Having the fortunate opportunity to help develop Lulu.com’s online publishing process over the years, I know their publishing wizard like I know the back of my hand. It’s evolved quite a bit since the early days, and I think most long-time users would agree that it’s become more intuitive, logical, and much easier to use. Don’t take that to mean that it doesn’t have its share of quirks, but as free DIY (Do It Yourself) online publishing tools go it shouldn’t be overlooked in your quest for finding self-publishing option that’s right for you. Over time you’ll find tutorials like this one listed on my new Publishing Tutorials page, but Lulu’s process in particular was a hot topic at last night’s Online Publishing Meetup that I hosted.

I’ll be including screen-shots as part of this walk-through since most of these web pages are inside an actual user’s account and not available for all to see. Also, although you can start publishing on Lulu without registering (i.e., as a “guest account”) I’m going to assume we’re interested in publishing from the onset and will therefore register first. Feel free to log in and play around with this demo account if you like–just log in with “demo@publishandsell.com” as the email address and “pubselldemo” as the password. I also ask that you don’t change the general settings–don’t list the book in the Lulu marketplace, buy anything, or change the login information. This account is just for instructional purposes.

The Home Page:

This is where’s you’ll go when you type http://www.lulu.com into your browser. Since we know we want to register, click the “sign up” link at the top right of the page.

Registration:

I’m setting up a demo author account that will enable you to get a hands-on feel for how the publishing process works. Also, I’ll be publishing a work that’s already available and in the public domain–”A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens–to make things easy and avoid copyright infringement. Just so you know, once you register at Lulu as an author they’ll send you a welcome email which will provide you more information about the site.

So Many Choices!

Once you complete the registration page you’ll be sent to a listing of all the various products that you can publish through Lulu. Remember, they publish books, ebooks, CDs, Calendars, DVDs–all kinds of stuff. We’ll focus on books for this walk-through, and will click the “Paperback” option.

You’re Off to See the “Publishing” Wizard:

Once you select a product to publish (paperback in this case) you’ll enter Lulu’s publishing wizard. It’s fairly intuitive, but it can branch off in several places. We’ll publish with the typical format–a MS Word .doc file as the manuscript and a .jpg image as the front cover–and stick with the simplest flow. In most cases, however, you can find your way around without a problem.

On this first page you simply enter the working title for your project and provide some information regarding how you want to make your book available. I always recommend that first-time users publish their work as “Private.” Most likely you’ll want to order a proof for yourself before you decide to sell it to others in the Lulu Marketplace (at least that’s the smartest thing to do). You’ll see that there’s an option to sell it in retail channels as well, but let’s tackle that another day since it’s somewhat more complicated, and because this initial publishing step we’re performing is required for going into retail distribution anyway.

Lulu Paper, Trim and Print Options:

The next page that comes up requires that you make some decisions about your printed book. Do you want it to be 6 x 9 or 8.5 x 11? Do you want to use Lulu’s more expensive Stardard paper option or the thinner Publisher Grade option? I like the Standard paper–again, it’s a little thicker–so I’ll select the 6 x 9 trim size and Standard paper option, and also select the perfect bound binding and black & white options. Fortunately, you can always change these choices later, and in fact it may be necessary to change these settings  if certain conditions aren’t met down the line. For example, if your book is only 20 pages your binding option will default to saddle stitch–it’s too small for perfect binding. You can click the “More” links on the right to see the details about these options.

Upload and Wait:

The next step begins the process of transferring the digital files for your book that reside on your home computer and uploading them to Lulu’s servers. Rest assured that all of this is secure–i.e., no one other than you has access to your manuscript. You can choose to FTP large files, but since book files are typically less than one megabyte I’m not doing that. Also, depending on your Internet connection speed this upload step could take a little while.

Now, this is where you might get some errors. If you’re uploading a PDF without embedded fonts Lulu will tell you right away. You might also get some other errors about your files not matching the previous selections that you’ve already made–for example your PDF might set for an 8.5 x 11 book and you previously selected 6 x 9 as your trim size. I’m uploading a standard .doc file to make this demo a success, but don’t hesitate to click the “Help” link at the top right and you’ll be able to search Lulu’s online Help area. You can also ask a question in the forums or email Lulu directly for some guidance.

Hone in your expectations, however, and don’t forget that Lulu is a free site, so they won’t hold your hand through the process. However, the odds are that your question is not atypical from the thousands of other first-time user questions that have been asked over the years, so if you have some patience you should be able to figure things out and keep rolling.

Let’s Convert…and wait some more:

Click the bottom right button to make your print-ready PDF, and you’ll find yourself waiting (again) for Lulu to convert your manuscript into a format that Lulu’s printers can understand. It’s here as well that you might see some errors, but Lulu’s online help area and forums can come in handy as you become indoctrinated into their DIY publishing process.

Because my manuscript was an 8.5 x 11 text file and I selected 6 x 9 as my preferred trim size, Lulu puts up a message informing me that they had to change the source file to meet my needs. They can do this for a .doc file, but not for a PDF (which I knew ahead of time). Thanks Lulu!

You Can Judge A Book by its Cover:

Now that Lulu has my book manuscript ready to print, the next step leads to the cover art wizard. They’ve been nice enough to start me off with a cover from their cover gallery.

The cover art step has several options to consider, and involve three basic scenarios. For example, if you have arranged for a professional graphic artist to create your cover you’ll want to click the “One Piece Cover” option at the top right and follow those instructions to the letter. Alternatively, if you have individual images for your front and back cover–and this is the case with most authors–you can select the boxes at the bottom and upload your images to replace the gallery images that Lulu inserted. When you upload your own images they’ll be examined automatically for the necessary printing requirements–so be prepared to make some changes!

Lastly, you can choose to simply browse Lulu’s cover art gallery for suitable images–there are many to choose from. If you go this route you’ll also want to click the “Text” tab to add or remove the overlying Title and Author text.

Lulu will also provide “crop marks” on your cover layout to give you an indication of where your book edges might appear on the actual printed book. Obviously, you’ll want to make sure that your cover extends over these marks at a minimum (you don’t want the edges not getting printed). At the same time, you’ll want to make sure that desired image objects–the title, author name, etc–won’t get cut off. I’d like to emphasize that this is only an approximate indicator. The best way to know for sure is to buy a proof and look at it yourself. From my front cover image above I can tell that I’ve got a green column on the left that pushes my cover far beyond the desired crop marks, so I’ll need to edit my cover art on my computer, re-upload it, and try again.

Now it’s looking better (see below), but still may not yet be exact. But, it’s good enough for this demo. As an author you’ll want to concentrate more on cover alignment, spine text and color, and back cover representation.

Publishing Review Page:

Moving on, I’m now presented with a review page to check everything. I’ll also have the option to change various things that I’ve already done, knowing that some choices–a trim size change, for example–may require that I repeat the whole process again. Keep in mind that I’m not going to be selling my book yet–I want to order a proof copy first–so I’m not going to mess with any pricing steps. As you can see, my book will cost me $10.50 to buy before I add any royalty. Of course, I can go back and change to the cheaper Publisher Grade  option if I wanted. Doing so, however, will require that I repeat the publishing process again–but hey, it’s a free site, so why not?

Well, there might be reasons not to do that–especially if you’re going to want your book in retail distribution later on.   I happen to know that the Publisher Grade product isn’t part of the retail distribution program.

All done!

Ta-Da! I’ve made it through this most basic publishing wizard, and now I should buy a copy for myself to look through, share with a couple friends, and revise as needed. Once I order a copy it will take 2-4 days for the book to print, then another few days for shipment (depending on the shipping method I select). The great thing is that this project is ready and waiting for me to make any needed changes, and once I’m happy with the representation of the book I can then set a price and make it available for others to buy through the Lulu Marketplace and beyond. I’ll then be a published author!

The fruits of online DIY publishing at Lulu.com can be easily realized with a little patience and commitment. As with any state-of-the-art technology it’s not without its share of hiccups and challenges, but if you’ve got the time to put into it you should be satisfied with the result. Check out this demo account I’ve set up or register and give it a shot yourself!

Don’t hesitate to contact me directly if you have any questions or need further assistance. Call me at 919-247-1832 or email me at hhutton@publishandsell.com .

Until next time, Keep Publishing!

Henry Hutton

PublishandSell.com