On 14 Dec 2011, Rainer M Krug wrote: > [snip] > But then the distribution has to be done through somebody - which > might not cost money, but time. > > > > > More generally, I think that self-publishing printed books for > > sale, unless to a very clearly defined market, is unlikely to yield > > much if any profit. The future, I'm sure, is in ebooks. Don't use > > Lulu for that; Smashwords is better. I have 6 books on Smashwords, > > including most of those I published with Lulu, and all are selling > > regularly. > > Profit is not an issue here (although I would not mind...). ebook only > is also not an option, as the target user need to have something printed. >
I'm still not very clear what it is you want to achieve. If it is to have a book printed AND have it distributed widely, possibly globally, via Amazon and other online retailers, Lulu is probably the best way to go. There is a fee for this service. See this link for details. http://connect.lulu.com/t5/ISBN-Distribution/How-does-the-distribution-process-work/ta-p/33620 If you just want to print a number of copies which you will supply yourself to students or something like that, it would probably be better to have it printed locally. You would need to inquire about prices, minimum print run, etc. Antony Rowe, for example, has a setup fee, but thereafter their prices are lower than Lulu's and you can print from one copy upwards without penalty for smaller numbers. Another advantage of getting local printing is that you can be sure of quality. I have been lucky with Lulu myself, apart from one time when they printed someone else's book in my cover, but you will find people in the Lulu forums who have horror stories of unacceptable books resulting in long email arguments with Lulu. I like to deal with a firm that I can ring up and grouse to if I need to. Anthony -- Anthony Campbell - [email protected] Microsoft-free zone - Using Debian GNU/Linux http://www.acampbell.org.uk - sample my ebooks at http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/acampbell
