Self-Pubbing--Lulu or Cafepress?, Comparing Lulu and Cafepress options

Thinking of going this route for getting your book out there? It's not necessarily a bad idea, but it can be expensive. There are inexpensive and even free options out there, but you have to research and compare.

Lulu.com and Cafepress.com are both viable alternatives. Lulu will "publish" (for lack of a better word, since "printing" doesn't fit ebooks or music or videos), books, ebooks, calendars, audio and video, and even images. Their set up is free, their pricing reasonable. You set the royalty you want on your product, and Lulu adds 25% of that to the final price for their cut. For instance, you put out a book in paperback and in e-book form. You set your royalty at $2.00 so the price doesn't go through the roof. I'll use my book as a f'rinstance: it has 158 pages and sells in paperback for $10.20, ebook for $2.50. I get $2 for each sale and Lulu gets $.50, plus they cover the cost of printing the paperback. This is an affordable price for most buyers. I can drop the royalty, and therefore the price, if I want to, or I can increase it. However, I don't want the price to go too high for the average buyer. I want it to sell.

At Cafepress, the same book, with a $2.00 royalty will cost the buyer $13.74, but shipping costs may be lower, so the end result is about the same. Cafepress also lets you set up a storefront to sell everything from mugs to t-shirts and tote bags with your artwork or logo or whatever you want on them. I don't see ebooks offered on Cafepress.

Lulu will convert to PDF format for you, but you have to format the .doc or .rtf or whatever EXACTLY the way you want it to appear. Set the page size at 6x9, margins, et cetera and so forth.
You have to convert to PDF yourself for Cafepress, which means you have to have the file looking EXACTLY the way you want it to appear.

Both have cover templates and allow free upload of your own art/cover.

Lulu allows you to make revisions in the book, even after it's published. If you discover a glaring error after you get your copy, you can fix the file, upload it and republish the corrected version for free. Very nice option, by the way. I've emailed Cafepress just now to find out if they let you do that as well.

Both are free to set up your book or other product.

Lulu offers basic ISBN for $34.95, which will put your book in Books in Print and will let you take copies into bookstores to sell, and the fancy version for $149.95 which gets your book listed in Ingram's list and allows bookstores to order your book. My suggestion is to wait until it earns its keep without an ISBN (if friends and fans buy it, it does add up), then pay for the basic, and when that earns the $150, spring for that.

I can't find ISBN info at Cafepress beyond the statement "If you have an ISBN..." and if you're going to buy your own, they sell in blocks of ten for around $225 plus a publisher registration fee of $24.95. From what I can figure out (and I could be wrong) you become a "publisher" for your own books, register a business name and go from there. You also have to pay separately for the bar codes--$230 for ten (one for each of the ISBN's you bought). It's cheaper to pay the $35 at Lulu.

Have I left out any relevant points?

I don't know, but thanks for all the info about the self-publishers. I have been thinking about Lulu.com for some time. Mainly, because I know that my book (set in the figure skating world) may not instantly grab the publishers and pull them in right away. The story could have been in just about any setting, but I chose figure skating because I am an avid fan of the sport. But, I will shop it around with a couple of the small publishers first, to see what they say. If I have no luck, I'll probably go with Lulu. After all, if it sells really well, I can always hope to sell it to a publisher (at least I will have that option). I know that there is an audience out there for it, I just have to convince a publisher of that fact.


Kathie

I self-pubbed Torin and Sunshine on Lulu, Kathie, and took it down when eXtasy Books took it. The cover is my avatar, and it should be coming out sometime next year. I've got to ask my publisher if I can use the cover at Cafepress on T-shirts and coffee mugs and so on. I've already got the cover of "Angels Among Us" up there. I'm big on free publicity. LOL.

I've been getting caught up on some of your work. Yesterday I took a visit over to your website (with is awesome, by the way), and started getting caught up in the "Bailey Sullivan and the Girl in the Mirror" story. I like that you are into more than one genre of writing (I like to try my hand at different genres as well). I plan to read the rest of the exerpts that you have posted on your website in the days to come, when I get time. I think you're really good. It's nice to have an administrator who knows a lot about writing. I hope to learn a lot from you and my fellow posters.


Kathie

Tee hee. I'm thinking about putting last year's Nano up on Lulu. It's totally out of my genre and pretty much a throwaway book, but my readers all liked it. One of these days, when I have the time...

I'd say Lulu over CafePress, definitely, after having experimented with both. Lulu has better quality books, physically, and lower base prices.

Anders Bruce - is that you??? How ya been??? Long time no "see"!

Glad to hear that Lulu is getting into hardbound books. I think that they look much more professional and many writers prefer hard bound to soft.


New Products Coming from Lulu.com

Neato!! Thanks for the notification, Kathie!

No problem, writinfule!


Kathie

I just got my books (An Interview with a Modern Day Witch) from Lulu, and they are very nice. Better then some books you see from big publishers. I am very impressed!

http://www.yonisha.com/rohloff.html

Glad to hear that Bob, because I'm strongly thinking about letting Lulu print this book that I'm revising. I just want it in hardbound.


Kathie