lulu.com

May. 5th, 2009 11:50 am
nerakrose: drawing of balfour from havemercy (lollipops)
[personal profile] nerakrose posting in [community profile] getpublished
http://www.lulu.com/

I found this site a couple of months ago. With it you can upload your book-files and publish your book as e-book, hardcover and/or paperback and it's supposedly cheap and gives proper revenue to the artist. Anyone can do it and there's no editor looking through your stuff (so the quality of some of these things are thereafter...).

Any thoughts and/or experiences with lulu.com or similar sites?
Would you consider using a service like this or not?
Would you recommend a service like this?
I'm curious.
(I for one would probably prefer a 'proper' publisher...)
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Date: 2009-05-05 12:29 pm (UTC)
elfcraft: (Default)
From: [personal profile] elfcraft
Having worked in publishing before in several different capacities, including acquisitions and editing, I would strongly recommend not self-publishing unless you a.) are a brilliant marketer and b.) have enough money to do your own marketing.

To put it shortly and simply, it's a scam. Don't let them take your money and run.

Date: 2009-05-05 02:33 pm (UTC)
nerakrose: drawing of balfour from havemercy (Default)
From: [personal profile] nerakrose
That's pretty much what I was thinking. As I said up there, I would prefer a proper publisher, simply because I don't believe it's that simple to publish a book...and then there's the marketing issue.

Date: 2009-05-05 02:47 pm (UTC)
From: [personal profile] missdanaidae
From what I've seen, Lulu is most beneficial to webcomic artists who want to sell printed copies of their work at conventions or through their site. I've read in many how to get published books and articles that agents and publishers don't like the fact that you self-published. My guess is that it makes it seem as if your work was not good enough to be accepted, so you were forced to self-publish.

I would not go with lulu because I believe in the good old-fashioned contract and advance against royalties method. If you really want to spend the money to get self-published then I suggest talking to local book stores about setting up signings. I worked at Borders for a few years where I saw people go nuts over local authors.

Date: 2009-05-05 02:50 pm (UTC)
nerakrose: drawing of balfour from havemercy (Default)
From: [personal profile] nerakrose
that's a point to consider - about what the agents say, i mean.

i like the old fashioned contract as well. :) i'm just curious to see what other people think about sites like this.
but hey, thanks for the tip, that's one thing i didn't know was possible.

Date: 2009-05-06 03:28 am (UTC)
From: [personal profile] meoryn
I've never used or really known too much about sites like that but I'd be leery of using them. I actually like the feedback I've gotten from editors in the past, they've been quite beneficial to improving as a writer. Some of it may be harsh but I think it serves as a big learning curve in the end.

I would definately go with the traditional method of publishing.

Date: 2009-05-06 08:48 am (UTC)
nerakrose: drawing of balfour from havemercy (Default)
From: [personal profile] nerakrose
sometimes the harshest critique is what works best. :) thank you for your input.

Lulu.com

Date: 2009-05-07 06:40 am (UTC)
cesy: "Cesy" - An old-fashioned quill and ink (Default)
From: [personal profile] cesy
I guess it depends on what you're aiming for - if you just want to sell something personal by word of mouth, lulu is fine, but if you want your book to appear in bookshops, you need a proper publisher.
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