Jabber Lulu (new threads)

Tips & Trickes

Tue, 03 Apr 2007 12:57:01 +0000

Here is a handy tip on the subject of mock-ups and dummy page there is something known as the Lorem Ipsum Generator.
It can be found on the Web at http://www.lipsum.com
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
The Generator enables one to create as many characters, words or paragraphs of real looking but dummy text that can be used to test page layouts and/or create dummy pages.

He did - the Welshman did it!

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 22:44:26 +0000

Well as I've been a moderator on Lulu for a few months now and have almost 300 posts I thought I'd better finally try out their tools!! Lol

I uploaded a small short story (2800 words) just to test it out. Results were quite good, better than I expected.
Its over on my store front if youw ant to download (its free). Its a nine page tongue in cheek insight into PoD publishing.

One thing I noticed (and I can't remember who told me) but two Lulu authors both said that they do not have access to the PDF of their work when it is modified. That's incorrect. When the document is converted you have the option of saving it locally to your hard drive. As such there is NOTHING to stop you taking this PDF to a local printer if you so choose.

Taff

Book / Literature Festivals

Mon, 26 Mar 2007 21:27:34 +0000

Hello

There are a lot of book festivals - there is a list at
[http://www.britishcouncil.org/arts-literature-literary-festivals.htm]

I live in Lincoln and will be going to the Lincoln Book Festival (11-20 May 2007). On 19 May there is a Lincolnshire Writers' Day - I'll have a table and be trying (!) to sell some books.

We are listed as a local writing group at

[http://www.lincolnbookfestival.co.uk/default.asp?WCI=HomePage&C=50]

Has anyone else got involved with a local book festival?

Susan

E-Books Mobipocket

Sun, 25 Mar 2007 16:38:29 +0000

On one of the Lulu Forums I saw a reference to Mobipocket in connection with the production, publication and distribution of E-Books and thought it worthy of investigation. As it could be an alternative way of producing E-Books I think that it is probably better to start a thread here rather than on one of the Lulu Forums.
Mobipockets home page can be found at
http://www.mobipocket.com/en/HomePage/default.asp?Language=EN
whilst the developers page is at
http://www.mobipocket.com/dev/default.asp

My initial reaction is that Mobipocket could be of interest to UK Wiki Lulu members but it needs some careful examination first as it does not appear to be just a case of using any existing PDF as the source for a new book.

Having started this thread I'll add my further thoughts and comments as they develop.

Ken.

Products for Sale

Tue, 06 Mar 2007 13:28:02 +0000

I've found that I can edit the Products for Sale - Calendars page and so I've included four of mine.
Is this okay.

Amazon Costs

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 18:29:44 +0000

I've only recently joined Lulu and probably about the time that the recent pricing debacle started. As you will see from my memebrs page I am not an author but a book designer and publisher.
Rather than post this thread on the main Lulu forum at the moment I thought it might be interesting to harvest the views here in this smaller community.
I really don't understand what all the fuss is about concerning Amazons prices. (forget they way Lulu may or have may not changed their pricing structure).
Before finding Lulu I would have to have found a traditional book printer and to make any project cost effective to order print runs with a minimum of 1,000 copies and very occasionaly perhaps only 500.
Lets look as some figures -
If the cost per unit was say £8.50 I could have sold the book directly at £9.90 making a profit of £1.40.
If I wanted to sell the book trhough Amazon, Waterstones or similar outlets they would have wanted a typical discount of 40% so i would have to make the published rrp £16.50 to maintain my £1.40 per unit profit.
Therefore when I registered the ISBN the price published on the Whitaker/Neilsen book database (available to all retailers) would be that £16.50.

Thus I find it very difficult in reading some of the threads concerning Amazon pricing to understand why some folks are getting so upset. Could it just be blissful ignorance of thing in the real world and a lack of busines/commercial/induistrial experience?

I welcome your thoughts.

What is the greatest weakness of Lulu?

Fri, 16 Feb 2007 10:37:53 +0000

I wonder what everyone thinks the greatest weakness of Lulu as a POD publisher is. I'll start this thread by throwing the following observations into the mix.
1. Being POD there is no economy of scale, so the price of individual books is always going to be high. I'm seriously considering making my titles into a limited number edition, say a hundred, and announcing the fact that they will be withdrawn after selling that number, and replaced with a second edition in the hope that collectors will look on the books as an investment. Though I'd prefer it if they were bought to be read. However, collectors are always willing to pay more than are ordinary Joes who just want something to read.
2. There is no editorial rejection so any old rubbish can appear on Lulu storefronts - like mine, for instance. The natural collorary of this is the future assumption that Lulu books are a waste of money because such and such a title was dreadful. This is quite likely because people with a history of rejection (again, lkike me) are the core writers who turn to Lulu, and maybe they've got that history of rejection for a reason. Maybe everyone reasons like me, that I personally like my books, I reckon they're great - and none of my small band of friends and relatives has got the courage to disabuse me.
3. Add the above two items together and you'll never sell a book. Not to a stranger, anyway.

Peter

Why I turned to Lulu

Sat, 10 Feb 2007 12:41:32 +0000

It might be fascinating if we exchanged our reasons for turning to Lulu, and I'll kick it off.
I was a single dad of four children for what seems a lifetime. Anyone in that position knows it can be pretty soul-destroying and that the first thing to suffer might be the old social life. To a certain extent that happened to me, but quite early on (1985) I bought a computer for the children and with it came "free" word processing software. This reminded me that I was trying to write a novel in my spare time, using a portable typewriter and spending a silly amount of time retyping pages because of the inaccuracy of my typing. The computer was an Amstrad CPC 464, loaded via a cassette and the word processing software was pathetic. But I got going and very soon upgraded the software and bought a machine with a disc drive. Most of the stuff I've since put onto Lulu had its birth pains back then.
Over the years, and in a kind of desultory fashion, I tried to engage the interest of both publishers and agents, but with no success. Once or twice a few sample chapters were requested, but that was all. I got to the point of falling out with the entire industry because, I told myself, it's taken months or years for me to write something and they reject it with a brief impersonal note (the most offensive was two words, no thanks) that doesn't even give the impression that my synopsis has actually been read.
I stuck with my Amstrad CPC for years (the kids had moved on to better, faster machines) and the pile of texts grew. I stopped putting them onto paper because, frankly, it was too expensive (not in paper, but in ink!) The PC came along, and I transferred the whole kit and caboodle onto that. (I used a wonderful little free program called SANKO that saved my chapters as RTF that actually worked in MS Word.)
And that might have been that had I not been watching BBC Breakfast at the end of last year when Lulu was being promoted. The rest (to quote the old maxim) is history.

Peter