lulu | Self-Publishing Review

Free Book = Free Amazon Marketing Tips

In March 2009, I began writing an article for LLBR about how to market your book on Amazon. The result of that article turned into a longer project that I decided to publish as a book. Taking advantage of Lulu’s free ISBN at the time, I released it as a 93 page guide that included my POD Diary which I wrote throughout the first year of marketing my book, Stealing Wishes.

It took several months for the book to become available on Amazon. Six months in fact. Having emailed Lulu support several times during that wait period and after […]

shannonyarbrough2011-10-08T18:25:27+02:00June 18th, 2010|Categories: Member Blog|

Kickstarting My Book: Why I Chose to Crowdsource

The Story

I had a problem. After several months of work, I was finally ready to publish the second edition of my novel, A Life Transparent. The details were in place, the cover design tweaked, the revisions made. All of this was set up for a re-release in anticipation of the book’s sequel early next year.

I picked CreateSpace as my printer and publisher. I’d read good things. Their integration with Amazon was tantalizing, and the free ISBN was a perk. There was low cost involved, and I wanted very badly to get away from Lulu, whose rates spiked […]

Todd Keisling2020-02-21T07:53:48+02:00June 15th, 2010|Categories: Lead Story, Resources|Tags: Social Media|

New Digital Publisher: Outer Banks Publishing

Interesting. Former Lulu staffer starts up a digital publisher:

Anthony Policastro, a former business analyst at self-publishing vendor Lulu.com, has launched the Outer Banks Publishing Group, a new publishing venture that will focus on digital publishing and the use of social media to build an audience for POD print releases.

Outer Banks Publishing offers a different model than Lulu.com. Policastro said OBP is not a self-publishing vendor like Lulu, but a hybrid publishing model that combines selective editorial content with new media publishing and promoting platforms. Policastro said he solicits manuscripts like a traditional publisher and is selective about

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Henry Baum2011-10-08T18:06:40+02:00June 11th, 2010|Categories: News|

Garrison Keillor on Self-Publishing

Today’s must-read. Garrison Keillor signals the death of publishing and the birth of…something else:

And if you want to write, you just write and publish yourself. No need to ask permission, just open a Web site. And if you want to write a book, you just write it, send it to Lulu.com or BookSurge at Amazon or PubIt or ExLibris (sic – in the NY Times no less) and you’ve got yourself an e-book. No problem. And that is the future of publishing: 18 million authors in America, each with an average of 14 readers, eight of whom are blood

[…]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T18:33:56+02:00May 27th, 2010|Categories: Features|

Schiel & Denver Review

Founded by authors in April, 2008, Schiel & Denver is pretty much a new kid on the block. One of those founding authors is Director, Tunde Reid-Kapo (3rd comment down on link). Schiel & Denver describe their company as an international publishing services infrastructure provider, dedicated to meeting the needs of authors and creative people, at an affordable cost. The company operate offices in the UK as well as the USA with 55 staff, and until recently, they concentrated on private and corporate publications.

http://www.schieldenver.com

Schiel & Denver has just 14 listed books on Amazon (they do offer bespoke services […]

Mick Rooney2011-10-16T09:25:34+02:00May 16th, 2010|Categories: Publisher Reviews|Tags: Subsidy Publishing Articles|

Don’t Sign Up for Book Galleries

I can’t say that definitively, as there are possibly success stories in the past, but the likelihood that you’ll sell any books at a showcase – or even that someone will remember your book after seeing it – is small. This past weekend I went to the LA Times Book Festival, an enjoyable madhouse of booth after booth of publishers/writers, etc. selling their wares. There were booths for Authorhouse, Xlibris, iUniverse, and Author Solutions.

Fairly daunting, but fascinating. You can read about 300,000 books being self-published a year, but until you’re in a booth like this one it really […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T18:28:43+02:00April 27th, 2010|Categories: Publisher Reviews|

Self-publishing for the Short Fiction Writer

A lot of the nay-sayers keep saying (ad nauseum) that writers make more money with the traditional/commercial route. We’re apparently all ripping ourselves off and selling ourselves short by going the indie route…and that we’d be better off “trying and trying…and trying again” with traditional publishers before jumping into the icy cold water that some view self-publishing.

What some of these pro-traditional types are blind to is how a short story author and/or poet can benefit from self-publishing. Poets (published traditionally) make virtually nothing. My first contributors fee for poetry was $10.00 and that was for 2 poems published by […]

klcrumley2011-10-08T18:29:05+02:00April 19th, 2010|Categories: Features|

What Killed My Faith in the Formal Channels and Gatekeepers…

I think what may have killed my faith
in the formal channels
and gatekeepers
who hold the keys
to opportunity in the creative world
was, at least in part, the years I spent being a gatekeeper myself
first as an intern at Seattle Repertory Theatre,
then at the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, CT,
where I and my interns would slowly, slowly , slowly plow
our way through the piles, and piles, and piles
of good, and bad, and terrible submissions
from authors and their agents.

When we were really smoking,
the scripts in our agent pile got […]

stefanlanfer2011-10-08T19:38:53+02:00March 22nd, 2010|Categories: Features|

A Literary Author Self-Publishes

It’s always been my contention that for self-publishing really to enter the mainstream and be taken seriously as an avenue for all writers, it would have to gain popularity as a medium for literary fiction. That would lend it instant respect and credibility. After all, The Shack has sold two million copies and Still Alice has spent many weeks on the NY Times bestseller list – but still there are some of the same old arguments about self-publishing being a good or bad outlet.

Today there was a really interesting development where two-time winner of the Faulkner Award for fiction, […]

Henry Baum2011-10-08T18:37:47+02:00March 5th, 2010|Categories: News|

Thoughts on The Dark Matter

[…] allows the publishing of written depictions of sexually explicit scenes, but we do not allow pornographic images within the books, and we do not allow erotica that depicts minors engaged (willingly or unwillingly) in sexual acts with adults. Fictional scenes of rape, sadism or pedophilia are strongly discouraged, and they’re strictly prohibited if their purpose in the book is to arouse the reader. — Smashwords

I received an email from an author last week wanting my take on the above quote from the Smashwords Q&A section for publishers. My thoughts on it led to a lengthy email discussion […]

Cheryl Anne Gardner2011-10-08T19:40:45+02:00January 28th, 2010|Categories: Features|