LULU.com
Get your novel, art book or comic published! IN COLOR
bypassing the big publishers
Written by Mike Bohatch

We here at Eyes of Chaos have long-looked for a solution to get our books printed in full color and without huge upfront costs. Being an artist, "where can I find your book" is one of the most asked questions. Sure we've had our share of dealing with offered form publishers that went no-where. Book deals that never materialized or con artists who basically waste your time. Like everything else in life, if the solution isn't clear, then seek it out! After years of waiting for the right solution to come along, that very solution appeared! Lulu.com

Not only do we call the shots, decide how big, how many pages and basically full creative control over our publishing but we can build the product, sell it, advertise it and make it available as often with as many different products as we can muster the time up to create. The problem with art books is they cost alot to make because they require alot of color pages. So publishers are less inclined to make the investment. Now if you are an author, then the only real color page you have is the cover. But for us budding artists, a 300 page book usually means 300 pages of color - give or take (plus the cover)

Well the wait is over. Lulu has arrived and has several options to make your presentation as customizable as possible. They provide templates, sizing charts, online calculators, tips, uploading functions and more. In short is you have a base of desktop publishing you should have no problem figuring out what it takes to get your book uploaded and printed.

The only drawback? the manufacturing cost per book can be steep due to the "print-on-demand". Basically that is what the online calculators are for. So if you want "all color" you can figure out how much your willing to sell your book for based on how many pages you'd like. Easy enough.

Need a quick example of what the "Madness on Parade" book cost? Ok manufacturing cost came in at $50 (so that's what Lulu.com takes to print it) and then for profit we added $10 - so basically with the book priced at $60 - we make $10 a book. Not great, but a big publisher would probably only give you about $2 a book. So there's pro's and cons. Really it would be ideal if the manufacturing cost was $10 making the book much more affordable at $20........but it is what it is and you can have a book in your hands in less than 2 weeks!

Anyways check em out - we love what they do and we will continue to put out books as they are created. We've included another article below that we though was informational as well.

Lulu.com: So, you want to make a book?
Written by: Brian Benzinger
Reprinted from Solutionwatch.com

It has been a dream for me ever since I started working with computers to make a book about anything that I have learned on the computer, whether it be programming, my digital photography, Web Standards, etc.. In college, I was told by my English teacher, Not just anyone can publish a book. Well, I can now say, Mr. Teacher, that you are wrong and I can do it for free! Have a look at Lulu. Lulu is a Self Publishing website that allows you to create books, calendars, and CD's with images, audio, and music. The service reminds me of CafePress, but after looking at what Lulu features, you can clearly see that Lulu is the way when it comes to books. You can even make Full Color Books with Lulu.d

So here is what you can do. Signup to Lulu.com and publish a real book with no setup fees, minimum orders, and you can keep complete control over everything, including the design, copyright, and even the price. These are good quality books too and I have seen some in stores. Well, at least the ones that pay for retail distribution, which can allow them to appear in stores such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

So, now your probably thinking, how do I actually create the book? This is great. It is as simple as taking a Microsft Word Document and uploading it to Lulu. Lulu will then convert it to a PDF and turn it into a printable book. Now, if you are like me, you want more then just the use of a Word Document and Lulu has this covered too for the more ÒadvancedÓ users. You can create any page and book covers in a PDF file so you can easily create just about any book design. Below is a screenshot in the area were you can upload the front and back covers of the book. Very simple and there are more options than just what you see below.

Want to see books created with Lulu? Then just browse through their listing of books created by other Lulu members. You can also preview a good amount of pages in the books in the browsing area by clicking on Preview Book.This will open up the PDF they created for the content and allow you to see how it all looks. Here is one of my favorites: Pyrothesis by Trenton Clayne Wilcox.

Heres an idea for you that want to impress your clients. Make a book of all your work in your portfolio and hand them that! I would be very impressed to receive a book full of ones work. Hired! Heres another idea: You know all those photos that you have? Why not make a book with them and share them to friends and family? Of course, you can also write a text book or even a book that teaches people things. Like a tutorial book for Web Development or Photoshop. How cool is that? Pretty cool.

This is on my todo list now. Hopefully I will one day sit down and make a book and publish it. Oh, by the way. You can even make the books free for download if you wish. I think that would be a good idea if its a portfolio book too.