Resources

I just ran across this site:

http://www.lulu.com/

Is there anyone out there who has tried this. It might be quite cool, even just to get one printed for yourself. You never know maybe someone else will buy it too.

Andrew Chilton - http://kapiti.geek.nz/

I followed the thread on the NaNoWriMo site regarding Lulu and a lot of people really liked the quality they got from this company.
I had planned to take advantage of their 'free' copy for those who got their NaNo in before the due date but never got around to rewriting this one spot that was bothering me so I missed out.
You can use it to just buy copies for yourself and family, or you can 'publish' on there, which brings complications in if you are wanting to publish it traditionally at some point - well that seemed to be the general consensus anyways, I dont know enough about publishing to know for sure.
Certainly sounded like a quality option if you wanted to go a different way to traditional type publishing.

http://vyanae.blogspot.com/

Cool. Glad you found out about that threaad. Maybe we (KiwiWriters) could get in contact with Lulu about SoCNoC. That would have been great to get a free copy of NaNoWriMo from Lulu.

In fact, I might just use them to get copies (once I've finished the novel) for my family...this is very exciting :-)

Andrew Chilton - http://kapiti.geek.nz/

I missed out on Lulu in the Nano forums - pity, I ended up playing with my format settings in word to print a booklet, but it was sub-standard as far as I was concerned.

The coolest thing that came out of it was a logo for my publishing company. :-)

Off to read that site.

Travis.
--
http://cottreau.blogspot.com
http://cottreaureviews.blogspot.com/

Looking at the Lulu site, I have to say, those books look awesome.

Once I edit my Nano novel and get it just perfect, I'll publish it on Lulu. :)

Of course, I'm sure they are showing the most expensive options, but still, it's comforting to know that you have the option to print a book looking like that. They are lovely.

Travis.
--
http://cottreau.blogspot.com
http://cottreaureviews.blogspot.com/

I'm planning on using lulu as a publisher for my Semaphore annuals and free quarterly PDFs, but I hope to be able to publish my own short stories through paying markets.

[a href="http://www.freewebs.com/semaphoremagazine"]Semaphore Magazine[/a]
[a href="http://www.stornowaystories.blogspot.com"]One Girl's Quest to Kill Trees[/a]

I never thought of using lulu.com for magazine style publications.

No Excuses. Just Write.

Yep, I've published my new novel via lulu. It's a fair bit of work to get the formatting etc just the way they want it but once done, publishing is a breeze. I have ordered my 'first' copy, and when I get back to NZ it should be waiting for me. That will allow me to see how the finished product is before I make it 'public' on the site and allow people to order/download it.

I would recommend it to anyone who wants to self-publish; it is not a vanity press, and because they have non-exclusive publishing rights you can shop the thing around as much as you want - many publishers these days apparently appreciate self-promotion, and if you have good sales via lulu, they may take more notice.

Will let you know what happens...

I guess I should put some funny quip here.

There is a self publishing press opening in New Plymouth, I'll see if I can find the details, my brother has a friend who is getting her children's story printed through them so I will see if I can take a look and check out the quality.
It's probably more of a vanity press than anything else, I haven't looked into it but had heard about them. Will see if I can find their link.

http://vyanae.blogspot.com/

For anyone interested.

http://www.zenithpublishing.co.nz/publishme/index.php

http://vyanae.blogspot.com/

The main problem I see with this site is that you have to pay them to print your book, which you then have to sell. If you choose to print only a few, you will be hit with high costs, whereas if you print a lot, it will still cost you a lot and then you have to get rid of them. More than one author out there has dusty boxes full of unsold books. I think vanity press, as you said, and many other publishers can do what this site does for you.

The other issue is that compared to lulu this site looks like it was designed and built by a two-year-old. As a hobby-designer myself, I am always suspicious of cheap-looking sites.

To clarify; lulu is a POD publisher (print on demand) which means that your book doesn't exist in print until someone buys it, in which case it is printed and shipped. My copy was printed, cover and all, bound and shipped within 3 days of my order (as promised on the site), and , as they work with a few printers, worldwide orders are easily filled.

Also, you can sell (at a much cheaper rate obviously) the book as an ebook; a pdf created when you go through the steps of publishing via their site. I personally don't like reading ebooks, but some people do and can buy and download right away, giving you 100% of the profit from the electronic version.

With lulu you can optionally buy their services, including an ISBN, which you need if you are to sell on Amazon, Barnes and Noble or even Whitcoulls. As part of that package they list your book with all the big names - all the author has to do is either buy marketing or do their own to get the product out there and link back to either lulu or the other online seller. I would rather spend my money on marketing than printing a ton of books I might not be able to get rid of (especially because my books are rubbish!)

While this site has potential, they would have to go a whole lot further to even get close to lulu's business model.

By the way, I have no affiliation to lulu other than having self-published my book there. If it was a mistake, I'll soon find out!

Dave.

I guess I should put some funny quip here.

lol lulu's stuff looks good, the people who got one after nano really liked the product that they received so I don't imagine you'll think you made a mistake.
I was only posting the above link as an example, Zenith who run it are publishers for books the regular way as well as the self publish way and they do a lot of stuff for schools, I don't think I have the time to market my own books so will probably not use services like lulu unless it was just for myself or a gift or something I think. It's a big world out there and I wouldn't know where to start! lol

http://vyanae.blogspot.com/

Cheers for that Cassie.

It would be interesting to know how much they would charge for a run of, say fifty copies. My lulu book came out at about 10 bucks to produce, and I stuck a price of 14 on it (US$) which worked out about 22 kiwi dollars, 7.95 cheaper than a 'normal' paperback novel of that size. All copies bought by the author are sold at cost, so it is a cheap way of getting even one copy. I doubt any publishing house could do (or would even be interested in doing) 1 copy at that price.

I guess I should put some funny quip here.

Probably not, lulu seem to have a really good set up and if they run that 'one free copy' thing this year again after nano i'll be making sure I have mine in order in time to get one and see how they look.
Does anyone know how many copies the average person who self publishes and uses online bookfronts etc actually sells?

http://vyanae.blogspot.com/

I read somewhere that the average is less than 1000 copies, but I have met someone who has sold 10 000 copies of his lulu.com-published novel, if only through a very aggressive marketing practise.

As for ISBNs, anyone planning on publishing a book with one should know that although the US branch of the ISBN Agency charges $US250.00 (I think) for a block of 10 ISBNs, you can register for one here in NZ for FREE. Ain't that great? Go over to http://www.natlib.govt.nz/services/get-advice/publishing/isbn if you want to check it out.

[a href="http://www.freewebs.com/semaphoremagazine"]Semaphore Magazine[/a]
[a href="http://www.stornowaystories.blogspot.com"]One Girl's Quest to Kill Trees[/a]

Thanks for the review, Dave. I only had time for a quick look to see how they would compare to something like lulu.com.

Good question about self publishing numbers, Cassie. I'll see if I can find any information on it.

No Excuses. Just Write.

Ooh, and a wuestion for you, Dave: how much was shipping for your book?

[a href="http://www.freewebs.com/semaphoremagazine"]Semaphore Magazine[/a]
[a href="http://www.stornowaystories.blogspot.com"]One Girl's Quest to Kill Trees[/a]

@ ophelia-stornoway

Shipping was 7.00 (US), expensive for us Kiwis, but on par with Amazon et al.

Most people on lulu don't sell much because a) they do not have an isbn and therefore only sell via lulu storefront and b) they do not market.

Thanks for that tip on the free isbn, I will be looking into that. If you buy an isbn through lulu you get one of their 'block' numbers; if you want to then republish through, say, Random House, you would need a new isbn for that print run due to having a different publisher.

From what I can gather, with a package from lulu and one of their isbn's (which means you also get listed with the big online stores and other databases (libraries etc)), sales can be quite high, and with (usually) higher 'royalites' it is possible one could do quite well out of it.

Of course, the bottom line in all this is the book. If it's crap, no-one will buy it regardless of how much it costs!

Cheers.

I guess I should put some funny quip here.

Having forgone sleep for research... Once you have an ISBN number, it seems that you can just make an Amazon publishers' account and start selling POD books there. You'd need to do your own marketing, but then again, who doesn't do their own marketing in the world of the internet?

I could be wrong of course. My brain is befuddled with lack of sleep. But I'm beginning to get the impression that all the lulu deal gets you is marketing.

ETA: And if you are a NZer and you publish a book, even through an overseas POD like lulu, then you're required to donate a Legal Deposit copy of your book in the national archives. Just in case anyone doesn't know. I think that means they register you somewhere.

[a href="http://www.freewebs.com/semaphoremagazine"]Semaphore Magazine[/a]
[a href="http://www.stornowaystories.blogspot.com"]One Girl's Quest to Kill Trees[/a]

@ Ophelia.

Good information, thanks for posting it.

Yes, the 'deal they sell at lulu (they have two, but international users only have one to choose from) gets you an ISBN, plus marketing and listing in all the relavent databases (libraries, etc etc). May not be worth the 99 US$ but then again, for those who have seed money that isnt a bad deal, and sure beats having to do it all yourself if you are time poor.

You can start selling lulu books anywhere you want, which is the general idea. If you want to print 1000 and have them at your house and sell them door to door you can do that as well, but most people will go for the 'cheap' option; POD and a lulu storefront and 'hope' that someone stumbles onto it and buys it. Due to my experiences in sales and marketing, this approach (and many posters on lulu's forums confirm this theory) will get minimal sales. A better way is to find an ezine and advertise, or print a few coipies of the book and send it to relevant magazines, newspapers etc for review (though when I did this with my computer book anly a handful of reviewers bothered to a) thank me or b) even bother replying). Still, a review in the right place can push sales through the roof, though as one publisher told me; people don't write books in NZ and expect to make money. In many ways I don't want to believe that.

The thing is we just don't know. Maybe our books will be the next 'Lovely Bones', we just have to get them out there.

I guess I should put some funny quip here.