Print Copy Sample from Lulu

Buying from Lulu is very straightforward. You click the Buy button and pay them :) The key is of course convincing people to pay 3 times as much as they would in a store for your book. You can also sell your book on Amazon and in bookstores, or on your own website. I cover all of those things in other areas of this section. But let's focus right now on what this book looks like, that Lulu creates with their on-demand printing press.

First, here is a photo of my very first printing of my Badge of Honor book, on the left. On the right is a "real" romance novel that I love, Lady Danger.

You can see that they're about the same size, and the quality of the book is quite nice. I had put the edges of my letters too close to the right hand side of the cover in this version. It looks unprofessional as a result. In my redone version, I use slightly smaller title letters so there is more space around the edges. I also shrunk the woman and changed her dress to red.

Here are the back covers:

I found that the back cover of mine was too "colorful" making it hard to read the text. In my new version I have washed out the colors a bit, so the text is easier to read. I also used to have it say "Badge of Honor" at the bottom - but I didn't realize they were going to put my ISBN number there. In the new version I removed that bottom title, since it was mostly overwritten anyway.

A comparison how of how the sides look:

Ironically, high-volume printers use cheap paper for the insides, which I actually find easier to read. But it's hard to complain that I get nice strong white paper :) My book is thinner, but actually this book was done with 10 point (too tiny) letters. When I increased my letter size to 11 point, I gained about 50 pages.

Now, you CAN customize the spine with graphics - but that gets really tricky since the width of the spine is based on how many pages you have. I would recommend not trying that with your first few books. People don't really examine the spines of a book. The cover is what is important.

Here's the insides of the books -

My book is on top, and Lady Danger (the professionally done one) is on the bottom. This is again the "first version" you're looking at, so my 10 point letters here are smaller than the font used in the professional book. I have since increased my book's font to 11 point so they match pretty closely.

I also had a slight formatting problem with my first book :) I had the pages all backwards! I had set it up so the "left hand" pages printed on the right and visa-versa. This means my margins were all wildly off since the "gutter" of the page, which should be inside the spine area, was now on the outside margin. It really pays to triple check your PDF proof that Lulu sends to you, to make sure you know how this is going to lay out in your real book.

The book online in the system now is set up correctly :) I just don't have a copy in my hands yet to show you in photos.

I ordered my Lulu book around midnight of Saturday, August 4th. I had my printed book in my hands on Monday, August 13th. Not too bad at all for "standard shipping" on a book that had to be created for me from scratch! Unlike CafePress, though, there is no tracking number associated with the shipment.

Lulu Print Quality - Book #2

Promoting your Lulu Book

Badge of Honor Take a look at the Badge of Honor sales page in Lulu, to get a sense of what the final product looks like. Badge of Honor at Lulu.com

Publishing On Demand Step By Step - Lulu
Lulu Self Publishing - Setting Up the Book
Formatting your Book for Self Publishing
Creating a Lulu Covers

Quality of Lulu Books
Print Copy Sample from Lulu #1
Print Copy Sample from Lulu #2
Print Copy Sample from Lulu #3

Promoting your Lulu Book
Problems and Issues with Lulu

Lulu Self Publishing Main Page
Getting Your Book Published
Writing Tips and Online Books

Online Literary Magazines

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