Self-publishing a real book!

[John Hillage]

Hi guys -

I am planning to publish a real world old-fashioned physical book in my non-IM niche.

I plan to use it as a lead into my membership site.

I am considering Lulu.com but was wondering if anyone had experince in this and happy to share ... or point me towards a product or warrior special offer on this subject.

Ideally I want a quick A-Z map of getting this done (including the bits around ISBN, getting it on Amazon etc.) and happy to buy a WSO if one exists on this.

Thanks in advance

John

[pearsonbrown]

Jon Andersen wrote a series of posts on how to do this on Martin Avis's forum.

Kickstart Today

You'll have to use the search button.

Alternatively, Jon collected these posts together in a book that you can find on Lulu

Publish! by Jon Andersen (Book) in Business & Economics


Pearson

[jacktackett]

John,
I've done this several times and am currently helping Chuck Hester get a book together. I would highly recommend a book called Self Publishing Manual by Dan Poynter over at Para Publishing - Welcome to Para Publishing

I wish I had learned of this material before my first book.

Lulu is actually based here in Raleigh NC, so I know the folks. Helpful and several people I know have used them as well. My biggest caveat with them is their royalty structure. Basically you are not going to get ripped off using them, they do have some help, but you need to read what they do provide and weigh that against what you want to do. Also note that Amazon has a program for self-publishers.

You can also become one yourself - you can get a set of ISBN numbers from Browkers. Not sure what the cost is, but when I got my set they sold 10 numbers for 225. You as a publisher had to order an initial 10 numbers. Not sure how they operation now.

Again - check out Dan's site and go for it - its completely doable and a lot of fun (and work!).

If you PM me your email address I'll send over a very sparse powerpoint I use for discussing self publishing and you can feel free to give me a call to discuss things.

Good luck,

--Jack

[ildarius]

I am considering Lulu.com but was wondering if anyone had experince in this and happy to share ... or point me towards a product or warrior special offer on this subject.

I may be completely wrong, but someone mentioned that you have to do your own shipping with Lulu (which doesn`t make sense).

[Alexa Smith]

You certainly don't have to do your own shipping with Lulu, though you can buy your own stock (at favourable terms, of course) for private sale and shipping if you wish.

I understand from comments elsewhere that being listed at Amazon is (understandably?) a lot easier and more straightforward if you use CreateSpace rather than Lulu.

[mediamogul]

Did you check out createspace dot com ? I use it for my DVD releases and they are really great.

[ElectricChili]

I design bookcovers for a guy that sells through Createspace. He loves it. I don't know the details but he passed on Lulu after looking at the numbers pretty carefully.

Rich Scherlitz

[Raydal]

I used AuthorHouse, Book Publisher, Book Publishers, Self Publishing Companies to publish my book. Distribution
through Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble and other online stores came
as part of the package.

I've even seen my book listed in online bookstores in India.

-Ray Edwards

[julclark]

I'm getting ready to do this myself. One ebook I found that's helpful is Book Publishing DIY by Tony Loton. He advocates using both Amazon's Createspace and Lulu for the same title. Createspace will supposedly get you listed on Amazon much faster and generally has lower publishing costs than Lulu. Lulu is supposed to have a wider distribution network.

Both Lulu and Createspace have fairly active forums if you have questions. I'm planning to start with Createspace and if sales are good, put the title on Lulu, too.

Good luck!

[Jon Olson]

I used Lulu.com for my book...Best of all, they have a wonderful community for help throughout the process and offer everything from ISBN to getting into amazon, the whole 9 =)

[drmani]

Hi John

I've been researching this pretty extensively lately,
and here are some links/resources you may want to look at:

Create Space - http://CreateSpace.com

Book Surge - BookSurge, part of the Amazon group of companies

Lightning Source - Lightning Source

Author Solutions - Author Solutions ? Book Publishing Services for Authors & Publishers
(they were even on CNN recently, here's the story link:
More authors turn to Web and print-on-demand publishing - CNN.com

For my business book that's almost finished, I'm considering
working with 'Wicked Sunny' at Publishing Gurus
PublishingGurus.com: Get professional help for publishing your books

They do most of the pre-publishing processing for authors
who want to use CreateSpace.

Hope this helps. PM me if I can help in any other way

All success
Dr.Mani

[The Lady]

wow how timely! i'm actually considering finishing the first of my 7 part scifi book series - thx for the 411 - you've been inspiring.

[kellymonaghan]

I'm an actual dead-tree book publisher and Dan Poynter is the guy who got me started (way back in the early 90s).

His latest book, called "Self-Publishing Manual Vol 2" (ISBN: 978-1-56860-146-5) is specifically addressed to your situation. HIGHLY recommended. And it's only $15 (less on Amazon).

[Bishop81]

Createspace through Amazon is very easy, and I have 2 books through them now. I recommend checking it out.

[jbsmith]

I've used LightningSource for electronic book distribution on Amazon and they were great to work with (they no longer offer that service).

A second question - for those of you who have published your own print books, who have you gotten to design your covers (someone with experience designing print books covers rather than just ebook graphics designers please).

Thanks,

Jeff

[Mary Gallivan]

Hi

I've published a book with Lulu and was very happy with the results. It took me a while to figure out the instructions (I'm not too good on some things) but got through it OK.

They do all the hard work and you write the book and promote.

Good luck

Mary

[iw433]

Just created an account with Createspace, heard good things about them. Hey it looks like things are coming full circle, paper, to digital, to digital Paper. What a world.

[Nathan Hangen]

This is a great find, thanks for all the comments! Since opening this one, I've already published a book on the Kindle

[jacktackett]

Interesting article on CNN about self publishing:

More authors turn to Web and print-on-demand publishing - CNN.com

and a related blog post by my former agent David Fugate on his blog:

launchbooks.com

I think most folks will find non-fiction more popular to self publish, but 2 recent novels come to mind, the one mentioned in the CNN article and Eragon a few years back.

best,
--Jack

[Bishop81]

For covers, I just use CreateSpace's cover editor. I tried making my own cover, but using a combination of Fireworks > OpenOffice they didn't like the format for whatever reason. Their cover editor is very versatile, though, and easy to use. You can eliminate parts of the cover, change colors, font types, and even upload your own images.

[drmani]

Originally Posted by Bishop81

For covers, I just use CreateSpace's cover editor. ... Their cover editor is very versatile, though, and easy to use. You can eliminate parts of the cover, change colors, font types, and even upload your own images.

It took me around 15 minutes to create the cover for my book
using CreateSpace's cover editor - you can see a screenshot at
http://www.ThinkWriteRetire.com/book.htm

All success
Dr.Mani

[Josh Anderson]

www.nanacast.com can process the order for the book, send the order to one of two print on demand services for books (vervante.com or disk.com) and also allow you to create and deliver the secure membership site area and content all in one transaction.

No scripts to install and all you have to do is upload the pdf and your cover art.

If you are using Vervante.com as the on demand print and fulfillment service (we automate the order and fulfillment process) they will list it on Amazon instantly for you as well.

Here is the process:

1. Create a free account at Vervante - On Demand Publishing
2. Upload the pdf and cover art to vervante and get a quote and sku for print and fulfillment. Tell them you also want them to list it on Amazon for you.
3. Create a publisher account at Nanacast.
5. Use the membership wizard to create a membership and add the book sku from vervante to the membership.
4. Paste in your membership content (pages)
5. Generate the order button and paste it on your site.

That's it. You now have a physical book with a membership site included... and its true on demand so you don't for the print and ship them until 30 days after you make the sale.

Or if you want you can use our system to create a quick checkout process for the book and add a one click upsell offer for the membership if you do not want to bundle it with the initial purchase.

[Sam101]

1. You can check out CafePress for self publishing. They do a lot of other thigs like T-Shirt printing, but they also offer book publishing and on demand printing.
2. If you would like to offer your book as a mobile ebook (can be read on a Blackberry or a Palm) you can check out Mobipocket. They have now been acquired by Amazon, so getting it listed on Amazon will not be an issue.
Hope this info helps you

[DirectoryKing]

I have used lulu, the only problem I seem to have with them is shipping. it sometimes takes a little longer for the product to reach the customer.

[mrmatt]

Hi John,

A few years ago I had a company called 24 hour books print my book. I just tried finding them again but had no luck. They did everything for me. Cover design, ISBN, bar codes. No distribution or anything which was okay.

I used the book as a lead generation tool. Plus when you tell clients that you wrote a book you become that obvious expert and selling becomes much easier all of a sudden.

The title: "Why Are You Always Broke?"

The book is about 70 pages. And if I remember right it cost me about $3.00 a copy and I had to order a min of 100 books at a time. The more I ordered the cheaper it was. After I used them I then found several other book printers that were cheaper.

Thanks
Matt