Thank you for all the helpful advice (even on stuffing turkeys!)
Gobble.
I asked about Amazon because all book readers know about Amazon and go straight there to order books (either Amazon or a local bookshop)
That is indeed true, but often only to look for a book (or whatever) they already know about via adverts and reviews etc, not to just do a random search.
but few know about Lulu.
Few know about Lulu as a place to buy books from because Lulu do not promote that part of the business (oddly).
Buying direct from Lulu is the same (I presume) as going direct to any other publisher like Penguin or Random House which no readers ever do of course.
Not really because there are millions of publishers on Lulu even if they only publish one book and our Spotlights are 'retail' outlets and not wholesale outlets. No one goes to those places anyway, they employ marketing teams.
I do know what LisaShea means when she says about having the house piled up with books. I have three books that I have dont 'the hard way' and as they are starting to prove popular I am finding its hard work to keep up with ordering them from the printer and posting them out - and its not really very lucrative considering all the costs.
Wow, that sounds like hard work! And you have a printer who will do a few at a time? At what cost?
I was hoping to be able to make my books (under my own ISBN's) out of print and re publish with Lulu with new ISBN's If I do 'Lulu' them with new Lulu ISBN's that would free me from handling them but If a reader wanders into a local bookshop or searches Amazon for the titles (not knowing the ISBN and simply asking for the books by title) then how would the bookseller order them - or indeed find them?
But how are you getting people to buy them now? How do they know your books exist?
However, the idea of an ISBN is that it is a stocking/ordering/original source (Lulu in this instance) code, listed on many wholesale lists, that, plus a publisher's sales team is how bookshops know about and get hold of books. But it is mainly the sales team that does it, or reviews in major publications that may make a book worth stocking.
Are Lulu books listed on Neilsen? Sorry if I sound utterly stupid and ignorant about all this but please bear with me as I am new to Lulu and still paddling in the dark a little.
http://connect.lulu.com/t5/ISBN-Distribution/What-
It really matters not where a book is listed or for sale at unless people know that it is, and that includes shops. They have to be told it exists and where it exists, this includes telling shops also. Getting 'listed' or even on to Amazon is only part of the story.
I, like many, use my own website >> http://www.kevinlomas.net/ but I also use other places and methods to inform people that that site exists. A lot of the price you see displayed on items in stores is due to the costs of marketing it. Some places will not even stock an item until the creator has created a demand for it.
People assume that it's just advertising that is crucial but it is just part of it >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing
