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November 08, 2005
Print on Demand
I ran across a reference to a print-on-demand site this morning, LuLu Publishing. Now, I haven't really researched this area lately, so I don't know if these guys are the best by any means. Still, I'm amazed at how far it's come. About five years ago, I was just becoming aware of this little niche industry, which is becoming far less niche, and at the time, it looked a little iffy on both the price and the quality.
Now, however, it seems that I can have them print me a book, perfect-bound, with my own full-color wrap-around cover design, for not much more than the cost of printing it out at home on my laser printer on standard 8.5x11 paper. It's actually less than the cost of taking the file down to Kinko's and getting it in 8.5x11 spiral bound. And yet it appears to be as good a quality as you'd get from the larger publishing companies.
I begin to see why I hear some authors talking of self-publishing their next books, though I don't know if they'd be using this company. It's not necessarily that they'd make more money this way, though they might, just that many authors quietly talk of how they've been screwed over by publishers, both from bad marketing and how the basic business model of bookstores is frequently fatal to B-list authors.
Of course, the publishing industry isn't all bad. Just like the music industry, it provides a filter which is of at least a modest value, and perhaps more importantly, it provides a good structure for matching authors, editors, artists, and publishing managers. I just wish it didn't abandon the editing process for its A-list authors. (No offense to these fine storytellers, but you phoned in that last book, and your editor should have told you that.) It's just that the business model seems not to be working out that well for many of the authors. It might be ripe for a shift in the next twenty years, but that doesn't mean we'll actually see it or even recognize it until long afterwards.
But I suppose what really prompted this entry is that last year I popped down to Kinko's to get a spiral-bound printout of my NaNoWriMo 2004 output, just to get a printed record of it. (IMO, paper lasts longer than bits.) It cost close to $20. I could have done the LuLu thing for about half that. I'll be remembering that come December 1st.
Blog by Dan at November 8, 2005 08:36 AM
Comments
OMG. I am totally turning Sev-One into a book. It still hasn't been seen by an editor, so it's got mucho dreckiness, but I'd love to design some horrid cover art for it...
...and now I have Sketchpad Pro by Alias, so I can if I wanna. Just not this November...
Posted by: Tanya the Happy Tester at November 8, 2005 10:01 AM
I've purchased (not published) a Lulu-published book. I was impressed with the reasonable quality of the book. Not bad at all.
Posted by: Cuccu at November 8, 2005 11:05 AM
Maybe this would make a good Christmas present sort of thing for those of us who like to write. :)
I would LOVE a copy of whatever weirdness Tanya cranks out, for example.
Posted by: Julia at November 8, 2005 07:32 PM