Support for Indie Authors discussion

Hi, I am new to the group and whilst I have been published in the past in a small way have decided to go the self publishing route with my latest. I am going to go with Lulu.com has anyone had any experience with them? There are so many companies out there now it seems a bigger minefield than trad publishing!
I have an author page on Goodreads please take a look.
Thanks Chris

I recommend Createspace. They are owned by Amazon and have a fast path to publication in Paper, Kindle and Audio. All at no cost to the author.

Lots of al a cart services are available if you need them.

I use Lulu for hardcovers only, and the results are good. I was going to add ebooks also, but they wouldn't accept the same TOC formatting as all the rest, so I decided that placing my ebooks with Lulu would be more trouble than it's worth.

Thanks for your help. I have tow books one is a horse book with coloured illustrations (photos) and unfortunately createspace said they couldn't produce the book as I would have to reduce the pictures from 40 to if my memory serves me well 35, the other book is a fantasy. Lulu have offered me a fairly good deal for both books and in truth I am not confident enough to do the design of the covers etc myself. I thought it wise to get a company that know what they are doing and so produce something respectable. I intend to have both books in pod and ebook format. i would love to think I am sufficiently competent to do the whole thing but one has to realise where ones abilities lie. Thanks I really appreciate your input.

Ken "I use Lulu for hardcovers only"

Hey, Ken. Did the hard cover option cost anything to set up? If so, is the quality; bindings, paper, etc... good quality? And... How much is a hard cover book approximately 100k words cost the author? Also, do they sell to libraries and other institutions?

Thanks, Morris

Setting it up is free, and you can sell it on Lulu as is. If you want expanded distribution, you have to buy a proof copy. If it looks satisfactory, you can okay the distribution, and they'll add it to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Ingram (which distributes to libraries). A book with 100k words will run you $14 to $20, depending on font size (hence, number of pages), binding, and format. I used my Createspace paperback format, which is the same size as the hardcover. Keep in mind that while you can sell at a discount on Lulu and still make money, the markup for Amazon and Barnes & Noble is huge. All in all, I'm very pleased with the result.

Here are details at Lulu: http://www.lulu.com/sell

For retail price comparisons you can see my books at Lulu: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/kendoggett

versus the same books at Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/%22Ke...

Whew! $35 for a hardback, talk about mark up!

True. You can go directly to Ingrams and market them cheaper but you'll have to order at least 50 copies or pay a $49 fee (the last time I checked). I don't expect to sell hardcovers, but I wanted all formats out there. I also wanted a couple of hardcovers for my own bookshelf. The books look and feel like trad published.

I have been told my fantasy should carry a price tag of around $15 paperback,which I thought might be a little high (I have to convert everything to British pounds being English, when I did it seemed to be quite a lot though having lived in Africa for a while am a bit out of touch) haven't a clue what the ebook version should be? my nonfiction book I was told should be $38/39 which I did think too much so am going to suggest it is about $34 (has a lot of colour illustrations) again not a clue what the ebook should be?

Anyone know if the quality of the hardbacks for Lulu is good or not?

I've found the quality of Lulu's hardcovers to be very high.

Thanks, Ken.

I recommend Createspace over Lulu for paperbacks, just because I tried Lulu first and had a bad experience. I couldn't get my cover to work in color and every time I tried to get help, the turnaround time was about three weeks before they'd answer me, and even then it was just a generic email that referred me to some FAQ I'd already read. As I recall, I couldn't find a number to call either. This was over a year ago, though, so that may have changed. I found them impossible to work with. But I've loved Createspace, and ordering copies is cheaper than any other POD I've found.

My experience with Lulu has so far been positive, but I haven't had any trouble yet. I use them only for hardcovers. For paperbacks I also use Createspace, and have had a good experience. For ebooks I use Smashwords and Amazon, and all of that seems to have most of the markets and formats covered.

Ah, I long for the day Createspace adds Hardbacks to their catalog. *sighs*

But for now, Createspace has proven quite reliable and great for Paperback books. Quality is nice, and they're relatively inexpensive.

For Ebooks, I sell through KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) & use Draft2Digital to get into the rest of the stores (Nook, Kobo, iBooks, Scribd, Oyster), and as a final option, I use Gumroad to sell ebooks directly through myself.

So far it's been a pretty good system. :3

Could someone post a link to Amazon where a hard cover by lulu is for sale?

I'd buy one just to find out what the quality is like.

Martin, I believe if you go to Lulu.com direct you will be able to find a hardback no problem to purchase. Can anyone advise me on pricing (see my earlier comment. Thanks.

Martin wrote: "Could someone post a link to Amazon where a hard cover by lulu is for sale?

I'd buy one just to find out what the quality is like."

I would strongly suggest that you set up your own book on Lulu and order the proof to check out the quality. That way you'll kill two birds with one stone: you'll not only see what your book looks like in hardcover, but you have an example of your own work to put on your bookshelf. It's free except for the cost of one book (at wholesale), and if you don't like the result you can easily delete the project.

To see how retail price differs with the wider distribution option at Lulu, click the link to my "Where To Buy" page, scroll to the bottom, and click the link buttons under Hardcover to compare three different retailers for the same books. http://kendoggett.weebly.com/where-to...

Thanks.