Lulu.com

Lulu is a vanity press with its headquarters at Morrisville, North Carolina, offering print-on-demand publishing and online order fulfillment. The brand name is derived from the concept of a lulu as an old-fashioned term for a remarkable person, object, or idea. The company's CEO is Red Hat co-founder Bob Young.

The creator retains copyright. Optional services include ISBN assignment and distribution of books to other book retailers. Electronic distribution is also available.

Overview

Authors upload their files to Lulu's web site, select binding and other options, and set the amount of profit they wish to earn on each copy. If the document is not already in PDF format, Lulu converts it to PDF. A price is determined based on the page count, type of binding, and the user's choice of margin. From the margin set on each copy, 80% goes to the author and 20% to Lulu. Lulu only provides technical support via online forums and live chat features.

Books are printed on demand by several third-party companies, including Colorcentric in the United States, Publidisa in Spain, and Antony Rowe in the United Kingdom. In addition to offering a number of book sizes, Lulu also offers black and white and color printing, photo books, CDs and DVDs, calendars, and hardcover books with or without dust jackets.

The creator retains copyright. Optional services include ISBN assignment and distribution of books to other book retailers. Electronic distribution is also available. Lulu offers three different levels of distribution services, called "Lulu Marketplace, "Published By You", and "Published By Lulu" (formerly known as Global Distribution). Books shipped to retailers under these Published By plans are printed by Lightning Source. Lulu Marketplace is free to the author. Depending on the level of distribution, Lulu may or may not require exclusive rights.

Criticism

UK publications

In September 2006, Lulu came under criticism for changing the terms of its global distribution package and incurring a price rise of around 70% on all books sold in the United Kingdom. Some authors see this as effectively pricing them out of the UK marketplace.

On September 19, 2006, Lulu authors based outside of the United States received documentation informing them they would be subject to a 30% tax on their royalties gained through sales in the United States. Non-U.S. authors were told by Lulu to apply for exemption from these taxes.

Regarding this issue, the CEO of Lulu, Bob Young, has stated, "You are quite right, we messed up, badly." Lulu states that it has attempted to mitigate the problem, that it has no choice but to follow US tax laws, and that part of the issue has been currency exchange rates.

Licensing

"Published by Lulu" distribution requires a contract, which may be incompatible with open content, such as GFDL, or Creative Commons licenses. For its other distribution services besides "Published by Lulu," however, Lulu offers to use open content licenses. Contract term were changed in 2007, and it is not as easy to tell whether the new version is compatible with copyleft; the new version does not explicitly discuss exclusivity, but includes requirements with which the author might not be able to comply if the book was copylefted, since the author would not have control over other people's ability to publish the work independently.

Wholesale policies

Lulu, unlike most publishers, does not accept returns of unsold books from bookstores. In addition, the wholesale discount is much smaller than most bookstores are accustomed to — as little as 5% at typical quantities of less than a hundred. These facts may make it difficult for authors to have their books carried in bookstores, though they're not an issue for online book sites like Amazon.com. Lulu states that its goal is "to have a million authors selling 100 copies each, rather than 100 authors selling a million copies each."

External links

• Company home page
• Interview with Bob Young about Lulu on This Week in Tech