BellaOnline Forums Career Fiction Writing Post from Lisa Shea owner of BellaOnline

I stumbled across an undated blog post from Lisa Shea, owner of BellaOnline referring to Lulu and Createspace titled "Problems and Issues with Lulu" (just Google it) which led me here. One thing I do not see anywhere in these forums is what to do once you have a book available through these self-publishing companies. Great, we've written a book, now let's hope that someone finds it? I read a small inexpensive book last month written by someone that works for one of these companies named Maynard Carroll called "Secrets of Self-Publishing: The View from Inside a Self-Publishing Company". Something that these companies don't tell us is what is really happening behind the scenes and how they are stealing from new authors by selling dreams. Lisa's post made me think when she asked the question "why"?

I think you raise three issues here:

First is that the article you refer to is out of date and one of the complaints - cost of getting book on Amazon - made by Lisa is not relevent now. You can get a free ISBN from Lulu and they'll get the book on Amazon.

Second is how do you get a self-published book noticed? Well, the key word in self-publishing is the first one. You do it and there are plenty of ideas on marketing around including on the Lulu forums.

Third is your statement they are stealing from new authors by selling dreams. There are all sorts of self-publishing companies and some do charge authors hundreds or thousands of dollars to produce a book. However Lulu charge nothing and you can publish a book using Lulu facilities at no charge to yourself. If you want it on Amazon you are required to buy a (i.e. one) proof copy of the book at the print cost price. But you set the retail price and decide how much profit you want to take.

I have published several books, both my own and some for friends via Lulu and are very satisfied.

Hello Dara Jo: Peter was right on the money regarding that we the writer are responsible for the marketing of our books. Sure there are companies that will place it on Amazon etc and for extra money do some marketing for you- but the best way to get results follow-what Peter told you regarding getting marketing ideas and then you will need to add a lot of time and work to promote your book. If your book is non fiction-we may have more avenues to assist you..for example let say you wrote a book about native tribes of the Rocky Mountains- okay-there are hundreds of ways to communicate the fact that your book is available. Good Luck-Caljack

I figured Lisa's was an old post, but couldn't find a date. Is there a big difference between Lulu and Createspace? I do see they are both free. I also heard that Lulu has been having issues with Amazon about the rights to print copies. I looked up your books by Lulu and the one published earlier this year by Lulu is only available as a Nook. The latest one from November is available on Amazon, but isn't even sales ranked after nearly 2 months. Jack's book Morton Peak was published by Xlibris which costs a bit of money to publish. I see the Amazon sales rank is over 4 million which means that it's most likely not selling any copies these days but in his defense it has been out for nearly 3 years. What forms of marketing were used here? Did it do well initially? This all looks very vanity to me. Maybe I'll look a little closer at Lulu if it's recommended. Thanks guys

I am not up-to-date on CreateSpace. When I went into self-publish I decided that Lulu was better for me, easier to use and their payment system was better -- i.e. they paid me monthly in GBP via PayPal rather than a USD cheque.

Your requirements might be different. Anyone considering these services should thoroughly read the T&Cs - especially about getting their earnings out. Some sites have high minimum earning levels before payment is made. If you don't have a US bank account then a USD paper cheque can cost more to process than its worth.



I don't know if you're talking about my books; but all my three self-published* books are available as paperbacks from Amazon. PINOTAGE is also available as a Kindle and in ePub format at Barnes & Noble and the Apple iPad store.

*I also have a traditionally published book



If that is the TWSz book -- that has only appeared on Amazon this week. It takes some time to go through the process of getting the ISBN on the databases and arranging printing rights with Amazon.
As you can tell from the title it is a very niche subject - hence the high price - however I have been happy with sales via the Lulu site which have come about because of a post I made on a forum a LinkedIn.com

I have also published, using Lulu, books by others, some are here www.lulu.com/spotlight/pinotage



Self-publishing is being used to differentiate from traditional vanity publishing which charges authours many hundreds or thousands of dollars/pounds up front. With Lulu you can produce and get just copy of a book for the cost of one paperback.

Please do check out Lulu and CreateSpace and come back here and tell us what you found and what you are going to do.

Thank you for the excellent information! I'll be self publishing in the near future and I greatly appreciate the tips and personal experience you've shared.

Thank you Peter, this information helps me understand how this works. I suppose its like riding a bike, you just got to hop on and take a spin and gain the experience. I'll get back and let you know how my ride went :)