by Anura Guruge
on October 26, 2022
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I remember when ‘Lulu‘ came to be {& I just checked to make sure that in was indeed in 2002}. I signed up quite quickly & was initially a huge fan. I did some small projects, including a ‘British Cathedrals calendar’ (below), which I TRIED to sell on their online store. I never tried to publish a book with Lulu. Those were the days when I still used outside publishers. When I got around to publishing my first book, ON MY OWN, I did NOT use Lulu! I don’t remember why. I used ‘AuthorHouse‘ — & that was a profound mistake. Eventually, by the time of my 3rd self-published book I had discovered ‘CreateSpace‘ (which eventually MERGED with KDP) & have never looked back since. ‘CreateSpace’ was GREAT & after about 18-months of teething-problems KDP Paperback Publishing has become as good.
Well, after a 20-year hiatus I went back to Lulu yesterday. I am not THRILLED with the print quality, from KDP, of my 1sr PHOTO-BOOK, i.e., ‘Bold Coast, Maine — In Color‘. The paper is not glossy & heavy enough. So, after looking around I eventually went with Lulu. Compared to others, they were the least ONEROUS. I was, however, quite frustrated. Lulu wants HUGE margins to prevent the cover & inside pages getting accidently TRIMMED during production. So, I had to slightly condense all my pages. That did not make me very happy.
The print costs were much higher than KDP, but I opted for the highest quality paper etc. So, I can’t bitch about that. Print turnaround & delivery are ABSURD. 6-days to print a BOOK! 6-days. Then a week or more to get it to me. We will see. But, I hope the print quality makes it all worthwhile.
