Experiences with Lulu?

I'm considering using Lulu to self-publish a small spiral-bound planner-style book for independent musicians (will include music publicity advice, in addition to tour planners, budgets, show calendars, and possibly some sample contracts ... things like that). It's a small niche market, and one that I have a lot of connections in, since the majority of the work I do through my publicity firm and my webzine is with artists in this market. More than anything, I'm interested in doing this as a means of "testing myself" publicity-wise. I have some larger book projects I'm planning for next year for this same market, and I want to see how viable POD publishing will be, given my promotional outlets. I don't even intend to sell over Amazon.com, at least not in the beginning. I have a network of sites (some already running, and others to be launched in coming months) targeting this same market, and I intend to promote the planner heavily over the network, at shows I sponsor, and through contests on my own sites and other sites I've become affiliated with.

If you've used Lulu in the past, I'm interested to hear your feedback on them, specifically the quality of their products. I've read some threads here comparing them to other publishers, but mostly in regards to the cost of selling on Amazon, which I have no interest in. It's simply too small of a niche, and not a popularly searched topic of books. I think the direct route will work better for me publicity-wise. Any thoughts?

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I know musicians who have used their CD service to keep selling old albums they no longer want to mass produce, but I didn't know anyone personally with printing experience through them. I'm grateful for the comments.

Jenn

Carmy said:

Everything I've herad about Lulu has been positive, except for one.

An editor of a collection of short stories was dismayed to find that Lulu published the wrong version of the collection (the one before the final edit). I guess it was his fault for not having checked a bit closer before they went to print.

Click to expand...

That sounds a bit odd for Lulu, since they're POD. Even if they print the wrong version, it would have only been for the number ordered. And since they can't print anything you don't upload to them, why would someone upload an unfinished copy of anything? Not too bright on the author's fault I guess. Thanks for the feedback.