Damn! Glad I spotted this.
I shall miss this. I have created a photo book for every year going back to 1998, taking the year’s best (most meaningful) photos and adding some captions. It’s been wonderful and Apple’s book quality is excellent, and they’re all the same size so they look good on the bookshelf.
It was a great way to trim photo libraries but most importantly, it is a way for ANYONE to view them without requiring any tech or my ownership of an iCloud account. They’ll be around long after I’m gone and my digital life is deleted.
Apple, wtf are you doing?
I've been doing the same thing since my daughter was born, and the OCD part of me will miss having a bookshelf of Apple Books with identical spines...
Anyway, putting this out here for others, but Presto Photo supports printing books from Aperture, iPhoto, and Photos by using the PDF it generates as a preview
https://www.prestophoto.com/products/pdf/
It saved me when I needed to print an old book made in Aperture after Apple stopped supporting iPhoto and Aperture in March 2016. They look very comparable to the new books made with Photos, since you can no longer do the wrap around image for the cover.
Edit: Here is a quick comparison in price.
A large Apple Hardcover Book with 100 pages cost me $109.19, plus $5.99 shipping, tax... $122.37 out the door.
Printed out the same book on Presto Photo, was $60 for the book, $5.93 for shipping, for $65.92 out the door. If you want to remove their watermark on the back cover it is $10 more, so $75.92 for very close replication. I used "Binding Options 11"x8.5" Imagewrap Hardcover Photo Book, Silk 120 Photo Paper" and I thought it was comparable, thought they had more premium photo paper option for $22 more. My only complaint is that I find their dusk jackets a bit too glossy and leave fingerprints behind.