Positives
- Direct link to Facebook and Instagram
- Fast auto-build and photo arrangement
- Books with up to 475 pages
- Cover customization
- Cost-friendly base prices and shipping
- 30-day money back guarantee
Negatives
- Primitive desktop and mobile editor
- Insufficient design options
- Weak direct customer support
Although there are plenty of online services allowing customers to create photo books using only their social media accounts and have the whole building process done quickly with an auto-fill option, there are still plenty of setup screens to face before your project can be called an actual photo book. But with the super-minimalist My Social Book builder editing won’t be a problem anymore: by connecting your Facebook or Instagram account to the Hong Kong-based company’s online builder you’ll be able to create quality photo books in less than two minutes.
Customizations like the type and appearance of the cover or the option to upgrade paper quality are reduced to the minimum, but that doesn’t mean you can’t give your photo book a special touch that other photo book editors offer by default. And to top it all, not only does the company offer photo books with a record-breaking 475 pages, but they are also available at cost-friendly base prices alongside a fast, reliable and affordable shipping policy and a 30-day money back guarantee.
Introduction to My Social Book
Features
Although the editor is available for mobile browsers, it is not pleasant to use from devices with smaller screens or in an upright position. Unfortunately, the desktop version is no better: granted, the builder that can be directly connected to your Facebook or Instagram account delivers what the company promises by creating a book under 90 seconds, but unfortunately due to its extremely primitive nature – which even limits how many pages you can preview – your hands are tied. My Social Book only allows you to determine the time period of images to be selected, the necessary information and/or sources to be included, the number of comments under each photo, how the cover should look on the inside and outside, and whether or not the book should be in another language.
The Builder's Dashboard
Preview of a Best-of Photo Book
Setting up the Time Period
Additional Customization Options
However, picking the type of your future book offers a better range of variety. For instance, there is My Social Book’s flagship product; the 50-page long, automatically generated “My Best-of Photo Book”, which is built from your most popular Facebook pictures. Aside from this, it is possible to order My Social Book with everything imported from your Facebook and/or Instagram profile, but you can also build your photo book pictures from a page you liked to create the ultimate fan book. Moreover, if you have the necessary permissions, you can even build a photo book using pictures and posts from your friends’, partner’s or family’s social media accounts.
The Full Product Range
Creating a Fan Page Photo Book
Determing the Content of the Book
But no matter how you choose to fill your photo book, once the time period has been determined, literally everything will be imported from the selected social media profiles, which are always arranged automatically and in a chronological order without any option to modify them. This means you should forget about layouts, backgrounds, embellishments and other forms of customization. Granted, there is the option to choose whether information like wall messages, mobile uploads, shared pictures statuses and comments should be printed and certain posts can be removed manually. However if you included descriptions on your Facebook pictures, they will also appear in your book even if the photo-only option “My Social Book Photos” is selected.
Designs
Although the wide selection of the types of your photo book provides the biggest freedom, the design options available for the cover are your best and only real chance at customizing the book to your liking. With My Social Book you can pick from 13 different layouts for the book’s cover, but only the front side can have pictures on it. In fact, the front cover is the only place where you can modify the photos to be used by the software and there are options to adjust them a bit. Additionally you can change the color scheme of your book if you don’t fancy the default white one. However, keep in mind that choosing any of the 16 colors will not only change the appearance of the cover, but also the interior layout as well – at least where certain parts are concerned. And last but not least, you can modify the text that will appear on the front and back cover, though the font, the size or the color are all restricted.
Types
It doesn’t matter which kind of photo book you are creating with My Social Book, they all arrive in the same 10×8 size and in portrait orientation. Thankfully the customization options are not limited to just one size and shape: the cover’s type can be altered and even the standard 60lb paper can be upgraded to a deluxe, 80lb silk paper type. Unfortunately, however, there aren’t too many options when it comes to picking the right cover: My Social Book products can be ordered with default glossy soft cover, a glossy hard cover or a matte hard cover.
Another thing to keep in mind is the number of pages: your book should always contain at least 25 pages, but if it doesn’t, the software automatically warns you to include more pictures from either your Facebook or your Instagram account. Shockingly, it’s possible to include as many as 475 pages in total, which comes with an unexpected benefit: the more pages your book has the less the price of each page becomes ($0.27 per page instead of $0.48 per page).
Pricing
Since the prices of My Social Book products depend on the number of pages, the type of cover and whether you want to upgrade to the silk photo paper, it is impossible to give a concrete suggestion on an exact price of a photo book in advance – despite the fact that the website provides a price estimator on its homepage. However, the base prices are well advertised: a 25-page book with the default soft cover is $12, while upgrading to a hard cover raises the cost approximately by 15–20% (in this case to $15). The only product that has a fixed price no matter what is the 50-page My Best-of Photo Book: it’s $12 with a soft cover, $14 with glossy hard cover and $16 for the matte hard cover option. However, while only the standard paper option is available for the My Best-of photo books, upgrading to the silk paper quality in other products raises the price by approximately the same amount as it costs to upgrade to the hard cover.
Sadly discounts are not the strong point of My Social Book, but the company makes up for it by offering a 30-day money back guarantee on all its books.
Customer Support & Shipping
The regular customer support of My Social Book is very weak, since the help page is reduced to just an FAQ. There are options to contact the company for support too, either through the irritating live chat – which constantly nags you even during editing – or via an email address. However, all of the above support options are available in nine languages other than English. The company is also surprisingly active on social media platforms: not only it is present on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook – mostly advertising the company’s blog articles – but it has also established a Facebook group for customers who’d like to help My Social Book further improving the services.
The Company's FAQ
Live Chat Support
Email Inquiry
The Blog of My Social Book
Thankfully the company’s shipping policy is more or less consistent, allowing customers to ship anywhere and not only to U.S. destinations. Regular delivery without tracking to domestic addresses is $3.99 and usually takes 6-9 business days, while shipping with tracking starts from $10.99 (and reduces the more products you order) and delivers within 6-7 business days.
Bottom Line
If you are one of those customers who want to have control over the customization their books then in truth you’d better be off with another photo book service. The fact that you are limited to making modifications only on one of three covers, and selecting from two photo paper types and one book size is not enough options for modifications. And we haven’t even mentioned the terrible book preview, the inconvenient mobile browser version, the inconsistent pricing policy, and the insufficient customer support. But for those who want absolutely nothing but a quality, up to 475-page long photo book created very simply from their best Facebook and Instagram photos within a short period of time and for relatively affordable prices and shipping, then My Social Book is definitely a worthy contender. And despite its flaws and overly minimalist nature it does successfully deliver what it promises: a Facebook or Instagram photo book in under 90 seconds.
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Billie says
I am totally disappointed in my social books I received this time…there were no comments that were included after my post. This was a journey/journal I kept during my husband’s fight during his transplant journey and the comments were so important. I had ordered 3 books before and all comments were included, but that didn’t happen this time…I ordered 5 books!!!! I husband lost his battle on May 19th 2018…😞😢
Beth Everett says
I had the same experience. They are blaming Facebook privacy rules but they are careful not to tell you until after you pay for the book and no refund. The book was also shorter and more expensive. Definitely not worth using anymore.
Andrew says
don’t use this service!
due to Facebook changes, the comments no longer are printed on your photos! but My Social Book website still tells you they will be printed! no help from their helps desk either,
“As mentioned, we were just aware of the changes Facebook has made. Although at the moment, the team is working on updating the site with the changes.
Also, I understand for the inconvenience for this matter. To get a refund you should follow this procedure:
You must return the products to the address which appears at the end of this email in its original packaging, if possible, and in the condition received within seven business days of receipt. Once the products arrive back, we will reach you concerning your request as soon as possible.
For more information, please, refer to the return policy stated on item 7.6 – Delivery Acceptance on our Terms and Conditions on the following link:
https://www.mysocialbook.com/TermsAndConditions
My Social Book
5/F., Dah Sing Life Building
99-105 Des Voeux Road Central
Hong Kong”
what a joke!!!
Jennifer says
In November 2016 before creating a private FB group I confirmed with Social Book that I could create a book that way that would include all pictures, posts, and comments. I was told yes, that as long as I added SB when I was ready it would be a breeze.
In late 2017 when I was ready to make the book, this option had been removed. 😡. According to the conversation I had it would probably be changed at some point, but for now, SB decided it was better to not provide the promised service than to serve their customers. I saw lots of feedback and frustration from people on similar situations. Bottom line: This was not a good decision.
It has been over 18-months and I checked back to see if they had decided to reinstate this option and was told no.
This group is the story of our adoption and I would have gone a different route had SB been honest with me. Printing it was always part of the plan.
Sal Partible says
I had ordered four books spanning four periods from 2008 to 2017 and they came out great. I went back about a few months ago to place more orders for the subsequent periods, but the editing process was changed, no commentaries included, can’t edit what pictures/posts to include, only allowed a chapter of the book to preview, and unlike the first orders, our choices are very limited. We’re pretty much on a take it or leave it situation. I don’t think I’ll go back to this kind of service, sorry.
Daniel (Best Reviews Team) says
Hello, Sal Partible, and thank you for your comment!
Indeed, changes were made regarding the content to be printed in your book. This is because some content started being blocked by Facebook since May 2018 (like comments from friends). You can find a full list of all the updates and what will be printed in your photo book here.
When editing your book, you can select the date range, change colors, titles, cover layouts, and cover image(s), as well as remove posts. My Social Book uses the date of the pictures to select them, so if their date is not in the time range you choose, they won’t be included.
Regarding the preview, you can take a look at a short one by clicking the ‘See inside!’ button that appears once the pages counting is over. However, you can check and edit the complete list of posts. Find out how by visiting this page.
We hope we were able to solve your issue. Have a nice day!