While I have not as yet used this service, a very good colleague of
mine has, and he is extremely pleased with the service. He uses, and I
intend to use, Lulu.com. They also offer a distribution service, which is
one of the true battles of marketing your book.
My understanding of the service, and from feedback from my colleague
(Paul Lima, http://www.paullima.com/ ), is that you only pay for the books
you order. When a bookseller places an order through Lulu's service, the
books are printed and shipped within two weeks. If you use PayPal as your
payment service, you are paid once a month.
You set the selling price of your book, and Lulu takes 20%
commission, plus the printing cost, which you know up front. So, say your
book costs $5.00 to print, and you decide on 100% mark-up (standard), then
you set your retail at $10.00. Lulu tacks on 20%, so $2.00, and sells the
book for $12.00. For every book you sell you get $5.00, your profit margin.
Their distribution service gets you listed with the biggies like
Barnes and Noble, and Amazon. There is no mention of Chapters/Indigo, but
apparently getting listed with them is relatively easy. So, with those three
alone, you're looking at distribution not only throughout North America, but
the UK and parts of the EU.
So far he says he's very pleased with the service, and let me tell
you Paul's certainly not wet behind the ears, nor a push-over! Very savvy
fellow. And it's based upon his experience that I intend to use this route.
Regards,
Lorina
Five Rivers Chapmanry
purveyors of historical sewing patterns, quality hand-crafted cooperage,
re-enactor and embroidery supplies, and more.
519-799-5577 [EMAIL PROTECTED] - www.5rivers.org
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