Hi,
That’s a lulu, isn’t it?
And I’m not talking about a fish tale.
Lulu.com is just about the largest online self-publishing tool today. It’s a free service – until you reach the point of being ready to actually publish your book.
They offer a huge array of free tools and services to get you started. Everything from advice on setting up a Google Book Preview, to cover design and paper choice. There are also five FAQ forums and a Help page with tutorials, caculators and tempaltes.
I suggest you use Lulu for both e-books and hardcopy books.
It gives you a place to work on the layout of your book, and the marketing tools Lulu makes available will help you with both book types. Here’s one example:
Have you ever thought of publishing an e-book in a 6X9 format? Do you realise that is very close to a regular sheet of paper in landscape format?
It’s time for all of us to start thinking about readers who are picking up our e-books and using an electronic device while their reading. You know, something like Amazon.com’s Kindle reader. They’re ideal for a paperback format (6X9).
When you have one, two or several books, you should also think about taking hardcopies of all of them to conferences. Storing your projects with Lulu will allow you to print a few or a hundred copies of each book.
It will be a boost for your reputation, and a stroke for your ego, when people ask about one of your books and you are able to produce a hardcopy for them. It’s amazing how one person buying a copy of a book can stimulate everyone around you to start buying.
It’s a free service so nobody gets any affiliate commissions for recommending Lulu.com. And it isn’t going to do the work for you, or magically make your manuscript into a bestseller.
This is a site for everyone who knows success comes from daily, consistent effort. (Have you read that phrase here before?)
Conrad