All Publishing Process posts

Publishing FAQ

Paul_Lulu — Mon, 19 Jun 2017 12:50:03 GMT

What Types of Files Can I Upload?

Files accepted for Books:

DOC & DOCX (Word Document)
RTF (Rich Text Format)
PDF (Portable Document Format)
JPG (Joint Photographics Expert Group)
GIF (Graphics Interchange Format)
PNG (Portable Network Graphic)

Files accepted for eBooks:

EPUB (electronic publication)
PDF (Portable Document Format)
DOC & DOCX (Word Document) - will convert to EPUB
RTF (Rich Text Format) - will convert to EPUB
JPG (Joint Photographics Expert Group)
GIF (Graphics Interchange Format)
PNG (Portable Network Graphic)
ODT (Open Document Format) - will convert to EPUB

Files accepted for book covers:

JPG (Joint Photographics Expert Group)
GIF (Graphics Interchange Format)
PNG (Portable Network Graphic)
PDF (Only for One-Piece Covers)

Files accepted for Photobooks & Calendars:

JPG (Joint Photographics Expert Group)
GIF (Graphics Interchange Format)
PNG (Portable Network Graphic)

How do I set a Copyright License for my work?

Copyright is a legal concept, enacted and recognized by most governments, giving exclusive rights to the creator of an original work, usually for a limited time. The term itself generally means "the right to copy," but also gives the copyright holder rights to be credited for the work, to determine who may adapt the work to other forms, who may perform the work, who may financially benefit from it, and other related rights.

While no creative work is automatically protected worldwide, there are international treaties that provide protection automatically for all creative works as soon as they are fixed in a medium. There are two primary international copyright agreements: the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works and theBuenos Aires Convention.

You, as the creator, are both the copyright holder and publisher of all works created and distributed using the tools and services available on the Lulu.com website. Therefore, when creating your work's copyright page, you should list yourself as the copyright holder and publisher. If you wish, you may list Lulu as the distributor.

Set your project's Copyright License as you are completing the Description step of Lulu's Publishing Wizard. Click the drop down box to the right of "License" to select the Copyright license of your choice.

Authors should research the copyright requirements for the countries in which they intend to make their work available and select accordingly from the following list of copyright options.

Standard Copyright License
The length of Copyright varies in length by jurisdictions. The length of the term can depend on several factors, including the type of work (e.g. musical composition, novel), whether the work has been published, and whether the work was created by an individual or a corporation. In most of the world, the default length of copyright is the life of the author plus either 50 or 70 years. In the United States, the term for most existing works is a fixed number of years after the date of creation or publication.

List of countries’ length of copyright

Public Domain
Under modern law, most original works of art, literature, music, etc. are covered by copyright from the time of their creation and extending for a set period of time. When the copyright expires, the work enters the public domain. The term indicates that these materials are therefore "public property", and available for anyone to use for any purpose. The laws of various countries define the scope of the public domain differently; making it necessary to specify which jurisdiction's public domain is being discussed.

Creative Commons
Creative Commons is a non-profit organization devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses known asCreative Commons licenses free of charge to the public. These licenses allow creators to communicate which rights they reserve, and which rights they waive for the benefit of recipients or other creators. Creative Commons licenses do not replace copyright, but are based upon it. They replace individual negotiations for specific rights between the copyright owner (licensor) and licensee, which are necessary under an "all rights reserved" copyright management with a "some rights reserved" management employing standardized licenses for re-use cases where no commercial compensation is sought by the copyright owner.

Click the links below for easy to understand, one-page explanations of each Creative Commons license.

Creative Commons Attribution 2.5
Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0

GNU Free or Open-source Software Documentation
Documentation for free software should be free documentation so that people can redistribute it and improve it along with the software it describes. To make it free, you need to release it under a free documentation license. If you have already started your project, but are unsure what type of free documentation license you need, click on the links below for additional information.

GNU Free Documentation License
GNU General Public License
GNU Lesser General Public License

Create a Custom License
Enter the name and URL for the license in the pop-up window and click accept.

How do I set the retail price of my book?

Print Books

You will set the retail price of your book in the publishing wizard. If your book includes an ISBN, the displayed price will include the minimum retail markup (production cost x 2). The pricing step includes a real-time calculator to help you work through the retail price and royalty combinations. When first displayed, the amount in the Retail Print field is the minimum retail price for the book. The minimum retail price (retail price / 2) must be enough to cover the production cost of publishing the book, your royalty, and the Lulu commission:

Minimum wholesale price = Production cost + Royalty + Lulu commission

It is probably easiest to set the retail price and let Lulu calculate your maximum royalty. Using our $20 retail price, the wholesale is automatically $10. $10 minus production costs = what's left over for your royalty and the Lulu commission. The calculator maximizes this. You can

Enter a Retail Print price and Lulu calculates your royalty and the Lulu commission.
Enter a royalty amount and Lulu calculates the retail price and the Lulu commission.
Enter $0 in the Your Royalty field to reset the price back to the minimum.

IMPORTANT: The retail price is a suggested retail price. You have the option of pricing your book even higher, which will allow for greater profits, and greater royalties. However, if the book is overpriced or "priced out of market," it may not sell as many copies as it would at a lower price. Would you like to see an example?

Once your Book is published, you can view and edit your retail pricing. Go to My Projects and click on the project title. Scroll to the Pricing and Creator Revenues section and click Edit to adjust your retail pricing.

eBooks

Once you have uploaded your eBook, created the marketing image, and entered your book's details, you must decide on its price. You do this in the eBook creation wizard by simply entering a price and choosing the retail sites on which you would like to sell your book. Our retail price calculator allows you to offer your eBook for free or any price above $0.99.

Note: If you deselect Lulu from the distribution list, your book will be published in Private Access. It will not be displayed in the Lulu bookstore and will not be returned in search results.

Some retailers, such as the Apple iBookstore, require prices to end in .99. If you choose the iBookstore as a retail distribution option, we will automatically adjust your price to the nearest acceptable price based on Apple's pricing tiers for each currency. To view these pricing tiers, see our Apple iBookstore retail price calculator.

You may notice that your revenue amounts change based on the retail sites you select to distribute your book. That is because some retailers (Lulu, Apple, and Barnes & Noble) act as sales agents meaning they sell your eBook at the price you set then take a commission based on that price. Other retailers (Amazon, Kobo) operate as resellers. This means they pay the wholesale price to a distributor when your eBook sells. Since these retailers are buying your book from a middle man at a set price, they can resell your eBook at any price they like, including a discounted price. Under the reseller model you will always make the same revenue as displayed in the retail pricing step for each book sold by that retailer, regardless of the sale price.

Once your eBook is published, you can view and edit your eBook's retail pricing and distribution options from theMy Projects > Manage button.

IMPORTANT NOTE: When you select Kobo and/or Kindle distribution, Barnes & Noble converts to the reseller revenue model.

What is "My Files?"

Lulu keeps all of the files that you use for projects in "My Files". "My Files" also has 5GB of space for files that haven’t been used in a project yet. Once a file is added to a project (even if the project is still in Draft status), it no longer counts towards the 5GB limit. Files not linked to a project are automatically removed after 21 days.

In My Files you can:

Upload files from your computer to your Lulu account.
View files by type or project.
Use the files for any of your projects.
Download files to your computer.

For files larger than 300MB use FTP.

Why does Retail pricing require a markup?

Print Books

Retailers and Wholesalers make their money by purchasing print books from distributors at a discount from the retail price you set for your book. Most print book retailers and wholesalers buy at a 50% discount, returnable, with freight paid to the store or warehouse. This is referred to as a full trade discount.

A short discount is typically 20% off retail and often restricts the availability of books as there is not enough profit margin for a brick and mortar retailer to carry it. Because of Lulu's relationships with wholesalers and retailers, and our automated bibliographic feeds and print partners, we enable your book to be made available through these channels on a non-returnable, free freight basis. The discount extended to retailers and wholesalers may vary, however, given different laws, conventions within certain markets, and what the retailer will buy.

Lulu's print book retail pricing calculator doubles Manufacturing Cost plus Creator Compensation and Lulu fee. This is an intuitively clear calculation and it allows Lulu a sufficient margin to negotiate with retailers and wholesalers to list your book. For more information, see How Retail Prices are Determined.

In dealing with channel partners there are setup costs, cross-docking charges or in-bound freight costs to reach that wholesaler, which are in addition to the discount.

eBooks

eBooks, by their very nature, do not include a production cost, but there are distribution fees and retailer commissions to consider. There are pricing restrictions you must follow when applying your retail price. For example, the retail pricing step in the eBook creation wizard allows you to offer your eBook for free or any price above $0.99.

Once you enter the retail price and choose the retail sites on which you would like to sell your book, we will display the price, distribution fees, Lulu commission, and your net revenue for each retail site.

You may notice that your revenue amounts change based on the retail sites you select to distribute your book. That is because some retailers (Lulu, Apple, and Barnes & Noble) act as sales agents meaning they sell your eBook at the price you set then take a commission based on that price. Other retailers (Amazon, Kobo) operate as resellers. This means they pay a wholesale price to a distributor when your eBook sells. Since these retailers are buying your book from a middle man at a set price, they can resell your eBook at any price they like, including a discounted price. Under the reseller model you will always make the same revenue as displayed in the retail pricing step for each book sold by that retailer, regardless of the sale price.

Once your eBook is published, you can view and edit your eBook's retail pricing and distribution options from theMy Projects by clicking the Manage button displayed next to your project title.

IMPORTANT NOTE: When you select Kobo and/or Kindle distribution, all other selected retailers (except Lulu and the iBookstore) convert to the reseller revenue model.

What is the difference between Lulu, wholesale, and retail prices?

Print Books

Assume you have written a book for a very specialized market: The Essentials of Underwater Firefighting. The cost of printing each book (# of pages + binding + labor) is $5.50.

When purchasing your book, the Author price = (manufacturing cost + applicable taxes + shipping) - (coupon and/or bulk purchase discounts)

If you publish your print format book without an ISBN, you may sell it in the Lulu Marketplace at any price above the book's manufacturing cost. This is the direct to consumer Lulu price.

If you choose to publish your book with an ISBN, you must comply with accepted wholesale and retail (list) distribution pricing guidelines. The example below describes how these prices are set.

Wholesale Price

In this example, “Wholesale Price” refers to the minimum price at which you are willing to sell your book to retailers, who will in turn sell it to their customers for a profit.

You determine your minimum acceptable royalty per book is $4.00. The overhead cost, or Lulu commission, is $1.00 per book.

Manufacturing Cost + Royalty + Lulu Commission = Wholesale Price per Book

From our example: $5.50 + $4.00 + $1.00 = $10.50 per book

Since manufacturing costs are somewhat out of the author’s control, this pricing example relies on your decisions about the minimum royalty you wish to make from each retail purchase of your book.

An author should also consider that while you may be earning a smaller royalty per book when offering it at a wholesale price, you could eventually earn more income from higher book sales through retail channels.

Retail (or List) Price

The generally accepted retail pricing formula is: Wholesale Price x 2

From our example: $10.50 x 2 = $21.00

When you decide to offer your work to retailers at wholesale prices, it is with the understanding that the retailer expects to sell your work at a price sufficient to cover their costs and still make a profit – even if the retailer chooses to offer your work at a discount.

eBooks

Setting prices for eBooks is slightly diferrent, mainly due to there being no production costs as with print books.

Enter your retail price in the pricing step of the eBook publishing wizard and we will display the pricing breakdown for each selected distribution outlet: Retail Price, Distribution Fee, Lulu Commission, Author Revenue.

Other retailers (Amazon, Kobo) operate as resellers. This means they pay the wholesale price to a distributor when your eBook sells. Since these retailers are buying your book from a middle man at a set price, they can resell your eBook at any price they choose, including a discounted price.

Under the reseller model you will always make the same revenue as displayed in the retail pricing step for each book sold by that retailer, regardless of the sale price.

Once your eBook is published, you can view and edit your eBook's retail pricing and distribution options from theMy Projects page by clicking the Manage button displayed next to the project title.

IMPORTANT NOTE: When you select Kobo and/or Kindle distribution, all other selected retailers (except Lulu and the iBookstore) convert to the reseller revenue model.

What is a Suggested Retail or List Price?

The wholesale price you set for your book is the price retailers pay to purchase your book for resell from their sites, stores, or shops. The suggested retail price includes a price mark up sufficient to cover the retailer’s labor, marketing, rent, utilities, and other fixed costs associated with owning and running a business. The retailer may choose to sell your work at the full retail price ($21.00 from our example above), they may offer a standard discount (such as free shipping), or they may run a special for a defined period of time (such as 25% off all books purchased that month). The selling price set by the retailer has no effect on royalties you earn from selling your book at the wholesale price – in other words, if your Retail Royalty is set at $4, you will make $4 for every book sold in retail channels, even if the retailer offers a discount.

For more information about Retail pricing requirements, see: How Retail Prices are Determined

Do I have to price my content in dollars?

You may price your content using any of the following currencies: Dollars (USD, CA$, AU$), Euros (€), Pounds Sterling (£), and Swiss Francs (CHF).

Modify your currency preference on the My Account and Orders section of the My Lulu page. Select a currency from the dropdown menu.

If you opt to receive your Creator Revenue payments by Paypal, we pay you in your currency of choice. (We issue paper checks only in US dollars.)

How do I turn a paperback into a hardcover?

Hardcovers are available in 6 x 9" (US Trade) and 8.25 x 10.75" (US Letter) sizes. To get started making a hardcover version of your paperback book:

Go to the Lulu Book Builder
Choose the Premium Hardcover product line
Select the book size and formatting options for your hardcover edition.
Click Make this book to initiate the print book publishing wizard
On the file upload step, choose the My Files on Lulu tab
Choose the interior file(s) for your previously published paperback book
Click Add Files to Project

When creating the print-ready file, the publishing wizard can make slight page size adjustments to fit your manuscript into the book size you selected.

If your manuscript is too far from 6x9" or 8.25x10.75" a warning message will display instructing you to resize your manuscript. Learn more about formatting your manuscript here.

Can I send my files to Lulu instead of uploading through the site?

Lulu does not accept files provided by any method other than the ones provided on the site. These include the following.

The Lulu Publishing Wizards and Lulu Studio
FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
My Files, in your My Lulu account tab

If you find that you can't upload your files directly from your computer, you may copy your files onto a CD or flash drive and upload them from a public Internet computer found, for example, at a library or internet café. Allow about an hour for the entire process, although the actual upload time is much less.

As you may find public Internet time in your area limited or costly, we suggest that you practice from your home computer using a simple dummy book (with small files) to learn the process and make creating your actual book faster. Of course, you may also upload files using one computer then work with your project on another computer.

Can I upload my files before I start the publishing process?

You may upload your files to your account's My Files area before you begin, for everything except Calendars. For more information, please see the following FAQs.

How can I upload large files more quickly and easily? / Can I upload my files with FTP?

Can I enter HTML in the Description field?

HTML was previously allowed, but there were issues with the way pages loaded and displayed. We no longer allow HTML and strip it from the Description field in the Lulu Publishing Wizard.

What kinds of licenses can I put on my work?

Lulu offers a range of Creative Commons licenses and GNU licenses; access these options through the >More Licenses< button. For a full explanation of these licenses, see the following websites.

How to choose and arrange your files for the inside of your book

David Woodward — Thu, 07 Aug 2014 20:14:55 GMT

What you are doing in this step:

In this step you'll be adding the file(s) that make up the inside of your book project. Don't forget Lulu Services are only a click away if you feel you need help with formatting)! If you are planning on selling your book on retail sites other than Lulu.com, please review our Mandatory Requirements for Distribution.

How to add files from your computer:

Locate the file(s) on your computer by clicking the 'Browse' button.
Select a file and the file name will appear in the box.
Click the 'Upload' button. A progress bar will display how much of the file has uploaded. The progress bar will disappear and the file will appear in the list under 'My Project Files'.
Repeat steps 1-3 to upload multiple files for your book. See the 'Multiple Files' section below for a warning on using multiple files.
Files in the My Project Files list can be rearranged by clicking the up and down arrows and dragging to the order you want them to be in.
Click Make Print-Ready File.

How to add files from 'My Lulu Files':

If you used FTP to get your file onto Lulu or uploaded your interior file to My Files, click the Choose From My Lulu Files tab.
Your files will appear below the tab. Select the file(s) you want to add by clicking the box to the left of the file name you want to use.
Click Add Files To Project. The page will reload and the files you selected will appear in your My Project Files list.
Files in My Project Files list can be rearranged by clicking the up and down arrows or dragging the file into the order you want them to be in.
Click Make Print-Ready File.

Common problems (and solutions)

Multiple files - When we get multiple files for the interior pages of a book, our software opens them up and converts them into a single document (without bleed) of the size you chose in the previous step. This process sometimes causes issues with fonts. If creating a book with a bunch of photos, you might prefer to use our Photo Book Studio; it provides better support when using multiple images in your book.
Files don't match your trim size - It is very important that you format your manuscript file(s) to be the same size as the book you are creating before you upload your file to Lulu. If you are creating a 6 x 9" book on Lulu and upload a file sized to 8.5 x 11", we will resize your file, the resizing will do horrible things to your files and your book will look terrible. Read the formatting tips for more information on how to properly format your file.
Uploading non-interior files - Any file you upload here will be put inside your book. You'll upload any files for your cover later.
Files are too big - The upload step only allows files up to 300 megabytes. If you need to upload a file larger than that, or want to upload outside of the Publishing Wizard, you can use FTP to get your file onto Lulu and them add it to your project via 'My Lulu Files'. Learn more about FTP on Lulu here: How can I upload large files more quickly and easily? / Can I upload my files with FTP?
Files without embedded fonts - For Lulu to print the book as you designed it you need to give us the fonts you want us to use. You can do that by embedding fonts in your document. Learn more about embedding fonts here: How do I embed fonts in a PDF?
Password protected files - Lulu can't get into password-protected files. Make sure all of the files you upload are not password.
Invalid file types - Make sure to upload the correct file for your project. What types of files can I upload?
Incorrect fonts in Word Documents - Lulu will substitute the font you used in your Word Document if it is not one of these: What fonts can I use in my document?

Uploading large files with FTP

David Woodward — Tue, 02 Aug 2016 17:19:49 GMT

Use an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) client to upload files larger than 300MB to My Files. The following steps provide general instructions. Please review your FTP client's help documentation for specific information about using the program.

Connect to ftpupload.lulu.com with a full-featured FTP client (such as SmartFTP or FileZilla).
Use your Lulu login (email address) and password for authentication.
Follow the instructions in the FTP client to select and upload files and/or folders of files.
Once a file uploads completely, it automatically moves into your My Files list.
Successfully uploaded files no longer show in your FTP client because they are stored in My Files.

IMPORTANT: Extremely large project files have a much higher incidence of transmission, conversion, and printing errors. To prevent these errors, the total file size of a Lulu project cannot exceed 1 GB.

See Also: What is My Files?

How to Review Your Project

David Woodward — Thu, 26 Jun 2014 18:53:06 GMT

What are you doing in this step?

This step allows you to review the choices you've made in the wizard and change them if desired.

Instructions

Review the information in each section and make sure it is correct.
Click the 'Change' button in the section you need to make adjustments in. Clicking the 'Change' button will take you to the step where you set that choice.
Click the 'Save & Finish >>' button to publish your book.

Project List Status Definitions

David_Woodward — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 11:18:56 GMT

When you view the list of projects on the My Projects page, you see your most recently created work, including Project ID and publishing status. In your projects list, the Status assignment indicates where the project is in the publishing process. The status will be Draft for new or under revision titles, published titles display the Availability status and withdrawn titles have a status of Retired or Deleted.

Draft: A work in progress has a Draft status and has not completed the publishing process. When a project is in draft status, you may:

Add or remove content.
Change any of the details for the work (for example, the title, description, copyright).
Delete the project.
Publish the project (that is, finish the process of selecting distribution, approve conversions and cover art, set pricing, and so forth).

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are revising a previously published title that includes an ISBN, the title and author name cannot be edited. If you must edit either of these fields, you must create a new project and assign a new ISBN.

Private Access: No one but you can see your content. (This is a good setting to use until you are satisfied with your project.) Please Note that if you set your project from General Access to Private Access, your title may continue to be returned in search results for a short time; however, it will not be available for purchase.

Direct Access: Allows you to sell your work to specific individuals only. You receive a web URL (http://www.lulu.com/content/content_ID) at the end of the publishing process. You can then provide this link to others who may purchase directly from your product page or personal website. Visitors cannot find Direct Access content by searching for it.

General Access: You work is visible to all Lulu.com visitors. Your project is available through search and browse on Lulu. In order to assign a General Access level, your material must meet the following guidelines:

Title: No excessive or gratuitous profanity.
Cover Image: No suggestive or gratuitous nudity, or overly sexually explicit posing.
Description: No graphic descriptions or excessive profanity.
Preview: No suggestive or gratuitous nudity, or overly sexually explicit posing. No graphic descriptions. No excessive or gratuitous profanity.

Retired — The project is no longer available for purchase or inclusion in other projects. Retire a project through the project detail page (click the title in the Project List), in the Availability / Project Status section.

If your content has not been published, you can simply delete it from your Project List. Projects in DRAFT status can also be deleted. When a project is deleted, the source files are also deleted. Published projects must be retired.

When you choose to delete or 'retire' your content from Lulu, it will no longer be available for purchase or download from the Lulu Marketplace.

To delete your project:

Only unpublished projects can be deleted.

Log into your Lulu.com account.
Click My Projects.
Click the Delete link next to the project you want to remove.
Confirm the deletion. When a project is deleted, the source files are also deleted.

To retire your project:

Log into your Lulu.com account.
Click My Projects.
Click the Retire link next to the project you want to remove.
You will be asked to confirm your choice.
Once confirmed the project will be moved to your Retired Projects list.
To view retired projects, click Show Retired Projects at the top of the the project list.

To view retired projects:

Log into your Lulu.com account.
Click My Projects.
Click Show retired projects at the top of the project list.

For more information see: Lulu's Content Retention Guidelines

Retail Pricing Example (Distribution)

David_Woodward — Thu, 07 Aug 2014 19:45:04 GMT

Print Books

The selling price set by the retailer has no effect on royalties you earn from selling your book at the wholesale price – in other words, if your Retail Royalty is set at $4, you will make $4 for every book sold in that retail channel, even if the retailer offers a discount.

Lulu Price		Retail Price			Description
$	4.00	$	4.00	-	Page cost (2¢/page x 200 pages)
+	4.50	+	1.50	-	Binding Fee
________		________
$	8.50	$	5.50*	-	Production Cost
+	10.00	+	4.00	-	Creator royalty
+	2.50	+	1.00	-	Lulu commission (20% of profit or 25% of revenue / royalty)
________		________
$	21.00	$	10.50	-	Lulu Marketplace price ($21.00) and Minimum wholesale ($10.50)
		x	2

		$	21.00	-	Distribution Suggested Retail Price

* The above example takes into consideration that some retailers, such as Amazon.com, own the presses on which your book is printed and can therefore print and assemble books at a lower cost.

eBooks

E-Books, by their very nature, do not include a production cost, but there are distribution fees and retailer commissions to consider when setting your retail price. There are also pricing restrictions you must follow when applying your retail price. For example, the retail pricing step in the eBook creation wizard allows you to offer your eBook for free or any price above $0.99.

Some retailers, such as the Apple iBookstore, also require prices to end in 0.99. If you choose the iBookstore as a retail distribution option, we will automatically adjust your price to the nearest acceptable price based on Apple's pricing tiers for each currency. To view these pricing tiers, see our Apple iBookstore retail price calculator.

Once you enter your eBook's retail price and choose the retail sites on which you would like to sell your book, we will display the retail price, distribution fees, Lulu commission, and your net revenue for each selected site.

Agency Pricing (Apple iBookstore, Barnes & Noble)			Reseller Pricing (Amazon Kindle, Kobo)
eBook Retail Price	»	5.99	eBook Retail Price	»	5.99
Distribution Fee	»	-1.80	Distribution Fee	»	-3.14
Net Profit	»	4.19	Net Profit	»	2.85
Lulu Share (10%)	»	-0.42	Lulu Share (10%)	»	-0.29
Creator Revenue 80%	»	3.77	Creator Revenue 80%	»	2.56

You may notice that your eBook revenue amounts change based on the retail sites you select to distribute your eBook. That is because some retailers (Lulu, Apple, and Barnes & Noble) act as sales agents meaning they sell your eBook at the price you set then take a set commission based on that price. Other retailers (Amazon, Kobo) operate as resellers. This means they pay a wholesale price to a distributor when your eBook sells. Since these retailers are buying your book from a middleman at a set price, they can resell your eBook at any price they like, including a discounted price. Under the reseller model you will always make the same revenue as displayed in the retail pricing step for each book sold by that retailer, regardless of the sale price.

Publishing Overview and How to Create a Project

Moderator — Tue, 16 Aug 2016 17:27:23 GMT

Overview

Things you will need to make your book:

You'll need your manuscript for the inside of your book (we recommend a PDF or Word document), and images or a PDF for the cover.

Steps you will go through:

Log into your Lulu.com account.
Choose your book's size, binding, and paper type. You may select from our pre-configured packages or build your own book by selecting from the options listed below the book specifications.
Give your project a working title and tell us whether its for your private use or you intend to sell it.
Upload your formatted manuscript for the inside of your book.
Lulu converts your manuscript into the interior pages of your book
Make your cover in our cover creation wizard or upload the one-piece cover you've made yourself
Add a description, license, copyright, language, etc. to inform customers about your book
Review what you have created.

How to learn more or get help:

You can get more help on most steps of the wizard by clicking the Get more information about this step link above the blue box or by clicking the Help button. Most steps will have step-by-step instructions and additional helpful information.

Start a New Project

Options Step:

The Options Step is the Lulu Create Page, also known as the Lulu Book Builder. It can be found here:

lulu.com/create/books

The Lulu Book Builder allows both new and experienced do-it-yourself authors to build the right print book for their market and their fans’ bookshelves. You can choose one of our most popular formats or build your own book from our unmatched selection of sizes and bindings. You can also enter your book’s page count to see manufacturing cost estimates, spine width calculations, and bulk pricing.

Everything you need to know about your book is displayed in the Book Builder before you even enter the book’s title or upload your manuscript.

To build your book:

Choose a product line:
1. Standard Paperback (US Market) or Value: Perfect bound paperbacks, no retail distribution at this time
2. Premium Paperback: Bookstore quality paperbacks, multiple binding options, distribution-eligible formats are designated by the green distribution symbol
3. Professional Hardcover: Bookstore quality hardcover and dust jacket formats, distribution-eligible formats are designated by the green distribution symbol
4. Photobooks & Calendars: Soft and hardcover photo books as well as standard and premium calendars
Choose from one of our most popular formats displayed below the selected product line or build your own by selecting your binding, size and interior color options.
Enter the number of pages in your manuscript to view the manufacturing cost for your book. For the most accurate cost estimate, format your manuscript file in the same size as the book you selected to determine the number of pages.
Whether you choose a preformatted option or build your own book, your book’s specifications and manufacturing cost will update based on your selections and the number of pages you enter in the calculator.
Click the Download Template button. This file includes instructions, a style guide, a blank template with preset margins, and book cover dimensions based on the options you selected.
Premium, Professional, and Photo-Quality products qualify for bulk purchase discounts. Enter the desired number of books to see how much you can save by ordering in large quantities. Bulk pricing starts at 15 copies.
When you have completed your selections, click Make this book to begin creating your book.

Title Step:

In this step you'll give your project a working title and decide whether it's just for you or if you want to sell it to the world. All of these options can be changed at any time.

What do the choices mean?

Sell on Lulu, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and more
Sell your Book on Lulu.com. If your eBook meets Lulu's eBook Distribution Requirements, you may also choose to sell your book on a variety of online retailer sites
Sell only on the Lulu Marketplace
This option allows you sell your book in the Lulu Bookstore, but it does not allow you to assign an ISBN or to distribute your book to other retailers.
Make available only to me
Selecting this option does not allow you to assign an ISBN to your Book for distribution. Only you will see your Book when you are logged into your Lulu.com account.

File Step:

On this step, you'll upload the file(s) that will comprise the interior of your book. Here is a comprehensive list of all file types we can accept:

Files accepted for Books:

DOC & DOCX (Word Document)
RTF (Rich Text Format)
PDF (Portable Document Format)
JPG (Joint Photographics Expert Group)
GIF (Graphics Interchange Format)
PNG (Portable Network Graphic)

Files accepted for eBooks:

EPUB (electronic publication)
PDF (Portable Document Format)
DOC & DOCX (Word Document) - will convert to EPUB
RTF (Rich Text Format) - will convert to EPUB
JPG (Joint Photographics Expert Group)
GIF (Graphics Interchange Format)
PNG (Portable Network Graphic)
ODT (Open Document Format) - will convert to EPUB

Files accepted for book covers:

JPG (Joint Photographics Expert Group)
GIF (Graphics Interchange Format)
PNG (Portable Network Graphic)
PDF (Only for One-Piece Covers)

Files accepted for Photobooks & Calendars:

JPG (Joint Photographics Expert Group)
GIF (Graphics Interchange Format)
PNG (Portable Network Graphic)

Uploading Large Files:

If you have a file larger than 300mb, you'll want to use File Transfer Protocol (FTP) to upload it. The following steps provide general instructions. Please review your FTP client's help documentation for specific information about using the program.

Connect to ftpupload.lulu.com with a full-featured FTP client (such as SmartFTP or FileZilla).
Use your Lulu login (email address) and password for authentication.
Follow the instructions in the FTP client to select and upload files and/or folders of files.
Once a file uploads completely, it automatically moves into your My Files list.
Successfully uploaded files no longer show in your FTP client because they are stored in My Files.

What is 'My Files':

In My Files you can:

Upload files from your computer to your Lulu account.
View files by type or project.
Use the files for any of your projects.
Download files to your computer.

Choose and arrange your files for the inside of your book:

What you are doing in this step:

How to add files from your computer:

Locate the file(s) on your computer by clicking the 'Browse' button.
Select a file and the file name will appear in the box.
Click the 'Upload' button. A progress bar will display how much of the file has uploaded. The progress bar will disappear and the file will appear in the list under 'My Project Files'.
Repeat steps 1-3 to upload multiple files for your book. See the 'Multiple Files' section below for a warning on using multiple files.
Files in the My Project Files list can be rearranged by clicking the up and down arrows and dragging to the order you want them to be in.
Click Make Print-Ready File.

How to add files from 'My Lulu Files':http://connect.lulu.com/t5/Interior-Formatting/Editing-Checklist-for-Books/ta-p/31395

If you used FTP to get your file onto Lulu or uploaded your interior file to My Files, click the Choose From My Lulu Files tab.
Your files will appear below the tab. Select the file(s) you want to add by clicking the box to the left of the file name you want to use.
Click Add Files To Project. The page will reload and the files you selected will appear in your My Project Files list.
Files in My Project Files list can be rearranged by clicking the up and down arrows or dragging the file into the order you want them to be in.
Click Make Print-Ready File.

Common problems (and solutions)

Multiple files - When we get multiple files for the interior pages of a book, our software opens them up and converts them into a single document (without bleed) of the size you chose in the previous step. This process sometimes causes issues with fonts. If creating a book with a bunch of photos, you might prefer to use our Photo Book Studio; it provides better support when using multiple images in your book.

Files don't match your trim size - It is very important that you format your manuscript file(s) to be the same size as the book you are creating before you upload your file to Lulu. If you are creating a 6 x 9" book on Lulu and upload a file sized to 8.5 x 11", we will resize your file, the resizing will do horrible things to your files and your book will look terrible. Read the formatting tips for more information on how to properly format your file.

Uploading non-interior files - Any file you upload here will be put inside your book. You'll upload any files for your cover later.

Files are too big - The upload step only allows files up to 300 megabytes. If you need to upload a file larger than that, or want to upload outside of the Publishing Wizard, you can use FTP to get your file onto Lulu and them add it to your project via 'My Lulu Files'. Learn more about FTP on Lulu here: How can I upload large files more quickly and easily? / Can I upload my files with FTP?

Files without embedded fonts - For Lulu to print the book as you designed it you need to give us the fonts you want us to use. You can do that by embedding fonts in your document. Learn more about embedding fonts here: How do I embed fonts in a PDF?

Password protected files - Lulu can't get into password-protected files. Make sure all of the files you upload are not password.

Invalid file types - Make sure to upload the correct file for your project. What types of files can I upload?

Incorrect fonts in Word Documents - Lulu will substitute the font you used in your Word Document if it is not one of these: What fonts can I use in my document?

For more on how to create a file that our system can use, see our Knowledge Base section on Interior Formatting:

Lulu File Help

Cover Step:

The Cover Step includes a variety of tools for creating or uploading your Cover Design. Because the Lulu Cover Designer and One-Piece Designer have a number of facets and options, the best way to learn more about them is to view their individual pages, or to review the section of our Knowledge Base specifically regarding cover design:

Lulu Cover Help

Price Step:

In this step you will set the price of your book by entering the sale price you want the book to have. Your book's price is the total of the manufacturing cost (dependent on the number of pages and the options you choose), your creator revenue (the amount you get each time someone buys a copy), and Lulu's commission (20% of your revenue). If you're going to sell your book on online bookstores your price will also include a retail markup.

A discount can be added or edited in this step as well. This discount only applies to your projects sold on the Lulu Marketplace and not sales on other distribution outlets.

The discount will decrease the 'Net Profit' of the sale of each book, which will decrease the Lulu commission and your Revenue. The discounted price cannot be lower than the 'Base Price'.

Enter the price you would like and your revenue will display to the right. If you have chosen to have your book available to other stores, you will also see a retail price display to the right of the Lulu revenue.
Click 'Details' to see a breakdown of how the price is calculated.

Adding a discount

Click the 'Set Discount' or Edit Discount' button to add or edit your book's List Price on the Lulu Marketplace.
Select a discount percent in the 'Discount' selector box and the Discounted Price' and 'Your Revenue' fields will update with the discounted price. Once you are happy with the price click the 'Set Discount' button.
Your new Revenue amount will display along with the details. If there is an issue with your discount percentage, a message will display with options to fix the discount.

Description Step:

On this step you describe your book so that readers can find and buy it.

Select the category your book falls in or pick the best match.
Enter all of the keywords that describe your book. These keywords will make it easier for customers to find your book. Use terms that are distinct and specific to your book and avoid general keywords that could describe any book.
Write a description of your book. This description will appear on the item page for your book and customers will use it to decide if they're interested in your book.
Tell us what language your book is written in.
Set your copyright.
Select the type of license you'd like to use.
Tell us which edition of the book this is.
Enter the name of the publisher of the book. This could be your name or your imprint.

Review Step:

This is it! On the final step you can review the files used in your project, the access (private, direct, or general), and the descriptive information you entered. Once you are satisfied, click "Save & Finish" to publish your book!

If you are ready, go to Lulu.com and get started.

Print-Ready Files FAQ

Moderator — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 11:14:08 GMT

What's going on in this step?

We're turning your file(s) into a print-ready file (PDF) that will be used to print your book. We'll only make changes if the size of the file you uploaded is different than the book size you chose on the options page.

How long will it take?

It usually takes a few minutes, but may take longer. Click the Email Me button and you can go off to other parts of Lulu while you wait.

How do I check my print ready file?

Log in to your Lulu.com account.
Go to the My Projects.
Click on the project title to open the project page.
You can download both your print-ready cover and interior files from the links provided at the bottom of the page. Your print ready files are also presented for download and review during the publishing process.

How to Describe Your Project

Moderator — Thu, 07 Aug 2014 20:25:13 GMT

What are you doing in this step?

On this step you describe your book so that readers can find and buy it.

Instructions

Select the category your book falls in or pick the best match.
Enter all of the keywords that describe your book. These keywords will make it easier for customers to find your book. Use terms that are distinct and specific to your book and avoid general keywords that could describe any book.
Write a description of your book. This description will appear on the item page for your book and customers will use it to decide if they're interested in your book.
Tell us what language your book is written in.
Set your copyright.
Select the type of license you'd like to use.
Tell us which edition of the book this is.
Enter the name of the publisher of the book. This could be your name or your imprint.
Click Save & Continue to finish and go to the next step.

Why does my Lulu price have to match my retail price?

Moderator — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 20:07:34 GMT

Print Books

Print books with distribution have one suggested retail price for all retail sales; on Lulu, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble. A single retail price is not only a good business practice, it ensures that our retail partners are not selling your title at a disadvantage. Also this practice complies with international markets operating under a "fixed-price law."

Your royalty on sales through the Lulu Marketplace, however, is significantly higher than the royalty on sales where the retailer buys at a discount from Lulu or one of our distributors.

Like other retailers, you may choose to offer a discount from the suggested retail price. To apply a discount to your book, see: Adding / Revising Discounts.

eBooks

While all print books in retail distribution are sold under a reseller model, eBooks can be placed into distribution through either agency or reseller (wholesale) models.

Distribution: Agency Model

In the Agency distribution model, the author sets the price of their book and chooses retail outlets on which they wish to sell their book. In exchange for allowing an author access to the buyers on their retail site, the retailer retains 30-44% of the list price determined by the author, depending on country and currency. Under the agency model, the author agrees to sell their book at the same price in the Lulu bookstore and on their author website.

For example, if a Lulu author chooses to distribute their eBook to the Apple iBookstore, the NOOK Bookstore, and the Lulu Bookstore these retailers act as sales agents and must sell your book at the price you set. Agency sales are reported in your revenue report by retailer.

For iBookstore pricing examples, see How to get your book on the iBookstore.

Distribution: Reseller Model

In the Reseller distribution model, an intermediary agrees to purchase your book at the wholesale price in order to resell it to a consumer or another retailer. In this model, once a retailer has purchased the book from the reseller, they can then sell it for any price they choose. Whether the retailer chooses to sell your book at a huge markup or offers deep discounts from the list price, the author will always earn the designated wholesale revenue on each purchase made on the selected retailer's site. The benefit of the reseller model is that authors and retailers can set their own prices and offer discounts to stimulate sales.

For example, if a Lulu author chooses to distribute their eBook through the Ingram network (globalREACH Distribution), Ingram will act as a reseller. When your Book sells on any of Ingram's affiliate outlets (Kindle and Kobo), the retailer will actually be purchasing the eBook from Ingram, who will in turn report sales back to Lulu. Reseller sales are displayed in your revenue report as Ingram sales, regardless of the retailer from which the book was purchased.

IMPORTANT NOTE: When you select Kobo and/or Kindle distribution, all other selected retailers (except Lulu) convert to the reseller revenue model.

Availability Settings in the Review Step of the 'Publishing Wizard'

Moderator — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 11:13:16 GMT

Each project has an associated Availability that determines who can find and preview the completed work. You set your project's availability in the Review step of the publishing process page.

You may change the availability status of your project at any time. Log into your Lulu.com account, go to My Projects and click on your project title. This takes you to the project's Revise page where you can scroll down to the Who can view this on Lulu section. Select from the following statuses and your changes will take effect immediately.

Private Access makes your project private. No one but you can see or search for your content. (This is a good setting to use until you are satisfied with your project.) Please Note that if you change your project from Public to Private access, your title may continue to be returned in search results for a short time; however, it will not be available for purchase.

Direct Access provides a method to sell your work to specific individuals only. You receive a web URL (http://www.lulu.com/content/content_ID) at the end of the publishing process; add this link to your website or send it to the people you want to see and purchase your work. Visitors cannot find Direct Access content by searching for it.

General Access opens your work to all Lulu.com visitors. Your project is available through search and browse on Lulu. In order to assign a General Access level, your material must meet the following guidelines:

Title: No excessive or gratuitous profanity.
Cover Image: No suggestive or gratuitous nudity, no sexually explicit posing.
Description: No graphic descriptions or excessive profanity.
Preview: No suggestive or gratuitous nudity, no overly explicit posing, no graphic descriptions, no excessive or gratuitous profanity.

Note: Your project must meet the guidelines in the Membership Agreement.

Dust Jacket Hardcover Options

Moderator — Mon, 02 Nov 2015 17:08:56 GMT

Dust Jacket Hardcover books are bound in blue linen covers with embossed gold foil printing along the book’s spine. Additional book cover and dust jacket design options are available to authors in the USA. See below for details.

Please Note: Lulu is working to make additional options available in all markets.

Default Embossed Spine Text

The project title and author name(s) entered in the first step of the publishing wizard determine the default text to be embossed on your book’s spine. Embossed spine text cannot exceed 42 characters; therefore the default text is determined based on the following rules:

If the combination of your title and author name(s) are less than or equal to 42 characters, both will be printed on the book’s spine.
If your title is shorter than 42 characters, but the title and author name combined total more than 42 characters, only the title will be printed on the spine.
If your title is longer than 42 characters, but your author name(s) is shorter than 42 characters, only the author name(s) will be printed on the book’s spine.
If both your title and author name(s) are each longer than 42 characters, your title will be truncated to 42 characters and printed on the book’s spine without the author name(s).

Supported Characters - the following characters can be used for embossed spine text

- roman characters sets (A-Z, a-z, 0-9)

       - [];',./!`^&*()~+=:?"]ˇ˘°´¨¸¯- ØŁ
       - ÀÁÃĀÄĂĆČÇĎÈÉËĒĔĚĞÌÍĨÏĪĬĽĹÑŃŇÒÓÕÖŌŎŔŘŚŞŠŢŤÙÚŨŪÜŬÝŸŹŽ
       - àáãäāăćčçďèéëēĕěğìíĩïīĭľĺñńňòóõöōŏŕřśşšţťùúũūüŭýÿźž

Unsupported characters: _ and all nonroman character sets (cyrillic, arabic, hebrew, farsi, chinese, japanese, thai, etc.)

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you make any changes to your title during the review and editing process, you must manually update the spine text. See below for instructions.

Custom Embossed Spine Text

You may wish to have more control over your title and author names and how they display on your book’s spine. The process for editing the default spine text varies depending on the cover wizard employed to create your book cover.

Cover Wizard

You will be prompted to enter the foil spine text when initiating the Cover Wizard. This text can also be changed from the Extras tab.

Cover Designer

The spine text can be edited using Text > Spine Options.

One-Piece Cover

If you upload a one-piece cover for a Dust Jacket Hardcover project, the foil spine text can be edited in the Cover Designer (but not the new Cover Wizard) BEFORE proceeding through the one-piece cover step.

Dust Jacket Hardcover Options

At this time, only the 6”x9” hardcover dust jacket in blue linen with gold spine text qualifies for distribution. The options listed below will not display if you choose the “sell everywhere” accessibility option when you begin a new project.

Please Note: These options are currently available for books created in the USA store. Lulu is working to make these choices available in additional markets.

Linen Hardcover Colors

Authors may select from navy, black, gray, red, and green linen hardcovers options.

Embossed Foil Spine Text

Authors can choose gold foil, white, or black embossed spine text. For best results, choose a contrasting text color for your book’s spine. For example, black print on black linen or white text on cream linen may seem like an artful choice, but it could make your book difficult to identify on a bookshelf.

Matte and Glossy Dust Jacket Finishes

Authors may choose either a matte or glossy finish for their dust jacket.