Adventures in on demand publishing

• We have a new blog!

  2008 Feb 06

  Lulu is happy to announce we have a new "Adventures In On Demand Publishing" blog located at http://lulublog.com/
  
  In the coming weeks and months, more and more Lulu Staff will be continually updating this blog with news and announcements as well as other great things important to Lulu creators and users.
  
  Head on over and check it out.
  
  Regards,
  Adam
  
  

• New Release: Calendar BETA and Flash Previews

  2008 Jan 24

  Lulu Studio™ Calendars BETA

  
  Lulu is proud to announce a whole new way to produce your custom-made calendars online with the all new Lulu Studio™ Calendars BETA
  
  
  
  For those of you new to Lulu, back in November we introduced a new and innovative process for publishing professional quality Photo Books on the web which we call Lulu Studio™ for Photo Books. Taking a similar approach, we’ve taken the Lulu Studio™ application and applied it to Calendars, adding some additional improvements:
  
  

  "Lulu Studio Calendars offer a choice of 9 attractive themes as well as a number of different templates to suit virtually any collection of images. To give your calendar that personal touch, you can upload your own images for your calendar, or, using our partnerships with Getty and Colligate Images, purchase professional images from our huge image library for the cover and interior of your calendar."

  
  
  
  
  Please bear in mind that with introduction of any “BETA” feature on Lulu, this is the start of something new for us. As such, we acknowledge that some features may not work as expected for everyone (though, we’ve done are best to prevent that from happening for the majority of our users). With this in mind, we are continuing to offer the original Calendar publishing wizard on Lulu which you can select when creating a new calendar project.
  
  To get started creating a new Lulu Studio™ Calendar wizard, click here or select “Calendar” from the options available above on the Publish tab.
  
  

  Flash previews for newly published books and documents

  Awhile back we announced the introduction of Flash-based previews available on the public display pages for newly published content. Unfortunately, the wide variety of material published through Lulu and the different ways users interact with it posed several challenges for us we had not initially anticipated. And so, at the time we formerly announced this feature, we were unable to provide a consistent experience for everyone and for consistency we were forced to revert back to the original design. As of today however, thanks to the hard work of several of our very talented developers, we are happy to announce this functionality is ready for everyone as of today!
  
  Books and documents will now have high-resolution Flash-based previews. These previews are now integrated into the content pages, allowing shoppers to peruse books immediately.
  
  
  
  The new embedded preview functionality is available for newly published print content only. And if offering a preview for your content simply isn't the right choice for you, you can easily turn off this feature in the preview settings for your book. Please also note that previews associated to previously published content have not been altered.
  
  Finally, as part of this release we’ve also included several tweaks and bug fixes throughout the site, for a full list changes included with these new features please be sure to check out the latest release notes in the Developer’s Log.
  
  We invite you to try these new features and tell us what you think. Please post your questions and comments in our forums here.
  
  Regards,
  Adam Guida
  

• 2007 Nov 15

  Last night we released several changes to the site, introducing some interesting new features and holiday-related tweaks. With the Christmas 2007 just around the corner, don’t forget to check out our holiday shipping information & ordering timeline in Help for key ordering dates to ensure prompt holiday deliveries. To make things easier for you this year, we’ve also added some messaging to checkout that will let you know whether or not your order will arrive in time for the holidays. Based on the shipping method you’ve selected you should get an indication as to whether or not the items and shipping combinations you’ve selected:
  
  
  
  Aside from the normal tweaks and bug fixes we routinely push out, here are some additional highlights for the new features in today’s release.
  
  

  Enjoy one-step publishing of various digital media w/ “Publish to Share”

  
  “Publish to Share” is a quick-upload flow for digital content. Product pages for many digital content types will now include a “Publish to Share” along with the standard “Publish to Sell” option:
  
  
  
  Though you don’t have to be a registered user to publish via this “Publish to Share” these items are available only via Direct Access at this time — not in the Lulu Marketplace. To revise, “Publish to Share” content requires registering a free creator account.
  
  
  
  To find the wide range of content categories in “Publish to Share” check out Digital Media under the “Publish” tab.
  
  

  One-Step Free Downloads

  
  In the past, free downloads worked like any other paid content. If you wanted to download something a Lulu creator wanted to offer for free, you had to go through the check-out process. Along with the emphasis on this new free content publishing flow, with this release we’re enabling buyers to download free content directly from the item’s content page. Now, anyone browsing the site can immediately download free content without the need to go through the checkout process. For Creators: free content downloads will be reflected in the creator’s “Total Zero Creator Revenues” area. Statistics listed for free content are a measure of how many times the content was downloaded rather than unique downloads.
  
  

  Color 6x9 Hardcovers are here

  Color 6x9 Hardcover case wrap and dust jacket options have been added to the hardcover publishing flow.
  
  

  Flash previews for newly published books and documents

  Books and documents will now have high-resolution Flash-based previews. Previews are now integrated into the content pages, allowing shoppers to peruse books immediately.
  
  
  
  Again. the new embedded preview functionality is available for newly published content only. Previews associated to previously published content has not been changed.
  
  

  Storefronts and Widgets

  We’ve updated several elements of our widget wizard with Facebook and Javascript widgets for storefronts. There are even more widget options available to promote your works.
  
  
  
  In addition, you can also put your storefront on your Facebook profile, or for even greater control, customize the new Javascript widget to fit your website. The new javascript widget represents an advanced storefront solution for webmasters or Lulu users with the technical experience or resources to build their own websites. You can check out the wide range of widgets available from the “Sell” tab under “Widgets”. Just click "Get Started" when you're ready to add a mini Lulu storefront to your favorite social networking site or your own website.
  
  Guest account publishing has been added for book and calendar publishing wizard flows. With this release, all product flows with the exception of the Lulu Studio™ will have delayed registration.
  
  As always, please let us know what you think about these changes. We welcome your comments so please let us know if you have any questions or concerns by replying here or in our forums.
  
  Regards,
  Adam Guida
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Christmas 2007 is just around the corner.

  2007 Nov 12

  Wow. The 2007 holiday season is finally upon us. For important holiday ordering information, please see our 2007 Lulu Holiday Ordering Information in our Help section.
  
  Strangely enough, it seems like only yesterday that I was giving you Lulu's 2006 holiday ordering deadlines, but that's the way "Lulu Time" works. It's not in any dictionary, but "Lulu Time" is this space/time continuum phenomenon that even Einstein wouldn't be able to get his arms around. Because things happen so fast around here, every day feels like a week and every month feels like a year.
  
  Don't get me wrong, this is not a bad situation to be in--it's something we want, actually--but inside this tornado of tremendous growth and expansion things can and often do get a little crazy. It's certainly not for the timid--but fortunately, the Lulu Staff is anything but timid.
  
  As I look at it now, the '07 holiday season is shaping up to be an even bigger event than '06 for Lulu creators both old and new. Publishing is now easier than ever, and there are more products and wider distribution than ever before. This season we'll see many existing Lulu authors releasing new books before the end of the year, new authors will publish their first book or ebook, and many of you will buy a few copies to share with friends and family. Some of you will publish a Lulu Calendar, and many of you will try out our new Lulu Studio Photo Book and soon-to-be Lulu Studio Calendar. DVDs, music CDs, and framed art publishing publishing activity will increase. It's no surprise that the custom publishing market peaks during the holiday season, and here at Lulu we're ready for the challenge.
  
  To me, what's exciting this year is that more and more creators across the globe have the opportunity to take advantage of this publishing revolution. Over the last year we've noticed that most of Lulu's site traffic comes from outside the US, and this trend continues to increase every month. Truthfully, we weren't real sure about this international expansion when we launched it, and a vast amount of effort went into site translations, international printing and currency management. But it fortunately has paid off, and our growing London office now serves as the central hub for these growing markets. If you know Lulu, you know we're not stopping there either. It's our goal to bring the Lulu publishing alternative to every creator on the planet, and thanks to you that's happening as we speak.
  
  Obviously, with expanded world-wide fulfillment comes a little more complexity in regards to ordering deadlines for the holidays. The great thing is, however, is that we've had a couple years of practice at holiday fulfillment--so every year we get better at managing international printing and delivery. So don't hold back and publish all you want--we'll be ready.
  
  Lastly, keep in mind that untracked shipping methods--USPS media mail, Economy, and Standard--are not tracked by their carriers and are therefore -not- recommended for holiday deliveries.
  
  If you do decide to go with one of these non-tracked methods, place your orders as soon as possible! Otherwise, please go to our help section for a list of important dates related to 2007 Holiday Ordering information on Lulu.
  
  Thanks again for publishing with Lulu, and best wishes during the holiday season.
  
  Henry
  
  

• 4 hour scheduled maintenance – Saturday, Novemeber 10th 12:01 A.M. – 4:00A.M EST

  2007 Nov 09

  Early Saturday Morning, November 10th, 2007, from 12:01 A.M. to 4:00 A.M. EST, Lulu.com will be offline for approximately 4 hours for scheduled site maintenance.
  
  Anyone attempting to connect to http://www.lulu.com during this period will be redirected to a web page containing additional information regarding the scheduled downtime.
  
  We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause our creative community.
  If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to post a message in our Community Forums.
  
  Regards,
  Adam Guida
  

• New Release - Enhanced Cover Creation and More!

  2007 Nov 02

  Lulus,
  
  It’s been a month since my last post on site features and I’m happy to say that the Lulu development team is back in the spotlight with the release of several exciting new features I want to talk about today.
  
  First off, we have three new book trim size offerings in time for the holidays!
  
  • A5 (5.833"x8.264") available in Color, B&W, Binding: Perfect Bound, Saddle-Stitch, Coil-Bound
  
  And for Lulu Studio™ Photo Books, we’re offering two new book sizes available in Casewrap hardcover:
  
  
  
  

  Enhancements to Book Cover Creation

  
  In the past, our cover creation step of book publishing offered users an easy way to create attractive, basic cover designs. For more complex or customized book covers, users can take advantage of the advanced “wraparound cover” option where you create your entire cover yourself from scratch on an application such as Photoshop, then upload to our wizard. With the latest changes we’ve made to the cover step of book publishing we’ve added powerful new features to create more professional looking covers. Here are some highlights:
  
  (Click on images for larger view)
  
  
  Enhanced color palette – a new color picker allowing creators to select from a variety of colors and shades for text and background. We also added greater control for users to match the background colors for their front and back more closely to their spines.
  
  
  
  Enhanced text editor – creators can now change the title and author of a book within the cover step. A new subtitle field has also been added to provide addition text for the front cover. The process of adding a title/author for spine text has been greatly simplified so you can justify the books title and author name to the left and right-hand edges respectively. For dust-jacket hard cover books we’ve also added an area where you can place an image and addition text within the inner cover flaps.
  
  Cover previews – Capitalizing on the wonders of Web 2.0, we’ve made several enhancements to the user interface for cover design by including a new zoom feature for a rich full view of your cover during the creation process. Other changes have been made to streamline navigation and to make room for a host of new features.
  
  Crop & Fold transparencies – By adding a new cropmark overlay for your book preview you can now get a better idea of what portion of your image may be trimmed when your book is printed. This overlay can be toggled on and off for easy editing, or for a look at the final product. Always remember that the cropmarks on your preview only serve as a baseline estimate. To reduce the risk of trimming important details such as artwork or text from your book, remember to keep important details well within these trim lines.
  
  Product pages:
  To enhance the Lulu marketplace and your content, we’ve made some enhancement to Lulu product pages, the individual pages that display your content on the site for other users.
  
  
  
  
  

  Shipping and Order Routing

  With the new release we will be making some additions and adjustments to our fulfillment, adding products to our different printers. While we continue to grow we will continue to add products, hoping that one day any one book can be printed at any of our printers throughout the world.
  
  New to our European printer:
  6x9 BW coil
  Royal BW Coil (6.14 x 9.21)
  Crown Quarto BW Coil (7.44 x 9.68)
  Chap Book BW coil
  A4 BW Coil (8.27 x 11.69)
  8.5x11 BW Coil
  9x7 BW coil
  6x9 color coil
  Royal Color Coil (6.14 x 9.21)
  Crown Quarto Color Coil (7.44 x 9.68)
  Chap Book Color coil
  A4 Color Coil (8.27 x 11.69)
  8.5x11 Color Coil
  9x7 Color coil
  A5 B&W perfect bound
  A5 B&W saddle stitched
  A5 Color perfect bound
  A5 Color saddle stitched
  
  New to North American (US) Printer:
  A5 B&W perfect bound
  A5 B&W saddle stitched
  A5 B&W coil
  A5 Color perfect bound
  A5 Color saddle stitched
  A5 Color coil
  8 1/2 x 11 casewrap hardcover photo book
  9 x 7 casewarap hardcover photo book
  
  
  Express shipping services for certain products* from the US outside North & South America reflect an increase in cost over previous rates.
  Please note that these new rates reflect a significant discount from published UPS rates.
  
  *shipped only from the US
  
  
  
  

  Imageloop.com slideshow integration for Lulu Storefronts:

  
  We’ve added a new feature for Lulu storefronts which will allow you to add image slideshows created from your imageloop.com account. Want to create a collage of your content on Lulu or share a slideshow from your recent book signing? Using the Imageloop storefront module you’ll be able to easily create animated displays of your images. For more details on the type of slideshow you can use on Lulu storefronts now, please check out www.imageloop.com, and while there, register an account to take advantage of this new feature.
  
  Here’s a small sample of some things you can do with this new imageloop module on you’re storefront:
  
  
  
  
  Take a publishing test drive on Lulu without registration:
  
  Though we do not expect this will impact our existing Lulu users, starting today, newcomers to Lulu will now be able to try out a variety of publishing tools without being required to first register an account. Only if you decide to finish publishing your content on Lulu will we ask you to register. For the time being, we’re limiting this try-before-you-publish feature to a small number of products. Paperback, hardcover, calendar, and photobook publishing will still require registration beforehand.
  
  For more details and release notes on these latest changes to Lulu, check out our release announcement in the Community Forums here.
  
  Regards,
  Adam Guida
  
  
  
  

• Improvements to Color Quality for Paperbacks!

  2007 Oct 10

  We’re excited to announce that as of Thursday, November 1, 2007 our color printing process will be upgraded for all paperback books produced in North America. This internal technical change is aimed at significantly improving how solid or flat colors are printed in relation to how they appear in your print-ready PDF. While our users should remember that digital printing does not match perfectly from computer screen to the printed piece, we feel that these changes will greatly improve the process for a variety of our users, providing you with more predictable color rendering and an overall better product.
  
  

  What products will be affected?

  This change will not affect the majority of books already created. However, for some existing Lulu paperback content this change may alter the printed appearance of solid or flat color backgrounds, text, or borders on covers or your book’s interior. These colors will now be more representative of how they appear on your screen in your print-ready PDF. Because these changes only affect the use of solid and flat colors, photos and images that are on your cover or in your book will print the same as before. Please Note: that Books purchased through distribution channels via Published By You or Published By Lulu will in no way be affected by this change.
  
  

  What are the most likely differences that I will notice?

  Background Colors on Book Cover

  In the past, the colors that you chose for your book cover’s front, back, and spine during the cover wizard might have printed darker than they appeared in your print-ready PDF. Now when selecting background colors for your front, back, and spine, your printed cover will more closely match the color choice you selected.
  
  

  Matching Spine Color to the Color from an Uploaded Image

  In the past, when you tried to match the spine color to a color from an uploaded image your spine color might have printed a darker shade than the color in your image. Now the color of your printed spine and the color in your printed image will more closely match.
  
  

  Text Colors on Cover and Inside the Book

  In the past, font colors on your cover or inside your book might have printed a darker shade than intended. Now the color of your printed fonts will more closely match the colors you selected.
  
  

  One-Piece (wraparound) Covers

  When creating a one piece cover if you used blocks of solid color, or colored fonts these will print more closely to what you see in the PDF you’ve created.
  
  

  Will I have to make any changes to my existing book’s cover or interior?

  If you remember getting a book where the solid or flat colors printed differently than they looked in your print-ready PDF and you adjusted your colors accordingly, then you may need to revise your book to the original colors you chose. Please note that after any revisions Lulu encourages you to first download and view your books print-ready PDF and order a proof copy.
  
  If you have any questions or would like additional assistance please don’t hesitate to contact us at colorquality@lulu.com
  
  Regards,
  Adam Guida
  
  
  

• Bonjour and hello from Bob Young, CEO and founder of Lulu.com

  2007 Sep 18

  Lulu is not only revolulutionary, but we are undergoing a revolulution ourselves. In the coming weeks I’ll be posting some exciting news about our dramatic new release, we’re calling “Lulu 2.0”. But I thought I should start by explaining what is remaining the same at Lulu because of the founding principles of our business.
  
  Lulu is founded on a couple of simple concepts. The first is the Internet’s unique feature - it connects everyone to everyone else. The other is that creators need to be paid for the work they create if they are going to create more and better works.
  
  Lulu was created to empower a new generation of content producers, authors, photographers, musicians, and educators. Our goal is to help you bring your work to your audience whether it is a photo book for your family reunion, or a series of sophisticated professional training videos and manuals for you company’s new products. Taking advantage of the Internet’s unique feature, we figured we could build a set of tools that would enable you to better serve the audience for your work, whether that audience is your extended family, your school, your company, or your customers.
  
  The other founding concept behind Lulu’s success is to help you get paid for your work. So whether you just need to be compensated for the cost of printing and shipping your family history to family members around the world. Or your goal might be to make a living writing novels or poetry. Or you might be trying to build a business teaching technology to your global customers. In all these cases and many many more, Lulu is building tools to enable you to successfully serve your customers. So features of Lulu, such as our commitment to leave you with full control and ownership of all your rights in the content you have created are not a benevolent act on our part. It is simply a necessary part of our goal, namely to empower creators to create millions of unique and valuable pieces of content for your audiences. This simple goal also explains why we work so hard and take so many chances to improve Lulu.
  
  Our business model is almost the exact reverse of the existing publishing industries. Which is a big part of why they don’t have to worry too much about us. Where they would love nothing better than to get their stable of authors, or musicians, ie creators, down to say just 10. And then have those 10 creators produce a new work every year and sell a million copies, resulting in sales of ten million copies.
  
  Lulu is looking to create the reverse – we want to create a million, or ten million, or a hundred million authors. Whether you publish and sell a few copies, or a few thousand copies or more, it still adds up to a lot of copies of your works.
  
  To be precise Lulu now hosts over a million and a half registered users. Over 300,000 authors have created over a half million works that are available on Lulu already. All these numbers are growing at over 10% per month! This scale of success will enable us to continue to expand the scale and quality of the services we can offer to you, your readers, your audience, and your customers.
  
  Our site had better continue improving if we are both going to keep making you happier and happier with our service. And to look after the millions of new creators you keep recommending to Lulu.
  Next week I’ll discuss some of the cool new tools our engineers and designers have unveiled with the recent launch of Lulu 2.0.
  
  Until then, let me know what you think about Lulu 2.0 so far by sending me your comments to askbob@lulu.com
  
  Cheers, Bob.
  
  

• Coming Soon to Lulus Everywhere...

  2007 Aug 30

  Adam here. To start the next phase of Lulu’s journey on the web and print-on-demand publishing, we will soon be releasing a completely re-imagined design for Lulu’s web site. This new architecture will include a number of aesthetic as well as functional improvements all around to improve the appearance of Lulu as a creator marketplace and bring core functionality to the top level so you can see all the cool offerings Lulu has always had. Since it’s a whole new experience with improved layouts, navigation and usability, we’re calling this latest evolution of our site … Lulu 2.0! Here’s a preview of what’s to come:
  
  

  An Easier-To-Use Photo Book Publishing Process With The New Lulu Studio™

  Called the "Lulu Studio™," this is our initial introduction to what will be a new approach in publishing on the web. Lulu Studio™ is a full-fledged web application that mimics the look, feel and much of the functionality you’d expect from a regular PC application, representing the cutting edge of what’s possible on the web. There’s little or no learning curve to start publishing and a lot more breathing room on your browser’s workspace to manage images, allowing you to spend more time creating your Photo Book in a process that’s amazingly similar to starting a scrap book by hand. Although we're starting off fresh with offering Lulu Studio™ as a Photo Book builder, more products will be using this sleek Flash-based platform in the near future.
  
  To celebrate the introduction of Lulu Studio™, as the web’s premier Photo Book building application, we’re also happy to announce a higher quality photo book print product will to going along with this release as well. The Photo Books coming out of the new Lulu Studio™ will have better color reproduction and clarity resulting from the latest state-of-the-art digital printing. We've received a few already, and they look great!
  
  Previously Published Photo Books can still be edited using the original Lulu Photo Book wizard, but to realize the full potential of your photos, we recommend starting a new Photo Book project using Lulu Studio™ for the highest quality prints not to mention an easier-to-use more powerful creation process.
  
  3rd Party, High-quality Licensed Image Content To Include In Your Photo Books.
  In the new Lulu Studio you'll also have access to licensed image content to enhance your books. To start off this release, we’ve partnered with Getty Images, the world’s leading provider of licensed images and multimedia online to bring you a library of 100,000 licensed images to add to your Photo Book.
  
  

  Marketing Questions?

  Like you, we realize that getting published is only the first step. To make some of the steps afterward a little easier for you, we’ve also included even more marketing services and support for our community that consists of information, materials and services to help you market, sell, and maximize the potential of your creations
  
  

  A Word On Site Navigation

  In the last few years, one thing I’ve noticed working for Lulu is that we have one of the best and most loyal communities on the web today. Some of you have been with us since the beginning, sticking around through thick and thin. Others still continue helping to moderate the Community Forums as Lulu PowerPosters while many now work with us as customer advocates and service representatives, handling support questions through Live Help. One important consideration here for most of you with this new design is simply “change” which can be looked at as both good and bad. As an, “internet enthusiast” I sometimes find it difficult at first when my favorite sites change around some of its navigation and structure. Much of Lulu 2.0 is based directly on feedback by you, our users, and I’m sure in the long run, you’ll find us to be better than ever!
  
  

  Shipping

  At the time of release of Lulu 2.0, a number of shipping options and pricing will be changing all around on a global scale. For our customers, most of these changes will be aimed at providing faster, more efficient shipping options and lower prices. Shipping however is never simple, and prices fluctuate dramatically depending on the type of service and the quantity you order. Some shipping options may increase slightly as a result. Overall, standard level options that include tracking services however should remain either the same or lower in cost overall.
  
  The features discussed here only scratch the surface. There’s much, much more included in this release on the way. If you have questions or comments please reply here. You never know who might respond (hint, hint) .
  
  Stay tuned for more details soon!
  
  Regards,
  Adam Guida
  

• Marketing With Calendars

  2007 Aug 06

  It’s that time of the year again! That’s right, we’re getting into prime
  calendar-making season. That special time when we collect 12 images
  together, add the dates we think are important and make a calendar. As
  well as being something to share with your friends and family, calendars
  can also be a good promotional tool for your primary content.
  
  Book Art
  The simplest way to market your comic, photobook, or any other project
  with multiple photos or art is to make a calendar out of some of it.
  Even better is to add some art or photos not included in the book in the
  calendar. This gives you a chance to show off some of the art, while
  also giving people more options for things to purchase. Not to mention
  it’s a great way to keep track of important dates.
  
  Concert Dates
  You’ve got a band, you’ve got your music, and you’re going to be touring
  (even if it’s just within one state). Make a calendar and use the custom
  events option to add your concert dates to the calendar. Then add images
  of your band playing live and you’re all set. Oh, and playing the air
  guitar while our converters are processing your calendar is optional,
  but encouraged.