Lulu
You can
take their video tour
or you can stay on my page and I'll try to summarize the basics of Lulu
for you. Lulu runs your store with POD, print on demand.
What that means is, there's no extra inventory, when someone
orders one of your items then it's printed or burnt on a disc and the
item is sent to the customer. All you do is upload your
products
once and Lulu will take care of the rest for you.
If you're marketing books through Lulu, there's a service called
"Published by Lulu". With this service, Lulu will market your
books at Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble.com and other online book
stores.
But, by using this service, that makes Lulu the publisher.
If you want to remain the publisher and sell your book on
Lulu
AND the other stores mentioned above you can use the "Published by You"
feature, both features include a fee.
If you're wondering how this is free, it's because your profits are commission based. You set a price and Lulu will put a small markup on that price for themselves. As you're creating your items you can see what their markup will be. Also, with printed books, calendars, CDs and DVDs, there's a base price; the cost of the raw materials and printing service. This is figured into the total price when a customer orders your product; you don't pay for this. So you set the price and work off of their base prices and their markup to ensure that, overall, your products will sell at a decent price. If you write e-Books, this is the place for you. There's no base price and they'll host your e-book for free, all they do is add their small markup.
There are also services you can pay for to help you on your publishing, like:
If you're wondering how this is free, it's because your profits are commission based. You set a price and Lulu will put a small markup on that price for themselves. As you're creating your items you can see what their markup will be. Also, with printed books, calendars, CDs and DVDs, there's a base price; the cost of the raw materials and printing service. This is figured into the total price when a customer orders your product; you don't pay for this. So you set the price and work off of their base prices and their markup to ensure that, overall, your products will sell at a decent price. If you write e-Books, this is the place for you. There's no base price and they'll host your e-book for free, all they do is add their small markup.
There are also services you can pay for to help you on your publishing, like:
- Editing Services - Proofreading, editing and manuscript reviews
- Graphics Services - Book cover design, illustrations and more
- Publishing Services - Manuscript formatting, PDF creation and consultation services
- Marketing Services - Press releases, websites and other marketing packages
For
the last service I would hope that websites, like the one your on now,
would help you market your products. But if you need more
help,
I'm sure they can do the extra work for you.
As I mentioned before, Lulu doesn't take the rights to your work, nor do they ever ask you to give up your rights. You remain the creator of your items and the only person legally allowed to sell them. Which, in turn, would mean that you should do the same; don't try to sell someone else's work as your own. If something is copyrighted, by someone other than you, then it's not yours to sell. If you made it, you can sell it.
Let's talk more about Lulu's markup. If you look at it as a whole, your profit is 80% of the total price of products you sell. What Lulu does is, once you set a price, they'll mark it up with 25% of your set price, or add 19 cents (whichever is greater). So. if you set your price at $4, Lulu will add $1 to that, making the total $5. 25% of $4 is $1. 80% of $5 (the total price) is $4. So, do you see how you make 80% profit off of anything you sell? To me, that's not a bad deal at all. You set your price, you get free hosting of your storefront and print on demand services. All you really end up doing is: creating your work, uploading it and marketing your store.
If you have any other questions or are just curious, then I'd suggest browsing the forums. You can find out a lot of information there and get tips from other users on how to make Lulu a success for you. I plan on using this a lot in the future for books and e-books and I'd hope you'd at least think about it yourself. This is one example of many that will help you get your creative ideas shown to the world.
As I mentioned before, Lulu doesn't take the rights to your work, nor do they ever ask you to give up your rights. You remain the creator of your items and the only person legally allowed to sell them. Which, in turn, would mean that you should do the same; don't try to sell someone else's work as your own. If something is copyrighted, by someone other than you, then it's not yours to sell. If you made it, you can sell it.
Let's talk more about Lulu's markup. If you look at it as a whole, your profit is 80% of the total price of products you sell. What Lulu does is, once you set a price, they'll mark it up with 25% of your set price, or add 19 cents (whichever is greater). So. if you set your price at $4, Lulu will add $1 to that, making the total $5. 25% of $4 is $1. 80% of $5 (the total price) is $4. So, do you see how you make 80% profit off of anything you sell? To me, that's not a bad deal at all. You set your price, you get free hosting of your storefront and print on demand services. All you really end up doing is: creating your work, uploading it and marketing your store.
If you have any other questions or are just curious, then I'd suggest browsing the forums. You can find out a lot of information there and get tips from other users on how to make Lulu a success for you. I plan on using this a lot in the future for books and e-books and I'd hope you'd at least think about it yourself. This is one example of many that will help you get your creative ideas shown to the world.
Do you take a lot of pictures? Have you written a book?
Do
you have a band and make your own CDs? Do you make your own
movies? Would you like to market and sell all these things in
one
place? Well you can for free at Lulu.
It's easy to set up your own storefront and they take care of
all
the shipping for you. You set the prices and you
retain the
rights to your work. It really is as simple to set up as they
say; I even have my
own storefront.
There is so much you can do with this free service; you can sell all these types of items:
There is so much you can do with this free service; you can sell all these types of items:
- Books (Paperback, Hard Cover, Photobook or e-Book)
- Calendars
- Brochures
- Images (JPG, PNG or GIF for download only, no printing)
- Digital Media (Audio, Video, Software and more for download)
- CDs & DVDs (Video, Audio or other Data Files)