperture books

[mojitomax]

in the acronyms of todays yoof, OMG!!!

i was in the middle of making a photobook in aperture of my girlfriend and mine's travels through europe in a campervan when i thought i'd check out blurb.

aperture was charging about £80 at the point i was at. i have about 85 pages in the book so i thought it would be a lot and it is the extra large hardcover book.

even though blurb were cheaper and have been recommended i liked that i could add maps of where we'd been in the paerture book really easily. i finished the book and went to checkout - £115!!!!!!! i nearly fell off my chair.

blurb would be charging about £50ish - they don't charge VAT which apple does!!

it's just a shame the book sizes are slightly different otherwise i could do the layout in aperture and print to pdf and convert to JPEG in preview and then upload to blurb.

Oh well, at least it will be pretty

[GetCarter]

How come Apple charge VAT?

I sell blurb books but even though I'm VAT registered, am not allowed to charge VAT (Books are zero rated).

Strange.

[mojitomax]

I was confused about that too. I'm going to email apple and see what happens. Probably nothing

[sgrimshaw]

At that price I would have found a way to convert what I'd already done, or started again with Blurb.

[Nick M]

GetCarter said:

How come Apple charge VAT?

I sell blurb books but even though I'm VAT registered, am not allowed to charge VAT (Books are zero rated).

Strange.

I suspect they're looking at this as a service (printing photos) rather than considering what the format of the final product is, i.e. photograph, mug, book, etc.

Though it's interesting that another supplier has taken a different view, or at least has decided to be more specific about their VAT treatment of photo books.

[mojitomax]

sgrimshaw said:

At that price I would have found a way to convert what I'd already done, or started again with Blurb.

I was going to but I'd have had to change nearly 90 pages with multiple images worth and I need it for 3 weeks time so I've bitten the bullet on this one

[cirks]

Nick M said:

I suspect they're looking at this as a service (printing photos) rather than considering what the format of the final product is, i.e. photograph, mug, book, etc.

I would guess it's exactly that. The product they are selling you is the service. However, if you (or Steve etc) sell the finished product which is a book, there would be no VAT chargeable.

[GetCarter]

I guess that's right...but Blurb don't charge....maybe it's where they are based.

Edited by GetCarter on Thursday 25th November 14:04

[Nick M]

GetCarter said:

I guess that's right...but Blurb don't charge....maybe it's where they are based.

Edited by GetCarter on Thursday 25th November 14:04

That would appear to be the answer - seems they print stuff in the Netherlands and ship from there, according to their website. I'd assume the contract is formed with the entity doing the printing, hence why no VAT.

[Mr_annie_vxr]

I've had a book from each now and both are similar quality.

I didn't look too closely at the price but it wasn't that different from memory.