Authors and creators can purchase the number of copies they need and distribute books themselves. Or, customers can buy any number of books directly from the Lulu bookstore or other retail sites.
Authors who wish to distribute and sell their print books to online retailers such as Amazon. Note : Even if you do not intend to distribute your print book to retail sites, we strongly urge authors to purchase a single copy of their work to review before purchasing a large number of copies. The Lulu global network of printers produces books based on the best fit for the job in a given region of the world.
Some of the factors that determine where your book will print are: book size, binding type, order quantity, page count, delivery destination, etc.
We take great pains to ensure consistency in look and feel for our printed products, but there can be slight variations in printing and binding between orders. This variation is not a workmanship or manufacturing defect and does not qualify for a refund or return. Lulu pretty much invented online self-publishing. However, no matter how hard we try, we can never be all things to all people.
If you fit into any of the following categories, Lulu may not be right for you. Traditionally, publishers do all the marketing for their authors' books. That takes resources, which is why it is difficult to get a book accepted by a traditional publisher. Lulu lets you publish your work without going through a publisher, but that means the burden of selling and marketing your book falls to you. There are ways to do this and the internet provides many avenues for self-marketing including tips for marketing your book that can be found in the Lulu blog.
While we offer ISBNs for books published through Lulu which means your book can be ordered through bookstores , print-on-demand economics cannot provide the large discounts bookstores require to stock books. Over the years we have put together an extensive collection of how-to articles that walk you through the creation, publishing, and distribution of your work. If you need more assistance, click the Support link, choose a topic and browse a curated list of help articles.
While creating your project, you will be asked to enter the identifying information, or metadata, for your book.
This includes the following:. You will set the retail price of your book on the Pricing and Payees step. The minimum retail price will be displayed. You can then choose to either add a set amount of revenue per book or set a fixed list price. The pricing step includes a real-time calculator to help you work through the retail price and revenue combinations in all supported currencies. You may set any price equal to or greater than the minimum retail price.
In this case, It may be simpler to set a retail price and let Lulu calculate your revenues. Once you have uploaded your ebook and entered your book's details, you can set the price and choose the retail sites on which you would like to sell your book. The good news is that Lulu is really easy to use. Aside from tearing my hair out because my poor typesetting skills often create problems, I have never had any problems with the book creation process. I should really pay a proper typesetter to set it up to exact parameters, but we established earlier that spending money is not something I do with any great enthusiasm!
The first step in creating a new project is to choose the size and paper for your book. There are lots of options, which can be confusing. The best advice I can give here is to avoid the budget paperbacks. As far as size is concerned this will depend on the project. A friend told me recently that they determined the size of their books by measuring some of their favourites and picking the size that was closest.
That sounds as good a way as any to decide to me. Next step is to upload the document—and then check the document. Never order copies without thoroughly checking the online proof. Quite apart from problems created by uploading the wrong document altogether a costly mistake when you order 40 copies without checking! You will need a good internet connection as the upload can fail if it takes too long.
Next you create your cover. A ready-made wrap-around cover designed by a professional is by far the best option. Although I have been too cheap to do this for most of my books—are we sensing a theme here? Make sure you give the cover designer the exact measurements—including spine width—or chaos could ensue!
Other independent authors have said that the cover does most of the work selling books. Perhaps this is one area where I should stop being quite so cheap and fork out for something decent.
Maybe next year! Once your cover is sorted the last thing to do is add a few details about your book and order the proof copy. Once the proof copy arrives you can then enable the expanded distribution. All you have to do is click the button. If you want to create a project that will only be given to family and friends, or even only kept by you, then private projects are possible. Multiple platforms mean multiple streams of income to include on tax returns.
There are advantages to having everything in one place, but I think the other advantages of using multiple platforms outweigh this. On several occasions I have had to complain and get replacements sent out. This happens often enough to mention, but not often enough to put me off. Around one order in four has had some kind of issue.
The good news is that replacements have always been sent out fast and with no quibbles. You do have to order books well in advance of actually needing them though, just in case. The most common problem is badly trimmed books.
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