has anyone made a decent profit from publishing at lulu.com?

Question

........any sucess stories

Answer 1

I seriously doubt it. Nor will you. Lulu's company philosophy is that it is better for them if they sell 100 copies each of 5 million books than 5 million copies each of 100 books. That is great for Lulu but it doesn't do much for you as the author. Yes, their average sales are 100 books. I have seen authors who have sold as little as THREE books.

Your books won't make it onto bookshelves in bookstores. And no matter what any of the Lulu sockpuppets they send to these forums to gush over how great the service is - bookstores are where the action is. Bookstores still sell more books than online. And I don't see that changing.

With nobody knowing you have a book for sale because Lulu does nothing to promote or market your book, it is up to YOU to sell your books. I have heard of people investing 50 or 60K by refinancing their homes to promote their books and ending up losing their homes.

The simple truth is this. IF you truly believe in yourself and your book you owe it to yourself to spend at least twice as long promoting your book and trying to sell it traditionally as you did writing it. Sure, self publishing is the simple way out. All you have to do is make sure your check clears the bank. Nobody cares about the content. It doesn't have to pass the scrutiny of agents or publishers. I could publish the Chinatown Phone Book as long as I could afford the fees. But it wouldn't make me an author. It would make me a vanity press author. What makes you a true author is having your book selected by a publisher who is willing to take a chance on you and publish it.

That can take a long time, but the wait is worth it. Gone With The Wind was rejected 50 times. Stephen King got so mad over delays that he threw Carrie in the trash and his wife had to rescue it. But the effort of both authors paid off.

If you go to my profile you will see I star all great Q and A on publishing and writing. Read through them and pick out some you think might help you. Print them out. Many very good authors have come here and offered information.

Treat yourself and your book with the respect it deserves. Don't give up on traditional publishing and settle for a poor quality self published book that sells 2/3 as many copies as you have family and friends.
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They're, Their, There - Three Different Words.

Careful or you may wind up in my next novel.

Pax - C