LuLu . com
By aquarian9
@aquarian9 (548)
Canada
February 6, 2007 12:15am CST
Do we have any POD authors here making the transition from starving artists to suffering artist? I have considered doing some POD. Do you think it is worth it? I mean, are we really good if we accept our own stuff? Are we just avoiding the uncreative business editors. Scribes, your thoughts please, orators as well.
2 responses
@Wanderlaugh (1622)
• Australia
6 Feb 07
Forget POD, aquarian9. lulu does all of that for nothing, charges a lower commission, and those POD contracts are dangerous garbage. www.lulu.com is one of the best and reduces outlay to zero. I’ve got five e-books on there, and the whole thing took an hour or so to get more exposure than those verbose POD losers will ever achieve.
The publishing industry has degenerated into a bureaucracy full of inhouse pets, parasites and mindless procedures created by people who obviously don’t have the intelligence or stamina to format a Word document. The book proposal is a means of you and/or your agent doing their work for them. The bookselling industry has no tolerance and little time on bookshelves unless you’re a bestseller. The money earned, if any, can be less than for writing on myLot over a period of years. POD is just a more efficient way of losing money.
We have people on here who write for lulu and have been paid for their work, which is a lot more than can be said for the poor souls doing the POD contracts. I’ve only been on it a couple of weeks, but at least I’ve finally got somewhere to send visitors to my website. That sort of thing matters.
In answer to your question about “are you any good”, there’s really only one way to find out. Point people at your work and see what happens. The rea;;y meaningful challenge to authors’ abilities is to survive the real world of reader opinions, not the DIY minefield of the publishing racket and the various neuroses and unmedicated conditions of those handling your work.
Frankly, I don’t see publishing in its present form surviving too long. The overheads are high, the remuneration to most producers lousy, and they’re being forced into other forms of publication. Hardcopy is going. As a reader, I love my books, but as a writer, this is a lot more effective and efficient, and I can have as many copies as I like. Future generations will look at them like papyrus scrolls.
****PS check out a site called Writer Beware for any info on publishing scams. Nearly all of them have some POD component.****
@aquarian9 (548)
• Canada
6 Feb 07
Great Scot! I've done all I can to hype your post for the best rating and compensation. That truly was above and beyound. See, I thought LuLu and I believe there are a few others that are like LuLu are POD. Do they not call themselves print on demand in their FAQ's? Anyway, they look professional and a good avenue for publishing and distributing digital media. What about the prices for hardcopy, are they decent? Thank you for a very informative response. I am leaning toward your thinking that publishing houses are less and less about the art and more and more about the big shot. The more youngsters use digital, the less they pick up books. That is not to mention the fact of conservation and the use of paper. I would hope to see the paper-less age to appoach sooner. More books should be digitized and portable to different devices and methods. Thanks again.
@Wanderlaugh (1622)
• Australia
6 Feb 07
The advantage with lulu is a kind of control you can never have with the "normal" PODs. In their case, they can print, too, but you just don't have the hassles.
Actually, their method, where "on demand" really means "on demand" is much better economics.
Print runs are murderously expensive, and one of the other reasons the ordinary PODs are so money hungry, apart from being parasites.
Meaning they seem to have wasted a lot of time in primary school, too, as well as being out of touch with writer's needs.
With lulu, you can un-publish, amend, and not be bound to anyone.
I actually found a typo in a header (shudder) un-published, re-uploaded, and got it all done in 20 minutes.
1 person likes this
@imsilver (1665)
• Canada
6 Feb 07
I'm really hoping to.. lol.. I heard about lulu.com the first night I was on mylot and have been really thinking about it.. I've been kind of hoping to see a post from someone on here who has actually already published through lulu who could tell me how it went... I'm not sure it's a matter of being good.. It would just be so thrilling to actually have a real book on my bookshelf with my name on it (as opposed to my writings being scattered all over the place and hidden in drawers.. lol) I think it would be worth it to me... and it would be something to show the actual publishing houses to maybe actually get somewhere as a writer... who knows...
