Hiya all,
My first post, so I thought I'd start with something helpful: Some useful tips for printing with Lulu.com.
For those of you who have not used Lulu it is a print-on-demand service based in the US, but with a growing operation in the UK.
Anyway whether it is good for actual production runs is a question for another time, but Lulu.com is really great for proofs and test copies etc.
For Broken Shield for example (my game which I'll be yabbering about in more detail later), I got US-Letter sized 460 page hardbacks with full colour covers and B&W interiors for £13.00 each and they will be even cheaper at the moment what with the exchange rate being so good. For prices like that it is hard to avoid. The hardback prints I have had from Lulu have all been outstanding quality and I have been very happy with them.
A word of warning though: Lulu use a number of printers around the world to fulfil their orders, so when I printed softback US-letter books the order was fulfilled by Publicaciones Digitales, and they are not good, not good at all.
The trouble is, when you place the order you don't know who is going to fulfil it. At least I didn't until I got a word of advice from the lulu support team.
Any order that contains a pocket-book sized book or a calendar can *only* be printed by Lulu.com in the US.
A useful bit of knowledge to know as all my future orders will definitely include a pocket book of some sort :)
Anyway that's all for now!
Cheers,
Gobion
Casa Lulu
Submitted by Steve Dempsey on Mon, 04/12/2006 - 15:31.
The last time I ordered from Lulu in the UK, the books came from Spain. I think it was Agon and the quality was every bit as good as the copies I'd seen in the US.
£13 each seems an awful lot. That's not a price that would allow you to any distribution apart from your own. How many copies was that?
That was for a single
Submitted by Gobion on Mon, 04/12/2006 - 15:38.
That was for a single one-off, and remember that price was for a hardback (Full colour hard back cover, 100gsm b&w interior ~450 pages, US Letter). There is a discount of 12% on order of 5 or more, but yep I would have to agree that Lulu.com is not the way to go for mass print runs of hard backs.
The soft backs were around £5 per copy and there are sliding scale discounts dependent on the order size. (Full colour soft back cover, 100gsm b&w interior ~450 pages, US Letter)
I'll have to check out Agon.
Cheers,
Gobion
The UK printing section went
Submitted by Matt on Mon, 04/12/2006 - 15:49.
The UK printing section went live this month, so UK orders are now much faster. My last set of books arrived the day they were dispatched.
-Matt
Realms Publishing
Good topic for a thread.
Submitted by Matt on Mon, 04/12/2006 - 15:59.
Good topic for a thread. I've used Lulu for my books and generally been pleased (bar occasional oddities with page trim). They are great for dipping your toes in the publishing business with minimal risk.
One useful tip, given the current exchange rate, even if you order for the UK, use the dollar prices. Lulu's internal conversion rate is slightly less favourable than my credit card's conversion rate, and on big orders you can save yourself a bit this way.
On the downside, as I think I mentioned to Malc at Dragonmeet, although I print through Lulu, most of my sales have been through IPR. For me, passing RPG trade is thin on the ground at Lulu, by an order of magnitude. However, I am available at both, so that may skew the results. Items available exclusively with Lulu may find it different.
-Matt
PS. I added some tags to your post, hope you don't mind.
Realms Publishing
Hi Matt, Thanks for the
Submitted by Gobion on Mon, 04/12/2006 - 16:08.
Hi Matt,
Thanks for the info :)
What was the print quality like? Where you happy with it? I've also heard that the UK print runs are substantially dearer that those from the US - have you found that to be the case?
Also - can I ask what size you printed?
Cheers,
Gobion
Tags are good! :) And thanks
Submitted by Gobion on Mon, 04/12/2006 - 16:10.
Tags are good! :)
And thanks for your tips. I think Lulu will develop into something really useful to small press games, but it is still very much in its early days
cheers,
gobion
No, price is comparable (bar
Submitted by Matt on Mon, 04/12/2006 - 16:13.
No, price is comparable (bar the exchange rate thing I mention above).
Print quality is good on my 7.5in Square softbacks, and more was more consistent in appearance than the Spanish ones (ie. trim was identical)
-Matt
Realms Publishing
Speaking of PoD: any
Submitted by Per Fischer on Mon, 04/12/2006 - 18:17.
Speaking of PoD: any experience with the UK-based http://www.diggorypress.com/?
Per
I've not used them so far,
Submitted by Gobion on Mon, 04/12/2006 - 18:39.
I've not used them so far, they don't seem quite as polished as lulu, and as I come from a somewhat professional publishing background, I appreciate the control lulu gives me. Plus with having no initial set up cost lulu is great for experimenting :)
That said, if the end product is good and the price is good then I'd be interested.
cheers,
gobion
Yeh, I thought I'd had my
Submitted by Andrew Kenrick on Tue, 12/12/2006 - 09:29.
Yeh, I thought I'd had my latest lulu order shipped from London.
I looked at Lulu to print
Submitted by Andrew Kenrick on Tue, 12/12/2006 - 09:31.
I looked at Lulu to print Dead of Night but they couldnt do the small size so haven't looked again. the cost per book seems a bit steep though, especially when a book through a regular POD printer comes in at about $2-4 a book.
I'd be interested in the hardcover option though. Any idea if they print in colour too?