Lulu vs. Authorhouse?

nccreative said:

. . .comparisons between working with Authorhouse vs. Lulu? . . .

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The difference is that you don't "work with" Lulu. It offers book-printing services (and other comparable services -- brochures, CDs, I think, and so on). You use it, not "work with it." For someone who can create a 100% camera-ready file for a book and who is comfortable uploading files and jumping through the other hoops online, Lulu is very handy. Otherwise, not, unless you pay someone else to do those things.

Authorhouse and the other subsidy publishers sell hand-holding (formatting, cover design, and so on) that Lulu does not.

Anyway, there are several threads on AW devoted specifically to Lulu. Worth some time. Also, time would be well spent working through the FAQs and other information at www.lulu.com.

In as sense, I suppose you could think of Authorhouse, Trafford, and the like as Lulu on some expensive training wheels. Depending on purposes and preparation, it can be better to deal directly with Lightning Source (the POD book printer) than with Lulu. But that question gets into a lot of complications I do not want to explain here (and lack some information on anyway).

Lulu, Authorhouse, and all the rest all have the limitations that go with print-on-demand publishing. Some just cost more up front. (And of course, run screaming the other direction from PublishAmerica.)

--Ken

If I were still willing to self-publish (which I am not, see my website for details if you really want to know) I'd definitely choose Lulu over Authorhouse.

Yeah. You don't have to pay Lulu ... you might still not get many sales, but at least you won't lose any money trying. On the other hand, I know of at least one person (Mark Robson with his Darkweaver Legacy) who has had remarkable sales with POD. From what I understand, however, he aggresively promoted his books and endured a lot of hard work to do it.

Michael said:

From what I understand, however, he aggresively promoted his books and endured a lot of hard work to do it.

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Is there another way to be successful?

Michael said:

. . . remarkable sales with POD. . . .

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Dozens of copies? Scores? Hundreds? Thousands?

--Ken

MarkP said:

Is there another way to be successful?

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With self-publishing and such? You need to be very smart, very lucky, and promote like your life depends on it.

I think Mark said he's sold about 50,000 copies all told, for the entire series. From what I understand, that's a pretty high figure for self-published books.

Michael said:

I think Mark said he's sold about 50,000 copies all told, for the entire series. From what I understand, that's a pretty high figure for self-published books.

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Sales like that (quite impressive!) would more than justify normal print runs rather than POD.

--Ken

From what I understand, his new series is published traditionally. I'll have to check, though.

Michael said:

From what I understand, his new series is published traditionally. I'll have to check, though.

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Do you mean commercially? "Traditional publisher" is the phrase that vanity press PublishAmerica invented for itself.

--Ken

Comparisons

nccreative said:

Things change so quickly, and I don't have time to do a thorough comparison of the two, but can anyone here offer any comparisons between working with Authorhouse vs. Lulu? She's looking for the most in the way of support (she is blind, so this is a significant issue).

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Just spotted your post and after 4 months, this may be a moot point. However, you may want to check out this link [keeping in mind that AuthorHouse and iUniverse have merged; check out those threads, too]:

http://online-book-publishing-review.toptenreviews.com/

Cheers!

There are a lot of self-publishing providers out there and it pays to look around. Lulu is the main no-fee option but there are others, just as there are many fee-charging companies other than authorhouse.