talkmagic.co.uk

Hi everyone. I am bringing out a book on entertaining children - roughly 150 pages. Is Lulu or Amazon's CreateSpace the best way to go for self-publishing? I ask because I know a number of people here have published their own works.

Also, I have a novel out - is Lulu any good for novels? I went with amazon, but could change if I thought it worth while.

Any input is welcome. Thanks.

I wish to God I knew. I can never figure out that stuff.

I have no experience of Amazon's service, but Lulu's is first class. Upload the manuscript, coder and spine and Bob's yer game show host.

I'm with Tomo, have never used Amazon but am really pleased with Lulu. It's dead easy to upload your book and cover and the quality is very good. Their rates also seem very reasonable to me too.

As a buyer of books, many from members of TM, I can certainly confirm that Lulu's service and quality is ecellent. As it's a print to order business there's a short delay but in every case the book I've ordered has either turned up on the promised date or shortly before it. I've bought from Amazon and their service is equally good but the books in question have been printed by other firms and already in stock.

One thing to look for is whether Amazon require you to buy an ISBN. Lulu doesn't.

An ISBN number is essential if you want to sell the book to bookstores but I suppose if that is not your intention then it is nothing to worry about. I do know that bookstores will not touch Lulu publications with a barge poll.

I seem to recall someone on here once mentioning that their book, which was printed and sold via Lulu, had been bulk ordered by Amazon - 'bulk' in the sense of several dozen copies.

Yes, if you want it in bookshops it has to have an ISBN because that's how they're tracked and sold. If you're selling directly to your market, as we are, it makes no sense to have an ISBN, bargepoles or not.

Interesting aspect there, if you go down the bookshop route you have to pay for something which the sellers and distributors need, use and insist upon but which is virtually useless to the final purchaser!

Mandrake wrote:Interesting aspect there, if you go down the bookshop route you have to pay for something which the sellers and distributors need, use and insist upon but which is virtually useless to the final purchaser!

Indeed. Magic shops take Lulu publications just fine. With a bit of promotion by the shop and a drop ship deal, you can really get something off the ground.

I've said too much. I must now kill you all.

I've had no problems at all with Lulu, so I'll add another vote in their favour. The other advantage, that I had to use, is that you can very easily upload new editions to the Lulu site. I had a couple of typos in my book, and I was able to fix them and upload the corrected version before too many copies had been ordered.

Payment is good, and you get a good chunk of your book cost. Some would say that the 20% cut is excessive (Hi, Mark!) but when you take into account all the hassle removing features it's still a good deal.

The one thing that these places will _not_ do is sell your book for you. You will have to set up a site to plug it and keep driving traffic to your order page.

Guys, thanks a lot. There seems to be a clear consensus emerging! Couple of weeks now and I will have to make a decision, and all this advice is very helpful.

Have you taken a look at Blurb.com? I've used them and really like them. The program used to put the book together is free and easy to use and the end product is really nice quality. I've never used the other companies so I can't compare, all I can say is that I'll defiantly go back to Blurb.

I will check them out. Thanks.