Has anyone used Lulu.com?

[DennisMartz]

I've never used them, but took a look at Lulu a few months ago and it looked like an interesting place to try to market stuff - just wondering if anyone has tried to - or actually been able to sell anything there???

Dennis

[jadedragon]

That looks like an interesting way to self publish or put out an e-book. Thanks for the tip.

[sunnytoh]

Lulu is a vanity press, where the author pays to publish. This is not what the authors whose books you see in stores do.

For fiction, paying to publish is not the way to go. You'll sell less than 100 copies, often less than 50, no matter what you do. Isn't the effort you put into writing a book worth more sales than that?




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[MPIvy]

I looked at lulu.com as well but had the impression that using the service was free to writers and that lulu made money from sales, if/when those happen.

But this does lead me to something else I've wondered about for some time: are there "general guidelines" or "rule of thumb" for creating ebooks? Especially, I wonder what the average length/price for view might be.

Has anyone had experience with ebooks?

MP

[ecdoran]

For fiction, paying to publish is not the way to go. You'll sell less than 100 copies, often less than 50, no matter what you do. Isn't the effort you put into writing a book worth more sales than that?[/url]

Too true. I used to work for an independent publisher "review company". It was a terrible job where I was paid to review awful, awful books that authors had self-published. We (the "reviewers") wrote positive feedback for the author to use on websites and book jackets. Not only did they spend a small fortune to publish books that desperately needed a good editor, but they also poured money into reviews to generate interest. I doubt any of the books (a grand total of 3) that I reviewed ever sold more than 100 copies. The little paper backs were priced around $15 in an attempt to recoup some of the author's losses. I felt like a liar and a thief. I'd rather be unemployed than have anything to do with that job ever again!

No offense to anyone who self publishes or who reviews for similar companies. I just found it to be very unpleasant experience.

If you are a writer and want to be published, then take the time to shop your book out to legitimate publishers and publishing houses. I know it seems like a ton of work, but it's definitely better than sinking all of your money and time into self-publishing.

Ebooks, on the other hand, I know absolutely nothing about...

[Debbi]

It seems like every new Writer's Market lists fewer and fewer publishers that accept unsolicited manuscipts and finding an agent is as arduous as finding a publisher and almost impossible for children's book authors. I can see why a lot of authors want to skip that step and publish themselves. However, if they invested as much money in a proper editor as they do in having the book printed up, they would probably be more successful. Marketing and distribution is the biggest problem for the self-published author I'm sure. What if we didn't have CC to peddle our wares?

[Celeste Stewart]

From what I understand about publishing at the legitimate publishing houses (once you finally get there), you have to do a great deal of marketing and self promotion as well and you may never earn out your advance. The whole book publishing game is so discouraging.

[Evelyn]

Ebooks are great if you tend to run on and are able to organize your thoughts into coherent book-like parcels. Ebooks can be anywhere from 2000 words (reports and white papers) to 50,000 words, depending on the subject. If you're also handy with graphic design software, you can format the document and save it as a PDF (not for C-C, of course).

In two years, I've sold 42 of my "99 Things to Do With Your Stepkids" ebooks, and more than 2/3 were direct sales (not through ClickBank affiliates). This may not seem like much, but I worked exactly 20 hours to write the book, format it, set up a landing page, and list it on ClickBank. I've done 4 hours of marketing in the past two years (my bad, indeed). It's on my list of things to do--right up there with clean the bathroom, I suppose.

I've also been thinking about ebook-length stuff for C-C. I'm not sure if I'd write too many, except in certain high volume niches. On Elance, writers can fetch a grand or more to write an ebook, so there's a market for it...if you can underbid writers who undervalue their work. I'd be careful about the subject and definitely market it as an ebook.

What would Ed do if he were faced with 50k words to read?? Ack! Ed, if you see this post--tell me if I should just never, ever submit an ebook...

[Celeste Stewart]

Ed's seen a few training manuals, white papers, and ebook type projects from me and doesn't seem to bat an eye. They've all been for private requests though, so that's definitely a factor.

[Ed]

Yeah, sorry. We are not in the market for ebooks!

[BarryDavidson]

Lulu is not the way to go unless you plan to send out about a thousand press releases, go on a book signing tour, and make time for interviews that you have to solicit. Did I mention paying for publication?

There are plenty of free self publishing options. Even Create Space is a more viable. Keep in mind that Amazon's self publishing companies are about the only way to go now since they're phasing out carrying ads for self published books not from their presses.

[Marika]

I looked into them, but decided that a better option was using Scribd.com instead. Yeah, it's for ebooks, but if you promote your work well, you still end up with decent sales, and your book is never out of stock. Plus...it's free, lol. Free is good for flat broke artsy types!

[BarryDavidson]

Check out Create Space and Smash Words.

[nichewriter]

I use CreateSpace for my little booklets. Four years ago, I was printing and binding my own booklets and selling them for $5. Then in 2008 I tried CreateSpace for them and I was pleased with the quality. I commissioned my little sister to create my book covers (she is a graphic fine arts major). Each booklet costs me $2.15 to buy direct from CreateSpace and at the same time they are available on Amazon. I order 50 booklets at a time to sell on my own for $7 (which usually takes 4 to 6 weeks for me to sell off my site). I've never really tried promoting the "new" booklets but they have been selling on Amazon quite consistently (2 are consistently in the top 100 books in the self-help category), and since October 2008, my monthly royalty sales from Amazon/CreateSpace are between $150 and $300. I like CreateSpace because they pay out royalties every month (direct bank transfer) and they are very prompt. Two years with CreateSpace and I haven't had a bad experience with the company.

[Debbi]

What is the name of your book, niche?