Have you published anything on Lulu.com?? How was your experience?
By cNotable
@cNotable (891)
United States
March 5, 2007 11:35am CST
I have heard a lot about this site. It is such a great idea for writers to publish their own books instead of having to have a large publishing house do it for you.
I have always wanted to publish a book. Have you published anything on Lulu.com? I want to know about your experience. What did you publish?
5 people like this
15 responses
@arseniajoaquin (1732)
• Philippines
7 Mar 07
I am a Christian and an author and translator of the Word of God from Greek to English.
I have already published GENESIS, EXODUS, LEVITICUS (Greek-English), THE WILL New Testament (Greek to English), ELEMENTS of SALVATION, The Right Way, GOD, ORIGIN, TRANSFER into PERFECTION, GREEK-ENGLISH (Grammar & Vocabulary), WORDS in THE WILL New Testament, and others shown at
http://www.lulu.com/arseniajoaquin
I have not spent even a single cent in publishing all my books at lulu.com It's easy to follow instructions. There are no set up fees and authors are not even required to buy a copy of their own book. I hope that you'd be able also to publish there.
4 people like this
@pushpendragold (324)
• India
1 May 07
thanks for the explaining as i never came across lulu.com this is the first time i heard about this
2 people like this
@nancygibson (3736)
• France
6 Apr 07
I published a volume of adult stories using lulu and found it great fun to do. I've done other forms of self publishing in the past, doing everything myself right down to the printing, but this was so much easier. You have nothing to lose, you can even modify your book later as they only print what is actually ordered, so give it a go and see how you get on.
3 people like this
@qouniq (1966)
• Malaysia
5 Mar 07
I only heard it today from you and I haven't check the site yet. I actually a newbie in writing field, i start to learn how to write in english in the right and attractive style since i will write my research degree work in english. For the time being I started to join a site that pays the write for their site. I guess to write a book is still too far for me. Anyway, thank you for the site,..at least i learn something here
3 people like this
@Transformed (1259)
• United States
6 Mar 07
If you self-publish, how do you get royalties from your book, assuming someone's interested in buying? I ask, because I see online some e-book sites require you to join their site before gaining full access to the book's entirety.
2 people like this
@arseniajoaquin (1732)
• Philippines
7 Mar 07
In publishing a book in lulu.com where I published my books found at http://www.lulu.com/arseniajoaquin we are asked to set the royalty we want, we are free to name whatever amount we want, and when somebody buys, lulu will send the check covering the royalty in the amount of least $20 quarterly.
Of course we have to join because we are provided with our own website and webpages and information are necessary so that lulu could send emails and especially the check. Joining is a must but it's so easy to provide the necessary information. I have already published more than 20 books at
http://www.lulu.com/arseniajoaquin
Visit the site so that you may see other information that you want to know. In visiting the site, you need not yet register or join.
4 people like this
@Transformed (1259)
• United States
11 Apr 07
I've never published from LULU. It looks good, but do they help you with a book cover or do your books get converted to e-books. I would like the option of having my would-be books become hard copies because most of the people who would want to buy one would most likely prefer a traditional hard copy book in their hand.
2 people like this
@limalimon (638)
• Mexico
11 Apr 07
I just know about this site, i never heard about it. I write sometimes and i think that i would finish my book some day :), just joking, i try a lot to finish my book but always i have to fix somethings.
thanks for the link
2 people like this
@lucalucky (1839)
• Italy
3 Nov 07
I know the site but I never published with them so I can't help you. Do you have a book ready to be published that are you looking around for that? I think is a easy way to publish without waiting to know something from a big and important publishing house.
@AnythngArt (3302)
• United States
5 Mar 07
I haven't self-published but I will be curious to hear from others. I think that the self-publishing route is ok if your work is in a niche market that only a limited number of people would read, but you still have to do all the marketing and selling of the book yourself. My question is why, if you have a mainstream novel or nonfiction work, you would want to self-publish? If you can't get your work published by an established publishing company, shouldn't that be telling you that your work is not good enough? I am just curious. I am not trying to be negative, and as I stated at the outset, there is a value for self-publishing when you have a limited audience, and a publishing company could not sell enough copies of a book to make it viable commercially. With all the books being published every year by real presses, what advantage do you have by self-publishing?
@Myrrdin (3599)
• Canada
1 Dec 07
As far as vanity presses go Lulu is one of the best, but the question is why go with a vanity press? Vanity presses are for small niche markets and for writers who can't get their books published by a traditional press.
When looking for a publisher there are several things to consider, what does the press do for you, and what are you expected to do. Your best bet for success is a big publishing house, but first time authors rarely get accepted at the large publishing houses. The next step is not vanity presses like Lulu, there are many small publishing houses out there. I myself run one at http://www.lilleypress.com. A small house will publish your book for free just like Lulu, however we also do the typesetting and cover layout. So really the only thing you need to worry about is having your novel. Most small presses will also offer some marketing assistance, and any good small press will list with amazon and all the listing sources that standard book stores use to order books.
The main draw back of lulu and other "self publishing" or POD (Print on Demand) or Vanity Presses is that they have a bad reputation with bookstores because they accept anything. A small press who has never published anything at all already has an advantage over the vanity presses because there is a selection process. Most book stores will not carry anything from a vanity press, no matter how good the book is. If you want to sell your book don't go there.
Of course as I said there are exceptions, I myself am the publisher of a magazine called Worlds of Wonder, we offer print versions on demand, as such we use Lulu to print the print edition because we know there is a small customer base. Once we get more subscribers however we will probably go to our regular printers to print up the magazine. POD or vanity presses are great for small niche market works, but not so great for anything else.
@TriciaAres (22)
• United States
27 Aug 07
Hey cNotable,
I do have an article on my blog (Modern Matriarch)about some of the draw backs of self-publication. There is even a rather unnerving quote from the founder of Lulu.com. You can access my blog here through mylot. Good Luck.
1 person likes this
@danishcanadian (28955)
• Canada
29 Sep 07
I have one book published with lulu.com and my husband has three books published with lulu.com We are both having very good luck with Lulu, and will keep them in mind for future projects. We like that if I need one book or fifteen or any other number, they will send them right to us. They are very well made books, too.
