Borders and Lulu

July 2010

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[scott]

Found this interesting tidbit online the other day.

http://www.marketingvox.com/archives/2008/02/18/lulu-brings-self-publishing-to-borders-bookstores/

Might make self-publishing and the subsequent marketing nightmare easier and less nightmare-ish...

[Justin Oldham]

Much interesting.

[SirLawrence]

They're charging money for a marketing package -- it's a ploy right away, and I think it'll only make LULU look worse and get self-published authors laughed at even more.  Why? The price tag, for starters.  It's the same mechanics as Publish America all over again.  The only reason I think Borders would even put their name to this is because they need the publicity.  Stock is down on Borders; nobody buying, nobody reading.

LULU is slowly repeating the same mistakes as POD giants before them who, in the end, outsourced to other countries where, even with soluble exposure and a tidbit of marketing savvy, nobody made a nickel profit on their self-published books.  LULU has to charge for this; either way it would NOT be economically feasible for them.  So what do they do, when also asked to bring something new to the table and where self-publishers can escape the POD stigma and get into bookstores? They bring something like this, a Publish America and Xlibris rerun.  Sad.

Might as well open up your own Lightning Source account through Ingrams.

It's hard enough to get a signing at Borders as it is, even in small towns, don't get me wrong.  But still -- LSI titles can fetch sometimes a $3.00 to $4.00 per title profit to a hometown bookstore from visiting authors who are signing on any given day.  I heard that mainstream books by places like Random House, Harper Collins, the big cahunas --- that bookstores only make a few cents on the dollar as profit from these top guns. 

[CowboyLogic]

Don't confuse Vanity press with a printer.

Publish America is a vanity press that sucks your rights out of a book and leaves you with pennies a paperback for seven years, coupled with a crappy marketing plan.

LULU and the like, are printers. They don't give a shit what they print. They don't want your rights since they are not a publisher.

The brick and mortars are being slayed by the reader who is a dying breed on paper, but gathering strength on electrons. It makes sense for the book stores to set up deals with printers, it is a new source of revenue for a business losing ground with the old boys clubs.

The only thing constant in life is change. It is driven by need.

Writers have a tough row to hoe, and if they lock themselves into a status quo, they are royally screwed.

[Dudgeon]

LULU is just a printer, not a publisher, Vanity or otherwise. I haven't looked into their marketing offers in any detail as yet for my own LULU projects. But let's remember that they are OPTIONAL. You can do your own marketing and publicity if you chose, and you can set your own price (mark-up). Their involvement is as minimal as you want it to be, and those who are savvy will and can use them (as a printer) without being used by them, so far as I can see.

--Dudgeon.

[Peafant]

I don't know much about LULU, but I do know that one of my friends had some of his comics printed by LULU, and he said that the result was very professional, and very cheap...  it must be pretty good..it is pretty popular.. --Rob

[TheKenster]

I know for a fact that Scars Publications uses LULU to put out their books. (Only because a few of my stories have wound up in some of their anthology collections) LULU doesn't care what you put in the book. But the quality of the printing is pretty good.

[SirLawrence]

Don't confuse Vanity press with a printer.

Publish America is a vanity press that sucks your rights out of a book and leaves you with pennies a paperback for seven years, coupled with a crappy marketing plan.

LULU and the like, are printers. They don't give a shit what they print. They don't want your rights since they are not a publisher.

The brick and mortars are being slayed by the reader who is a dying breed on paper, but gathering strength on electrons. It makes sense for the book stores to set up deals with printers, it is a new source of revenue for a business losing ground with the old boys clubs.

The only thing constant in life is change. It is driven by need.

Writers have a tough row to hoe, and if they lock themselves into a status quo, they are royally screwed.

I see where you're coming from with this... but LULU is taking that infamous vanity press route (perhaps hitchhiking on the side of the road where the middle of it is full of companies like Publish America, Xlibris, and IUniverse).   LULU buys ISBNs and sells them for more to the consumer (at a small profit, but still a profit - anybody, like you and me, can purchase them cheaper through Bowker), and LULU uses Lightning Source.   They are not a printer, but more or less a rip-off mediary or third party between LSI and the consumer/customer.  So if it's slightly cheaper to open up a Lightning Source acct (which I just did with the help of my girlfriend) and go through Ingrams on your own, why use LULU in the first place? What are they even significant for? And why use a third party that says they are a printer when they are not?

If you wanted to publish or print-up a one or two-off project, I'd say then LULU might be a quick easy-to-use choice.  A simple alternative.

If somebody is looking to make money on a self-published novel and they have some marketing skills or build a company off the ground with them - hell no!

I don't know much about LULU, but I do know that one of my friends had some of his comics printed by LULU, and he said that the result was very professional, and very cheap...  it must be pretty good..it is pretty popular.. --Rob

Rob, your friend's comic book was most likely printed by Lightning Source.  NOT Lulu.  LULU was the online third party handling it, the ones who processed the order and had it shipped.

I know for a fact that Scars Publications uses LULU to put out their books. (Only because a few of my stories have wound up in some of their anthology collections) LULU doesn't care what you put in the book. But the quality of the printing is pretty good.

Same thing, Ken.  Ken, you could open up your OWN small personal version of LULU.  Scars Publications (such as the Down in the Dirt Anthologies) was published by Lightning Source.