My First E-Book!

Well, I'm now a (self) published e-book author. After reading about Lulu in Seth Godin's blog, I though I'd test it out.

For those of you who don't know about Lulu, it's a website that allows anyone to create and publish books (including E-books). Once you've done the hard part (writing the book), getting it published is a snap.

Lulu's SIMPLE instructions walk you through choosing the format (paper size) of your book, allow to to design cover art and if required, the jacket. You can set your price (any price) you want to receive for your book. Lulu's cut is 20% of your commission (again, whatever YOU decide) as payment for hosting/producing your book.

Book formats can range from e-books (free .pdf downloads), to spiral bound, paperback or even hardcover editions. Depending upon format size, page count and whether you need color or not, the prices to produce the book are predetermined. They then add your cut to the price and voila, you're in business.

Lulu offers a print-on-demand model. When your book is ordered, it's produced and then shipped to your customer. You do nothing.

I suppose there are as many reasons for self-publishing as there are books for sale on Lulu. In my case, I wanted to share lessons learned implementing major software systems. And I wanted to try Lulu out (I'm curious). So I've offered my E-book for free.

If your company is about to undertake a major system upgrade, I'd recommend you check it out. Just click on the Lulu icon on my blog and it'll take you right there.

Let me know what you think!