Booktailor, the online bespoke book production service, has formed an alliance with travel giant Lastminute.com to sell customised travel guides from its site.


West London-based Booktailor set up its site in November 1999 to enable travellers to "build" their own books online by selecting specific areas and destinations of interest using content licensed from publishers such as Lonely Planet and Hardens Guides.


Founder and chief executive Chiara Medioli said the tie-up with Lastminute.com was "a nice way to commercialise the travel bit".


Customers can now log on to Booktailor.com or Lastminute.com and create their guides. The process takes about 10 minutes and prices range from 9.99 to 34.99, depending on the amount of content used.


Once the book has been built online it is printed and assembled by GWC in Swindon, which uses Xerox kit, and despatched within 72 hours.


There are plans to produce personalised e-books but Booktailor claims 90% of travellers still prefer a paperback book.


Booktailor, which is backed by Bertelsmann Multimedia, is also due to announce a number of other tie-ups May. And there are plans to expand into subject areas such as cookery and health.


"Were getting a lot of interest from legal and computer publishers and organisers of courses and seminars, who want to leave it up to the end-reader or conference organiser to select a books content," Medioli added.


Story by Lauretta Roberts