Lulu.com
Lulu.com is an online print on demand self-publishing organization. It provides Internet applications that enable publishing of many types of digital contents, including documents, music and audio files, digital images.
The publishing process is generally similar for all media. The steps for a book include
- Entering information about the content, and its intended audience.
- Uploading content and converting it to print-ready PDF format with an appropriate document size.
- Selecting bindings and colors for the book, when the required production cost is displayed.
- Choose the cover art, from the author's own collection or the lulu cover gallery.
- Setting the royalty level: Lulu will calculate the price, which completes the process.
From the course of creating a book, lulu acquires 25% of the royalty earned and 20% of the overall profit received. There is no set up fee.
Most users do not find lulu as a path to fame or profit; they are less concerned with compensation than with distribution. Some consider Lulu.com an interesting way to get works printed in a bound form for private consumption — for the creator him/herself, his/her family and friends, although the company also offers ISBN assignment that allows books to be sold through other book retailers like Amazon.com. The users of Lulu.com vary significantly, ranging from writers to artists; from amateurs, to professional writers; and from scientists to historians.
Its CEO is Red Hat co-founder Bob Young. The brand name is derived from the concept of a lulu as an old-fashioned term for a remarkable person, object or idea.