Lulu.com

Only about 60 pages all told. I always think perfect bindings look better than saddle stitched, but I'd hate for the glue to start to crack in a year or so. I recently bought a few books from the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, one of which was on sale and marked "no returns." When I got it I found out why--the glue was so brittle the binding broke the first time I opened the book; I eventually ripped all the pages out, holepunched them, and put them in a binder. That book wasn't a Lulu printed book, but I can't help but be a little nervous about their binding without first-hand experience. Maybe I'll go with saddle stitched after all.

Question about LuLu

Can someone tell me if there are any charges relating to being published with them? Thanks much.

None at all That's the beauty of it...They have a calculator on there so if you're book is like 60 pages it will calculate what you should be asking...It's really easy...they will convert the files for you and everything.

Actually they do charge a surcharge/fees... but it's all calculated in the base price of the book (then you set your own "royalty" above that). But no upfront cost or out of pocket cost.

Ahh...thank you Maestro

Thanks much, Bill & Ray. Most appreciated! I'm thinking of doing my poetry e-book with them and can't afford any fees, even basic, unfortunately.

sherri234 said:

I'm thinking of doing my poetry e-book with them and can't afford any fees, even basic, unfortunately.

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Can I propose something radical?

You don't need Lulu or anyone else to publish an e-book. And in all honesty, you aren't going to make much - if any - money out of sales.

Why not give it away? Create your e-book and self publish it under a creative commons licence. My favorite poet of the moment, Rebecca del Rio, has done this with a selection of her poetry and offers it asa free download from her site - http://www.rebeccadelrio.net/html/poems.html - and will shortly be adding mp3 readings of her poetry as well.

You don't make money - but an e-book isn't a big earner anyway - but you do get read - her e-book gets downloaded around 50 times a week.

Decide what's important - earning pennies, or wider recognition. Build up a fan base of people who love your poems, and when you offer the next anthology for sale, they'll buy.

Their bindings are as good as any you'll see on a perfect-bound trade paperback in any bookstore, so no worries there. Overall, the physical quality of the books is excellent.

You may have another problem, though. They have a lower (and and upper) page limit for their perfect binding. It's listed somewhere on their site. I have it stuck in my head that it's 70 pages, but I could be mistaken.

bird

70 pages? I remember that too. But I can't find a minimum. The spine width calculator and the book cost calculator both go well under 70.

It's on Lulu now with a perfect binding and Lulu didn't seem to have a problem with its 60 pages. Maybe they removed the minimum at some point. I have a copy on order to take a look at it, but I expect the binding will be okay. At any rate, it's not exactly high art; I just don't want the book to fall apart too quickly.

I found it! It's 35 to 740 pages for perfect binding, and 3 to 88 for saddle stitch.

You are most certainly welcome Sherri.... You have to be careful of other publishers on demand out there...some will require you to buy so many books and such. It all depends on the market and who wants to books. Don't let anyone discourage you because i'm certainly not going to let anyone discourage me.

It's very difficult to get published these days as it is...so why not do POD...at least you get your name out there and some kind of recognition

aspiringwriter said:

It's very difficult to get published these days as it is

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These days? It's always been difficult to get published. That's because publishers tend to discriminate between good and bad. POD will print anything, no matter how bad.

Thanks much, guys,

Mike, I understand what you're saying and know first-hand that most e-books don't sell well, especially poetry, but I really can't afford to just give my e-books away, as much as I'd like to, but sure appreciate your suggestion.

In what way can you not afford to? They are electrons, nothing more. They cost nothing.

How many copies of your e-book would you expect to sell, and for what return? Realistically?

Look at it this way; people dislike parting with money if they don't have to - you are a case in point. Who is going to part with their hard-earned to read a poet they never heard of? It's hard enough for established poets to sell anything more than a handful of copies.

Giving something away - especially something that costs you nothing - is bread cast upon the water. Your ebook buys the reader's goodwill. It's win-win. They get something for nothing, and may like your work. It costs you nothing, and they are potentially a future customer. If they like your work, they'll buy the next one.

What have you got to lose?

Thanks much to both of you. Sure appreciate your input!

A Different Question about Lulu

I'm planning a little project that I'm planning to use Lulu to print. It's only going to be a few private copies, not a book to self-publish for sale. I see Lulu has a hardcover printing option. Has anyone ordered or seen a hardcover from Lulu? If so, is the binding quality acceptable?

I've loved my experience with Lulu. The books are all very high quality, the royalty is what they say it is. But please note, Lulu does NO promotion for you. Its all on you to promote your book. With that said, Lulu's forums have been invaluable for great ideas. Good people there. I'd highly recommend Lulu to anyone.

jcdelatorre said:

I've loved my experience with Lulu. The books are all very high quality, the royalty is what they say it is. But please note, Lulu does NO promotion for you. Its all on you to promote your book. With that said, Lulu's forums have been invaluable for great ideas. Good people there. I'd highly recommend Lulu to anyone.

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How many copies have you sold? And how did you market it?

Question about Lulu

Can someone tell me if I can sign up with Lulu now and then do my book later on? Thanks much. Much good luck, everyone.

Yes, you can just open an account, then fill your "products" later. When you are ready to make your book, you can follow the on screen instructions. If you don't want to sell it, just make it "not available" or something like that. Then only you can order the book.

Thanks so much, Ray. I knew I could count on you for an answer. Really appreciate that.

Well, I know the question was already answered but thought I'd affirm that it *really* can be done since I'm doing it at the moment I have opened an account with Lulu but have not actually uploaded my book. I think I went through the first part of the wizard which asks for the book title etc. but that's about it.