Self Publishing On Lulu.com

[MerCYsMIraCLe]

I am interested in publishing some of my children's writings (Picture books etc..) with Lulu.com. Not really to get recognized, but to have something to hold - and read to my students (I am a preschool teacher)

has anyone used lulu?

 

[stormfront]

No, but that is something I'd be interested in as well, for personal use.

 

[Father Rick]

I have used Lulu...

Very professional. Pretty easy to use. I haven't had any problems at all.

You basically have 3 choices publishing with them:

1) You can publish straight through them without any attempt at distribution-- and you only pay for the copies of the books you actually want (and cheaper than having them printed at Kinko's).

2) You can choose to purchase a distribution package so that your book is available through Amazon/Barnes and Nobles AND lulu.com is listed as the publisher. For this, there is a fee of $99.

3) You can choose to purchase a distribution package so that your book is available through Amazon/Barnes and Nobles AND you are listed as the publisher. For this, there is a fee of $149. With this choice, the ISBN is actually listed in your name.

If you're just wanting material for your personal use, or for the use of a particular group (such as a church or business), then the first choice would be a great way to go.

 

[FriarErasmus]

Sweet! Thanks for the info

I've passed a link to this thread onto a christian author friend of mine who has been looking for a way to publish his works and get it available for sale. I'm not quite at this stage yet with my book, but it is great to know the resource exists!!!

 

[Tariel]

What happens to the copyright with the first option? Do you still have the option of selling the book someplace else?

 

[Father Rick]

Once you've published the material, you own the copyright automatically-- regardless. This is true not only of Lulu.com, but across the board, even if you were to go down to kinko's or someplace and have it printed yourself.


BTW... I really like your avatar...

 

[MerCYsMIraCLe]

I also know that you can change your option. Print or personal use - then late decide to purchase ISBN etc...

Father Rick, as I have not uploaded yet and am wondering about pictures (I do children's literature). Have you done this? Is it best to scan original work, or create a picture with a computer program? (I have heard scanned hand drawing is best.)

 

[Father Rick]

If you're going with color, I have no idea...

I have included black and white pics, imbedded into a Word doc that turned out great.

If you have everything in Word format (just use the templates they supply for sizing) they will automatically convert everything into pdf format for you. If you do the drawing and scan it in, you should be able to just imbed it into your file with no problem.

 

[Doubtless]

Hey, FriarErasmus, your friend would be much better off with Lightning Source, if he wants his works to be out there for people to buy. They cost less (a LOT less), and they do distribution to Ingram and Amazon and even pay the shipping. If you want more info about it, go to www.fonerbooks.com It's the personal blogsite of Morris Rosenthal, the founder of Foner Books, who uses Lightning Source (often referred to as LSI) to publish and distribute all his books. The distribution charge for LSI is only $12.00 a year, whereas Lulu charges, as said, hundreds. You DO need, however, to supply your own ISBN number, which you can obtain from the Bowker Agency ("agency" in this case meaning they were granted a monopoly over the ISBN business by the government). I don't know how much they charge for single ISBNs, but for a ISBN block (which establishes you as a professional publisher) it's about $225-250. A block contains ten ISBNs.

Hope that helped you and your friend.

~ Eric M. Boellner

 

[faithmom]

Wow! Considering one of the reasons I was excited to find the Writers Guild today is to learn and understand more about what is going on in the publishing world, this is great information!

Very useful information.

Maybe you should re-title this as a general thread to have people keep posting resources and experiences with publishers, marketing, etc. Even how the cyberworld can be best used to get books out there.

BIG !