Book Publishing

Ok I have some free time now that 23 Things is over and I am working on trying to publish my books. I currently have at least three and although I sent my best to a friend at Simon and Shulster, I have not heard anything in over two months so I am moving on. The two main books I am trying to create are 11 x 8.5" (a standard landscape). One of the biggest things that BUGS me about all of these is the 20 page minimum! I only need 14 pages!!!
I first looked at Lulu because my Dad recommended it. I like the services that they offer and the reason ability of their prices, but their software needs some tweaking. Everytime I load a word file it warps my text and it cannot seem to upload my PDF files from iPhoto (because of size differences). I did try Lulu studio as that is their book creation software but not only do they have VERY few themes (and no travel theme!) but they also have very limited layouts and very few with text. So although I keep coming back here because I hope to upload from another program, it is not my first choice right now. I did manage to convert my iPhoto book to lulu using a trial copy of Adobe inDesign, but it took a couple of hours and some compromises in the layout and size of the pages. But now I can get pretty much the same book MUCH cheaper and in paperback or e-book format. As for their selling service they have the unique option of allowing people to buy your book OR DOWNLOAD an e-book, which is nice. I can also get the books for a very REASONABLE price (almost exact book at lulu $6.30/ea for 25 copies, or about $18.00/ea at blurb).
I downloaded Booksmart Blurb and I really like that one and made and advertised a complete book BUT they have so few themes and very few theme background options that unless I keep using the same theme over and over I am stuck. I also cannot import files from anywhere else, they MUST be made in their software which is a drawback. I would choose this as my first choice IF they got more themes OR allowed you to upload from other sources.
I looked at Snapfish Photobooks and theirs look great if you only want a photo book but they have a lot of themes but only one travel theme, then you can't even put text on the cover of the book! The layouts are lowsy once you get into it and it is hard to navgate their page to begin with. Snapfish is out.
I also tried out MyPublisher and this is attractive because they offer me a discount because I am a costco member. I really like how there are many options for the travel theme alone. (I guess by now you can tell themes are important to me.) However they offer you no ability to print or save in any format except a MyPublisher file. MyPublisher is out.
I tried Kodak and they are actually one of the worst surprisingly enough. Very very few layout and theme options. Very expensive not the program for me.
Shutterfly is one that my mom has used and liked but only for basic photobooks. They have some of the best themes and layouts of all the programs but they are still very expensive and I cannot export the file in any manner to re-upload to Lulu for cheaper printing. So this option probably will not work for me unless I want to make the book and then screen capture the pages into inDesign. It is an option but I am going to keep looking.
Picaboo looks REALLY good but I have a MAC and until I can find some free time on a Windows Machine with all my files I will have to put this one to the side.