Print on Demand Self Publishing

Here is information about an online self publishing service bureau called Lulu.com. There are others out there, but this one looks especially good.

Print on demand (POD)
A tale of self-publishing on the web by Paul Lima

Could traditional book publishers be heading the way of traditional music companies, which are heading the way of dinosaurs, thanks to the internet? They could, but for different reasons.
For one, people are not endangering the traditional publishing industry by downloading books for free over the internet, the way music downloading continues to mushroom. However, many authors are eschewing traditional publishers and book retailers in favour of online print-on-demand (POD) companies.

I am one of the many.

When I first approached a traditional Canadian publisher with my how-to book about freelance writing, I received tentative interest. The publisher wanted to know if I could guarantee 2,000 sales. If so, the publisher was willing to print 4,000 copies and put the other 2,000 into circulation. This was not a vanity publisher, it was a legitimate publisher of popular fiction and non-fiction titles.

Lulu.com boasts a network of 500,000 visitors. (Lulu.com)

I could not guarantee the sales and was not willing to buy that many books to flog at my seminars. So I approached another publisher. By the time the second publisher replied, I had discovered Lulu.com, an online POD company.

Read it all here.