In a previous post I talked about web 2.o award winner Lulu (to re-read, click here). Lulu is a self-publishing site, and it shows just how far the web has taken this ever-popular business. In about 2 or 3 hours, I had a published book. Well, I did have to write it first. Lulu has a publishing wizard that guides you through:
-Correctly formatting your manuscript for the chosen book format (e.g., 6" X 9" softcover novel)
-Uploading your manuscript and viewing it.
-Selecting a theme for cover art (or uploading your own file, which is very, very complicated)
-Uploading photos or other graphics files to stick on the front and back covers
-Adding text to the front/back/spine of the book (title, author, blurb)
-Translating the file into PDF (Adobe Acrobat) format
-Pricing your book (no upfront cost to author, but 20% of cover price goes to Lulu)
-Writing advertising copy describing the book, to appear on the Lulu site
-The ability to categorize your book and add tags, so that it is searchable in the Lulu database
-For $100, Lulu will assign a bona fide ISBN number and "market" the book to Amazon, Booklist, and places like that so that you can get a little exposure. I'm sure Lulu makes a lot of its profit here. In addition, you have to purchase at least one review copy at the cover price (and you get back the amount of royalty you've built into the price).
I'm now waiting for my review copy to be shipped to me, after which I'll open it up for sale to the general public.
It's way cool, lower than the cost of a dinner for four at McDonalds, and a great way to kill time if you've got a spare manuscript laying around--or if you're serious about trying to sell your book when you can't get an agent or publisher interested.
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