rolanni | Well, I don’t know the moral, or where this song should end

Scattered day, much thinking, small writing. I suspect that I will write one more chapter, so that I’ve achieved a Certain Point, then print out and read what’s here.

I did go to the gym today and meet with the trainer. I now have a workout routine! I did half of said workout routine today, as part of the training. My stomach muscles? Are really pissed off at me. I’m committing to three days a week — Monday, Wednesday, and Friday — an hour each day, even if I have to wimp out on the strength-building machines at first, and finish out the hour on the treadmill or the bike.

Go, me.

The other thing of note that I did today was order a new alarm clock. This was unexpectedly time consuming. Who knew buying a clock would be so hard? All I wanted was a dual alarm atomic clock with a thermometer. After much shopping and reading of reviews and specs, I compromised with a SmartSet Dual Alarm Clock Radio with Jumbo 1.3-Inch LED Display and Time Projector (Silver). You may ask, and reasonably, Why did you buy a clock that projects the time? And I would be forced to say, It came with.

Maybe there’ll be a way to turn it off.

In other news, I am exploring ways to offer print books to people who want them. To that end, I will be doing a tour of Lulu and seeing how much of a strain it will be to upload Barnburner as my Test Case.

Anybody who’s used Lulu have any advice/insight/warnings?

Progress on the Book Presently known as George
52,213 of 100,000 OR 52% complete

“Enough! We dream as one! Now, let us go and gather what is needed.”

Originally published at Sharon Lee, Writer. You can comment here or there.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I know that Dusk Peterson, one of my (also) favorite authors, has just had a major dustup with Lulu, however, I don't know how relevant Dusk's issues will be for you. Dusk is here on LJ. http://duskpeterson.livejournal.com/

Ah. I see. I don't think that the electronic format issue will impact me. I'm interested in Lulu purely as a source of providing paper books for those of our readers who want them.

I would like to do a chapbook-style book of the short stores that I have had out in the past.

Will report back.

When a blogger I read, Venkatesh Rao, published a book, he used Lightning Source (http://www1.lightningsource.com/benefits_small.aspx), which lets you get the book into Amazon. He says (http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2011/03/31/tempo-stealth-edition/) "if you want to do it the right way, and enjoy all the advantages of being a publisher rather than an author, Lightning Source, a division of the biggest book distributor, Ingram, is the only path."

Except that Amazon has apparently decided to slow distribution of Lightning Source titles in preference to titles produced through its own subsidiary, CreateSpace (http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2011/09/amazon-and-lightning-source-the-end-of-an-era/). I'm really not interested in play any more 800-pound-gorilla-games with Amazon than I strictly have to do in order to survive.

Lulu claims to distribute to Amazon and to BN, and I haven't heard of Amazon targeting Lulu-made books (yet). Which was part of my decision to look at Lulu.

I hadn't heard about the way Amazon was slowing down the Lightning Source books. Sure enough, Venkatesh Rao's book (http://www.amazon.com/Tempo-tactics-strategy-narrative-driven-decision-making/dp/0982703007/) has the dreaded "Usually ships within 2 to 3 weeks." It didn't stop me from buying it, but I can't say my book buying habits are typical.

For what it's worth, I have ordered two books made by Lulu, and one made by Lightning Source, and I liked the Lightning Source one better. I thought it had higher quality. The text was crisper, and it smelled like a normal book, whereas the Lulu ones smelled more strongly of ink and glue and paper, and the spine wasn't constructed as well. But I realize that some of these things are subjective, and I have a small sample size.

Hi Sharon,

The "writer's group" I belong to published an anthology earlier this year. I got stuck to do the research, and discovered Lulu has more bad reviews than any of the other main ones. If I were to go that way, I'd look first at AuthorHouse. We finally decided to self-publish with a very cooperative local printer. Since we needed only about 90 books this was cheaper, though we did all the work, of course. I think I sent the link once before but if not it's
http://home.kcbx.net/~jbarnes/WordWvrs/WebFinal.pdf Ugly, ain't it.

Cheers, Jack

Oh sure, the cheapest and best way to go, if you're going to do the distribution is the Friendly and Accommodating Local Printer. It's what we did for years and years.

Now, we're getting out of the fulfillment business. Which means I need to find something that will print the dern books, mail them and/or distribute them to bookstores.

Ain't that ugly.

Lightning Source is the printer that most of the POD companies use... I plan to go with Booklocker.com, myself. I hear a lot of quality issues with Lulu.

I have ordered - as a bookseller - from Lulu. They're OK. Not great discounts and the quality is pretty typical for POD. CreateSpace is about the same, for my $.

I know a LOT of authors/publishers are going with Lightning Source.
As someone who deals with Baker & Taylor but not Ingram (unless you count my website), it takes a long while to get copies. I do get them eventually. I think B&T and Ingram have some kind of rumble going on.

There are a couple-three POD publishers out there I will no longer deal with simply because they don't supply well and they don't take returns. I'd rather buy the books off the authors in those cases. Then I know the authors Get Paid.

I have no idea how admirable the terms are for authors for any of these guys...good luck
Lauretta@ConstellationBooks
PS Someone who had Not Read (!) Plan B just went home with Korval's Game - I envy him the joy of finding out what happens after Carpe Diem. :)

Jim Macdonald did a post on e-publishing over at Making Light last month. Not sure if I can post URLs here? http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/013176.html

Talks about lots of other things that I'm sure you already know, as you've mentioned smashwords etc. But he does talk a little about Lulu, and there's probably useful stuff in the comment thread as well.

A bottle cap taped over the projection opening is a good way to shut it down. :)

A bandana over the projector also works well, but in our youngest's case, the clock came with a switch to turn off the projector. The bandana came in handy when the clock worked, but the switch didn't.
Laura

I'm not seeing it in the Office Max catalog right now, but I can always find the latest version of the Sharp dual alarm atomic clock with indoor/outdoor temp for around $12-$15 at Office Max. They are on a shelf on the back wall of the store. (No matter which Office Max you go to.)
My current version looks like this:

Newer version like this:

Well, I don’t know the moral, or where this song should end

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I await hearing about your Lulu experiences

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POD publishers

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Speaking as an indie bookseller

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Sharp dual alarm atomic clock with indoor/outdoor temp at Office Max