On-Demand Publishing: Lulu

Lulu.com has an interesting idea: allow book and content authors to upload their work and Lulu will publish their works on demand. A recent TWIT podcast (episode 18, found at http://thisweekintech.com/18) had Lulu founder Bob Young on the show. He said that his publishing company has a few of what is considered upscaled Xerox machines that allowed Lulu to print and bind a single book or many copies of the same book, without the associated setup and teardown costs of most other publishing processes.

A major difference between publishing a book on Lulu and major publishing companies is that with Lulu, the author walks away with 80% of the profit for each item that is sold. Interested in what they had to offer, I searched their website for one of my favorite topics: computer programming. I previewed and bought two books: Visual Studio .NET Tips and Tricks by Minh T. Nguyen (http://www.lulu.com/content/78560) and The Art Of Systematic Troubleshooting by Shawn Pinnock (http://www.lulu.com/content/34759). I ordered printed copies of each on 8/17/2005 and chose the free Supersaver shipping option. I'll follow up when the books arrive.

Another option that Lulu offers is the ability to upload content for printing, but make it available for private purchase only. This option allows you to create personalized books, such as family histories, that can be professionally printed and bound, and allow extended family members to purchase their own copies. The private purchase items won't show up in Lulu's search or categorized indexes.

Just as easy as it is to become a blogger on the web, Lulu allows you to publish your work in written format without the middleman.