The Personal Web Pages of Chris Gerrib

Self-publishing with Lulu

My friend Jeff Duntemann suggested that I write a little bit about the self-publishing experience with Lulu.  I decided that was a good idea, so, here goes nothing.

Update 9/6/06 - The Villa Park Argus / Press / Spectator, my local newspaper, did a nice feature article about me.  It's not available online, but click here (PDF, 1.1MB) to read it.

Why Lulu?

Well, when I decided to self-publish, I had a list of places not to go to.  Among them was Publish America.  I've heard nothing but bad things about them, from poor-quality work to being overpriced to not paying in the (unlikely) event you got any royalties.  Not wanting to try and sort truth from rumor, I crossed them off the list.  Then I was reading John Scalzi's blog Whatever, and he suggested Lulu.  I knew his editors at Tor, the Nielsen Haydens, had used Lulu for their SF parody novel Atlanta Nights, so I assumed that the place was legit.  I decided to give it a try.

What's Lulu Like?

In a word, self-service.  I've published through Lulu, and, except for one email, I have had zero interaction with a Lulu employee.  Basically, the system works like this:

1. Author creates an account on Lulu, just like setting up a web-based email service.
2. Author then uploads a Word document or a PDF file to Lulu's server.  This document needs to be formatted exactly as it will appear in the book (margins, etc.)
3. Author can either select a cover from Lulu's stock of generic covers, or upload as a PDF file.  (I had this done for me - see below)
4. Author then decides if they want an ISBN.  When I went on Lulu, they had a $35 ISBN only deal or a $150 Global Distribution deal.  I bought the later, which meant my book was automatically uploaded into Books In Print, and filtered out to Amazon, etc.  In fact, Whitcoulls, a New Zealand bookstore, lists my book!  Now, due to issues with Amazon, if you want an ISBN (which you need to sell from anywhere other then Lulu) you have to pay $99 for Global Distribution.
5. The author selects the suggested retail price, both if the customer buys direct from Lulu (more profitable) or via distribution (higher end cost).
6. If you pick the Global Distribution option the book is also printed by Lightning Source, Ingram's POD shop.  The author has to order a preview copy and approve the book before it's released to Books in Print.  Lightning Source has some tight specifications on cover layout.  (My initial cover didn't quite meet specs, so this was the one email from Lulu.)
7. Lulu offers some self-service PR and marketing stuff, most of which I've not found terribly useful.

Advice and Wish I Woulda's

I decided that I needed an editor, somebody to format the book, and a cover designer.  To do this, I hired a Lulu-recommended third party, Dixie Press, to do it all.  They have a number of package deals, mine was $245.  The picture of Mars was taken by the Hubble Space telescope during the 2003 opposition, and I provided that to them.  They did a nice job, including three cuts at the cover.

If I was smart, when I had to order a preview copy, I would have ordered a bunch, slapped a sticker on them, called them "Advance Reader Copies" and gotten more reviews.

Overall, the process was, well, idiot-proof.  Of course, as in any self-publishing endeavor, if the text is garbage, the book will be too.  Nicely-packaged garbage, but just as stinky.