With the current topic of Self Publishing and Vanity Publishing.
Check out SFWA website on this they are as usual a better resource than RWA or EPIC.
I have to admit I have really only one online company I can recommend wholeheartedly because they simply do what they say and are upfront and reliable. That’s for both the author and the reader. Lulu.com
The books I have bought from Lulu have never been cheap but they were nicely packaged and well made. The authors I have met who use them are pretty dang intelligent and know what they are doing using Lulu and are doing it. Safe, sane and respectful like. That is what they promote and that seems to be ten times better than anything involving Publish America or Author Solutions or even Amazon’s CreateSpace.
So that is what I have to say about that.
If you are thinking about Self Publishing check Lulu out first and read all those resources for writers I link to on my website here.
Tags: Lulu, Self Publishing
Alex Beecroft wrote,
The best thing about Lulu (as compared with, for example, Harlequin) is that the author doesn’t have to pay anything at all to use Lulu. There’s a fee for listing your book at Amazon, B&N and various other online stores, but that’s all, and even that is optional. So it’s perfectly possible to publish through Lulu without paying them a single cent. They recoup the costs out of the price of the book (which is why they’re quite expensive) and the author gets royalties from the first sale onwards. The phrase “money flows to the author” is literally true with Lulu.
Link | November 18th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
vein wrote,
Lulu isn;t perfect and made some mis-steps recently. But they are still a pretty good and honest deal until Whorizon.
Link | November 18th, 2009 at 8:41 pm
vein wrote,
I mean *unlike* Whorizon.
Sigh.
Link | November 18th, 2009 at 8:41 pm
Angelia Sparrow wrote,
I use Createspace for the republishing side (nobody wants to do short story reprints). All I ever pay for is the print copies, same as with Amber Quill and other presses.
Link | November 18th, 2009 at 9:04 pm
A.J. Mirag wrote,
I published Clippings, my gay romance, through Lulu. Lulu is not perfect, but I’m overall happy with the results so far. If I decide to self-publish again, I’ll probably choose Lulu again.
Link | November 19th, 2009 at 2:22 am
Jordan Castillo Price wrote,
I’ve published print through LuLu, LightningSource and CreateSpace. LuLu had the lowest print quality of the three. Its paper seemed thinnest and the cover was slightly askew. Even so, it was in acceptable range.
My favorite company of the three is CreateSpace. They’re easiest to use and they have real time reporting of your sales. If they had international distribution I wouldn’t bother with LightningSource, whose setup fees are quite pricey.
With LightningSource, my paperback was supposed to be available through Ingram. And yet when I went to a booksigning, Borders said they couldn’t get the book through their distributor. Nice.
I’ve also used LuLu to print a full-color children’s book for a friend and the results were great. We went through a lot of proofs, but it was still economical to do it ourselves compared to what a vanity press wanted for the project.
Link | November 19th, 2009 at 5:53 am
TeddyPig wrote,
I might feel better about CreateSpace guys but they do have this “Make you a star on Amazon” centric come-ons that turn me right the fuck off. Plus I am not all that sold on single distribution channel options but as an added side bet along with something else non-Amazon as backup why not.
Link | November 19th, 2009 at 5:55 am
Moriah Jovan wrote,
FYI, Borders said that to a customer about my book too (which is in Ingram’s catalog and listed as NONRETURNABLE), and I went to have a little chat with them.
They lie. On purpose.
Link | November 22nd, 2009 at 10:40 am
Moriah Jovan wrote,
I use Lightning Source exclusively right now, but I’ll also be going with CreateSpace for Amazon-specific orders. I’m getting too many at Amazon now to be paying all that shipping.
Link | November 22nd, 2009 at 10:41 am