Well, my last post on publishing with Lulu proved to be fairly popular. This being so, I thought I should update my readers on the latest development with my book Youji Haiku. In order to be eligible for an ISBN, I had to modify my document (again) to fit the 8.5 x 8.5 size requirement. I still can’t figure out why there are limitations upon size for an ISBN because I’ve seen books of all shapes and sizes in retail book stores, and each had its own ISBN.
After modifying my .doc file to fit the size requirements, I created a new project and uploaded it. Starting from scratch, I had to redesign everything — cover and all. This was a bit time consuming but Lulu’s wizard really is pretty snappy, so it wasn’t too mind numbing. My project now bears the coveted “purchase a distribution package” link under the projects screen. Of course, by enlarging my project, I also fattened the price which I really don’t approve of because $25.00 is way too much for a book of poetry unless it’s written by Poe or somebody of similar renown. But at the current price I barely make anything when the book sells at retail.
Lulu gives you two options beyond their free marketplace listing. It costs $99.95 either way you go and they don’t really make it clear enough what the benefits are of each. The first is called “Published by Lulu” and involves assignment of an ISBN with Lulu listed in all biographical indexes as the publisher. The second is called “Published by You” and involves the same process except that you are listed as the publisher in all databases. But you’re already listed as the author, so I don’t really see the point unless you are good at copyright law and want to handle all of your own business.
I don’t have the money for either option at the moment, but I will soon and I suppose you should expect yet another update on this topic in the near future as a result. Thanks for reading!
JMK
Justin,
The ISBN issues and choices you raised have consequences of representation across the supply chain. The Published by You model ensures that you as the publisher are represented as the publisher of the book in bibliographic databases such as http://www.booksinprint.com which are leveraged by many retailers, search engines, libraries and booksellers throughout the world. The ISBN is a conduit in sales transactions between retailers & publishers, so its important to understand that there are other important factors besides copyright law here, which only indirectly apply to ISBNs.