Has anyone had luck with lulu?

Question

Anyone had solid results using wwww.lulu.com to self publish? Or has anyone had luck with self-publishing in general. I personally think it is not worth the effort. Just looking for opinions...

Answer 1

I'm not a huge fan of self-publishing because as the user above states, most of the books self-published are below industry standards, have been poorly edited--if edited at all--and usually don't make it anywhere at all. However, there are some good things about lulu.com that some people overlook. If you're a writer who is tired of beating your head against the huge brick wall that is traditional publishing and simply want to see your work in print and have friends and family be able to purchase it, then lulu.com is your safest bet.

You *can* get an ISBN for your book through lulu.com, but you need to purchase it just like traditional publishers do when they buy the numbers in bulk.

With lulu.com, there's nothing for you to buy, so there's no "box of books". You follow their process and if you want a copy, you purchase one. Otherwise, you set up what they call a book front and sell your books through there. Using lulu.com costs you nothing until it comes time to purchase the finished product. Then--unlike a majority of self-publishing services--you buy whatever quantity you want from 1 to infinity.

An guy I know from work used Booksurge to publish his book, and he did quite well with it because it was listed on Amazon and a few other online bookstores. Did he make a fortune? No, but he sold a couple hundred books to complete strangers. Will he make a living at being self-published? No, not likely, but he started somewhere and someone has noticed him.

Stephen King self-published his first book and sold it out of the trunk of his car. Will every self-publisher turn out to be like him? Not very likely, but you have to decide for yourself what's right for you.

Should you decide to go this route, have someone edit the book for you who knows something about editing. Have a decent cover. Buy an ISBN number. Have it listed with reputable online bookstores. See what happens.

It's definitely not for the lazy writer. You have to work to sell copies. You have to market it.

Regardless of the choice you make, I wish you luck with your endeavors!

Answer 2

Lulu is fine if you want to buy a box of books to give out to friends or sell to friends and family. Otherwise it is useless. Lulu will not get your books on shelves in bookstores, and that is how books are sold. Without an ISBN number, your books will not even be available for sale on Amazon and B and N. Lulu is a vanity press. That means that anybody who thinks they are the next Shakespeare can publish anything they want to without going through any traditional channels. If you can pay, you cannot be rejected. 99% of what is published on Lulu would be rejected by any traditional publisher. You should know that in the entire history of self publishing, only NINE books have become best sellers. The Celestine Prophecy is one of them. The other 2 gazillion books published by Lulu and other self publishers are low quality books with terrible cover art, loaded with errors. Self publishers do NOTHING for you besides ship you a box of books. They offer zero in the way of marketing. You are correct - it is not worth the effort - unless you are just seeking to see your name on a book. The truth is it doesnt even count as being a published author. Anyone in the traditional publishing world gets good laughs out of Lulu authors calling themselves published authors. But in all fairness, Lulu isnt the worst. There must be about a million lawsuits against Publish America right now. They are the bottom of the barrel. Tough it out and publish traditionally. It is a lot harder, but the results are worth it. Pax - C

Answer 3

Lulu's a great place to learn how to set up your text for printing, design your cover, etc. If you want to just have a few copies of a book you wrote, it's also good for that, reasonably priced, considering the intent.

But if you intend to actually market your book you'll want to use the knowledge and skills you acquired at Lulu to use a larger printing/distributing house, such as LightningSource.com. (They do the printing for Lulu and most of the large publishing houses)

Lulu is good for what it is. A great learning experience. But you need to strike off on your own if you want to make any financial returns on the words you write.

Answer 4

Looked at it but have not yet used it. I hear some really positive things about it.