The Writers' Circle

Some time ago I wrote about a site that self publishes books at low cost. (Blurb.com) and I promised to report on progress.
Well, now I can report that the small book that I was working on actually exists, and can give the pros and cons of using the site.
As I said in the first report, this is a vanity site, therefore you have to pay them rather than the other way round, but as the idea was for me to produce something that agents are likely to look at  i.e. the finished article rather than a loose pile of paper, it made sense to do it.
So what do you get for your money? Basically a professional looking book with your name on it.
How do you produce it? This is actually pretty simple. You join the site (Free), download the book making soft-wear (Also free) and use it to make your book. The soft wear was very simple to use, even for a dinosaur like me, and when you are happy with what you have produced, you press the publish button, buy one copy and your book then exists. The site then puts it in their on-line book-store where it can be bought by anyone. If you want to make money out of it then you can add to the price and every-time someone buys one you make money. The beauty of the site is that there are no costs other than the purchase of one book. No set up fees or the need to ever buy more than one if you don't want to.
Now the down side. - Your book will cost more than a similar commercially produced book, for example although it is possible to publish for ten dollars, once you go above 40 pages, or use colour printing, or high quality paper the price go's up.
My little book is 80 pages, full colour and costs 30 dollars plus postage for the soft-back version and more for the hard cover, and I have not put a mark-up on the price. Also your book is not listed on the main markets (Amazon etc) and does not have a ISBN number. No great shakes if like me you are going to use your book as a publicity vehicle, or if you just want a book on your shelf with your name on it. 
I have no commercial connection with the site other than every other one of their customers so this is not a sales pitch, just a report.
If you want to see how it all came out google in blurb.com and when you get to the site go to bookstore and either click on humor or put the keyword churchmouse in and you will see the finished article. You can also preview the first 15 pages of the book. The title is Churchmouse tales vol 1

Update to the update: The book has now arrived approx 5 days after ordering it, and it looks pretty good. The print quality is very professional and I'm quite pleased with it. I will be ordering some more copies before starting the process of author to publisher to waste paper bin.

Yet another update 2 months on: (This thing's turning into a blog)
When the book arrived, I lent it out to different people to gauge their reaction. The first half a dozen all said that they liked it which was very good for the ego, but the 7th person (also a writer) said that they also liked it but had found a couple of minor punctuation errors. AAARRGH!
So, I then gave it to my eldest daughter to look at. This is not as dumb as it sounds as she is an English teacher and lectures on Shakespeare at Warwick Uni. She fine combed it and finally came up with 12 minor errors within the 20 odd thousand words.
The point of relating all this is to highlight the fact that it important to have someone else edit your work before you send it off to someone who might pay you for it. And also before you get too excited and order a truck load of books with errors.
I'm now in the process of changing the text of my little book before ordering the second one.