As we all know, electronic marketing tools such as social media are very important to authors looking to promote their work.  Among other things, SXSW offers you the ability to learn from interactive industry leaders who work on the cutting edge of digital technology.

So whether you’re planning to attend this year of not, to add to Evo’s blog post, I have outlined below some of 2012’s SXSW Interactive panel discussions that are geared specifically to authors and publishers.  The list below may help you save time as you plan your schedule.  If you are not planning on going, hopefully these panels will inspire you to get your late registration in … at the very least, these can help get you excited for next year.

Discoverability and the New World of Book PR
http://schedule.sxsw.com/2012/events/event_IAP13632

Publishing Models Transforming the Book
http://schedule.sxsw.com/2012/events/event_IAP10347

Libros digitales para todos/eBooks for Everybody
http://schedule.sxsw.com/2012/events/event_IAP13728

Rhapsody to Year 0: Music & Publishing Go Digital
http://schedule.sxsw.com/2012/events/event_IAP9680

Take a Look It’s in a Book or Now Tablet Devices
http://schedule.sxsw.com/2012/events/event_IAP12327

Self-Publishing: A Revolution for Midlist Authors?
http://schedule.sxsw.com/2012/events/event_IAP9146

Social Role-Playing: Brands and Publishers
http://schedule.sxsw.com/2012/events/event_IAP9024

Knitting a Long Tail in Niche Publishing
http://schedule.sxsw.com/2012/events/event_IAP9356

Making eBooks Smarter: Responsive Page Design
http://schedule.sxsw.com/2012/events/event_IAP9737

Books Win the Attention Economy
http://schedule.sxsw.com/2012/events/event_IAP9275

Next Stage: Tear It Up: How to Write a Digital Novel
http://schedule.sxsw.com/2012/events/event_OE00939

Eleven Lulu departments participated in the contest with decoration themes such as: a Charlie Brown Christmas, Tacky Holidays, and Winter Wonderland to name a few.  With points awarded for creativity, theme and craftsmanship, Lulu’s Marketing Team won with “Cyber Santa’s Workshop,” a fully interactive space where people can get their photos taken with Cyber Santa – a talking robot whose aim it is to take over Christmas after the success of Cyber Monday.

In a recent post I talked about how all of you would-be eBook authors should know your file formats, or at least be somewhat familiar with the most commonly used ones.  As an author, you want to make your work as accessible as possible, which means making your content able to be read on as many devices as you can.  Since it is Read an eBook Week, and Lulu is giving away three Apple iPads, I thought it might be useful to provide a how-to tutorial for the most universal eBook format: ePub.

Many new authors might make the mistake of thinking that if they have a portable document format (PDF) of their book it means that it can be read on an e-reader or other mobile device.  While in many cases the PDF can be opened, the text is far too small because it is a static or unchangeable image.  ePub makes it so your text is resized to fit the screen of any given device.  Since the text in ePub format can be changed in terms of size, font and color, reading an ePub book becomes a much more personal experience for the reader.  Sounds great right?  But how do you make an ePub book?

You really have three options:  let Lulu do the work for you with our conversion services, use a conversion program like (Adobe InDesign, eCub, Calibre, Google ePub Toolkit, etc.), or you can do-it-yourself.  If you decide to do-it-yourself, I’ve added some great directions I found over at jedisaber.com.

What You’ll Need:

* A text editor (like Text Edit or Notepad) that can edit text files, HTML, and XML.
* A program that can create .zip files (which should be built into OS X or Windows).

Alright, first you’ll need to get all of the files together that you will later put into your master .zip file (called a container).

A Closer look at ePub files (*Be aware that file names are case sensitive*):

A .epub file has at least the following files/folders in it to function:

* mimetype – Typically a plain ASCII text file that has the line “application/epub+zip” in it.  This file tells a reader/operating system what’s in the .ePub file. This file must be the first line in the zip file, and cannot be compressed.
* META-INF folder – Contains at least the container.xml file, which tells the reader software where to find the book in the container (typically in the content.opf file detailed below).
* OEBPS folder – Recommended location for the book’s actual content

* toc.ncx  file – Table of contents arranged with navpoint tags.  Make sure the UID matches whatever is in your content.opf file because some readers won’t display your book properly if it doesn’t.  The play order values found in this file must also be in order and will return an error if the order skips over a number.
* XHTML files – The book’s literal contents are listed in these files which are like HTML files with closing tags associated with each element.  It is up to you how you arrange your content but having a separate .xhtml file for each chapter tends to look better on e-readers.

Now that you have all your files in order, you can make the .epub container that houses all of them.

How to Make the Container File

* First create a new .zip file
* Copy the uncompressed mimetype file into the .zip file.
* Copy all of your other files (which should all be located in an OEBPS file) into the .zip file.

* Change the .zip file extension to .epub.

Once you are done with these steps, you should have a readable eBook in a format that works on most readers.  Now, all you should have to do is upload your work to Lulu.

Making Your eBook Available for Download

• In the Publish section, click the ‘eBooks’ button.
• Click the ‘Start your eBook‘ button.
• Enter a title and author name. Select your project’s availability.  Click the ‘Save &
• Continue’ button (any of these options can be changed at anytime).
• Upload the file you want to use by clicking the ‘browse’ button, searching your computer for the file you want to use and then clicking the ‘Upload’ button.
• If you upload multiple files to create an eBook, you will have to select a size for Lulu to create your eBook.
• Click the ‘Make Download-Ready File’ button to convert your file into an eBook.
• Download and preview your file and then click the ‘Save & Continue’ button.
• Create your cover and click the ‘Make Cover’ button. Then click the ‘Save & Continue’ button after the page reloads. Learn how to create a cover here and see What the eBook cover for.
• Fill in the Description fields and click the ‘Save & Continue’ button
• Set the price for your eBook and click the ‘Review Project’ button (eBooks with DRM cannot be offered for free).
• Review your project. Click the ‘Change’ button for any section that needs adjustment. If everything is to your liking click the ‘Save & Finish’ button.

Once you click the ‘Save & Finish’ button you should have a book that is ready to share with the world in cutting-edge fashion – something any reader on the go will appreciate.

This past May, Lulu team members, along with numerous works by our remarkable authors, attended Book Expo America 2011 in New York City, the largest book convention in the United States.  Book Expos such as BEA offer great opportunities for authors to display their content, meet fellow authors, and hear insights from industry professionals.  Check out the video above of the action from this year’s BEA and see why Lulu’s booth was the talk of the show – drawing such great crowds.  If you are thinking about attending or displaying your book at a book fair, here is a list of up-coming events.  Hopefully this video will get you excited for BEA next year, as we’d love to see both you and your book(s) at the show.

Doors opened bright and early the morning of the 24th to floods of authors, publishers, journalists, librarians, and businesses all clamoring to get the latest scoop on the publishing industry and Lulu didn’t disappoint. With exciting new initiatives such as our Open Publishing APIs, Partner Program, and growing print network, Lulu has an affordable publishing solution for just about everyone – no matter if you’re an author looking to become a publisher, or a publisher wanting to monetize your back catalogue.

We definitely stood out in our bright orange booth too, but what really stole the show were our “author-ego” cutouts (pictured).  All three days of the show people lined up at our booth to have their photos taken behind their favorite author’s body and we’d display them on our wall.  They’d also be entered for a chance to win a new Mini 5303 laptop, courtesy of our partners at HP.  I can’t tell you how many times I heard the phrase:  “My friend Blahbity Blah, told me I had to come see the Lulu booth. You’ve gotta take my picture!” And we were happy to oblige.

For those on the go, we also had mobile author-ego cards (pictured) that folks could use with their camera phones to encourage their friends to publish (or just make them look ridiculous). At Lulu, anyone is empowered to publish and sell their work to customers all over the world and our author-ego cards and cutouts really drove that point home – that and the fact that people love to get their photo taken.

We easily talked to about 2,000 attendees, but with the way boxes of author-ego cards, Lulu hats and tote-bags were flying off our tables, we definitely reached all 30,000+ attendees.  Lulu CEO and Founder, Bob Young, also presented to convention attendees Monday, May 23rd on the future of publishing and the impact of eBooks and e-readers.

While eBooks were a hot topic among the BEA crowd this year, we were surprisingly asked about print-on-demand books even more.  This boils down to what the new generation of authors and content owners really seems to want:  options.  And with Lulu’s open-publishing model we’re providing the freedom to creators that tons of options bring.  At Lulu, you’re free to publish and sell books immediately, electronically or in print. You pick the price.  You pick the market.  You pick the medium.  You are the new face of publishing and you are in control.

As you know, the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton is this Friday and excitement is reaching fever pitch. I just Googled “Royal Wedding” and there are over 48 million results. With all this anticipation, it may be hard to figure out how and where to get involved, but Lulu and one of our global API developers can help.

Ben Barnett, founder of before I grew up, recently launched the website Royal Wedding Book which utilizes Lulu’s Publication API. Everyone is free to commemorate the historical event by creating their own customizable Royal Wedding Book through the website http://royalweddingbook.co.uk. Users can also purchase a high quality hardcover album of the best user summited photos sent in via email, Facebook® and Twitter®.

Ben was also kind enough to chat with us over email to give Lulu authors and readers a sense of what things are like right now in London. From Champaign breakfasts, to neighbourhood street parties, to “bunting,” Ben gives us a preview of what we can expect of this highly anticipated event.

What is the atmosphere in London like right now? Do people have to work on Friday?

London is currently experiencing an early onset of Summer. I’m writing this in 75 degree heat which is already filling the parks around the Royal Wedding route with sunbathers, sightseers and some rather impressive amateur photographers already. This, combined with a just gone four day weekend for Easter, and an official bank holiday for the Royal Wedding in a couple of days has already set the mood for what looks to be an incredible day. All of us Londoners are off work on the day and will be celebrating with everything we’ve got.

I am sure that security is pretty tight. Can you get around the city easily?

The authorities are out in big numbers, which is great to see. We’re expecting at least 600,000 visitors from outside the UK alone, so it’s going to be busy. We are however experiencing a piece of history that most of us will only ever see once in our lifetime, and so the local councils in London have gone the extra mile to ensure public transport runs overtime, and there’ll also be tons of big screens all around the city so everyone gets to see what’s going on. I figure once you find a spot that gets you a good view, stay there, finding another good view won’t be easy.

Were you able to score an invite or do you know anyone personally who is going?

Personally I’m not going to be at the actual Wedding, but I’m friends with some of the officials and will be getting in to some of the areas close to all the action to get some up-close shots. I also figure that there’ll be more than enough press with access to more areas than even some of the guests will, so the idea isn’t to compete with that. What I’m trying to do is turn the camera the other way; let’s document the atmosphere, the crowds, the street parties and all the other things going on around the World to make a piece of history.

Where did you get the idea for Royal Wedding Book?

Being a Londoner and a Royalist myself, and having had some exciting discussions with you guys at Lulu, the very concept of being able to produce a stunning hardcover book with the People’s view of The Royal Wedding seemed truly unique and a fantastic way to celebrate, and more importantly, remember this momentous occasion.

Tell us a bit more about Royal neighbourhood street parties. Is that an ideal venue for collecting photos of the Royal Wedding atmosphere?

I’ve learn so much about this from speaking to people from all over the country. For those of us living in London, we’re all heading over to Green Park, near the top of The Mall to have a Champagne Breakfast and find a good spot to watch the events unfold. From reading the local newspapers, quite a few have already pitched their tents and settled in for the long haul since Monday morning. For people outside of London, I’ve heard about literally thousands of Royal Street Parties going on right up and down the country. People get dressed up and fly the flags (bunting), and follow the schedule of the day to the second … when Kate and William finally tie the knot, we throw the flowers!

What is the best way for Americans to get involved with the Royal Wedding celebrations?

I think this is one of the most exciting parts of the whole event. There’s never been a Royal Wedding with so much potential to reach such wide audiences, with so much information about what’s going on at that very moment. I want to soak up as much of that information as possible by us asking everyone out there for their photos and memories of the day. I’m pretty sure the Royal Family themselves would love to see the joy people are having right across America. I’ve also heard you guys are putting up big screens around several of the cities too and would love to see how you guys celebrate this historic “Royal British knee’s up!”

Click here for instructions on how to submit your photos to the Royal Wedding Book.

Mashery’s Circus Mashimus lounge

Partnering with Mashery, the leading provider of API management services, Lulu demoed its Publication API at South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) in Austin, Texas this past weekend.  Mashery’s Circus Mashimus lounge was billed as a magnet for Web application developers and designers looking to attract buzz and networking around API platforms.  Lulu used the opportunity to showcase our Publication API, which allows individuals and publishers to create web applications, powered by Lulu’s backend tools, and marketed under their own brand names. They are then free to upload and publish books in any format (paperback, hardcover, eBook) to sell on Lulu.com and other leading retail channels.

Before I Grew Up’s Ben Barnett came from the London, England to show how his site is using the Lulu API to easily publish community generated Baby photo books.  Hundreds of show attendees came through the lounge each day, enjoying free food and beverages of course, and were very impressed with the tools available and how the Lulu Publication API is further enhancing the open-publishing model.  Through Twitter, users were also able to vote for their favorite API at Circus Mashimus. We’d like to thank everyone for helping make Lulu the second highest voted API out of the 14 companies represented in the contest.

Lulu also ran its own contest for developers at SXSWi.  Developers were encouraged to publish a short eBook through our Publication API.  Despite packed conference schedules and late-night networking events, numerous developers still found the time to successfully publish through our API.  Congratulations to Samuel Yu from Austin for winning our contest, which earned him an Apple TV®.

Lulu at SXSWi in Austin, Texas

Keeping true to the light-hearted and festive atmosphere of the Circus Mashimus lounge, Lulu provided pocket mustaches for show attendees. “Pocket staches” as they were commonly referred to, quickly became a must-have item for Circus Mashimus attendees, with people trying to collect as many different varieties as possible.

Finally, Lulu would like to give a big thank you to Mashery and to all the folks who stopped by our booth. We really enjoyed meeting the Lulu authors at SXSWi who took the time to come find us and all of the developers who have taken an interest in our Publication API. It was great to meet so many interesting and remarkable people … all of which are now sporting Lulu mustaches.

Lulu at SXSW Interactive - Austin, Texas

Apple TV is the trademark of Apple, registered in the U.S. and other countries.

We’re obviously big fans of books here at Lulu and that makes November one of our favorite months. Why? Because it’s National Novel Writing Month, better known as NaNoWriMo.

For eleven years NaNoWriMo has brought together thousands of aspiring authors who share a passion for writing and creativity. Each November, more and more authors join in and take a no holds barred approach to pumping out a 50,000 word book in just 30 days. With such a limited time-frame for making a remarkable work, writers often surprise themselves with what they can accomplish and what creative ideas they can come up with – music to the folks at Lulu’s ears.

Some of us Lulus are even getting involved in the action. I am using this year’s NaNoWriMo to overcome a three-year case of writer’s block. Well, at least I’m trying to overcome a three-year case of writer’s block. So far I’ve spent several days staring at a blank screen hoping to channel Neruda, Hemmingway, Frost or Fitzgerald and then distracting myself with exciting things like laundry and grocery shopping.

Writing is much harder than anyone gives us literary types credit for, and I admire all of you Lulu creators for being able to have the self-discipline to write something and the confidence to put it out in the world.

NaNoWriMo is all about getting motivated. Any book written in 30 days probably won’t be a work of genius, but writing 50,000 words in one month is going to force you to write and take risks. You can edit, take out weak characters, and add sub-plots later. For now, just get writing!

My favorite high school English teacher told me once that writing is easy. You just write about yourself with the life you’ve always wanted. Change your name, give yourself an apartment in Paris and a love interest who got away. Find inspiration in everything and use the mannerisms of interesting strangers to write new characters. Combine it with the search for home, and you’ve got yourself a bestseller.

So, let’s do this together! We’ve got three weeks to write a book. It may not be your most remarkable work, but then again, maybe it will be. You don’t know till you try. And when you’re all done, I encourage you to publish your books on Lulu. What have you got to lose?

Feel free to add your NaNoWriMo experiences in the comments section below. We’d love to hear what you’re working on or any tips for NaNoWriMo survival and getting motivated?  Come on NaNoWriMo veterans, I know you’re out there.

Hulkmania!

It’s Halloween in the Lulu office and I thought it’d be fun to share some of the great costumes people have been wearing all day.

Each year, Lulu team members break out their biggest wigs, their goofiest glasses and their scariest masks in an attempt to out do each other in the fierce competition to win the “Best

Right to Left: A Musketeer, Dr. Who, Captain Planet, Barista

Costume Award.” No Lulu holds back and there were some pretty remarkable costumes this year. Some of my favorites were Hulk Hogan and Uncle Fester (with a real light up bulb in his mouth).

But we don’t want to be the only ones having fun, so as a treat for All Hallows’ Eve, we’re offering a couple special deals to all our customers and creators this weekend.

asdf

Uncle Fester

Through November 1st, you can take 20% off any order with coupon code TRICK. And you can take 25% off any order of $500 or more with coupon code TREAT.

While coupons aren’t as tasty as candy, they are better for you and your wallet this Halloween season.

Have a happy and safe holiday everyone.

asdf

The idea of celebrating a book’s publication date is not new. This past summer, for instance, events took place all across the country, from Santa Cruz, California to Monroeville, Alabama, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the publication of Harper Lee’s classic To Kill a Mockingbird. Re-enactments of the famous courtroom scenes, readings by celebrities, and even the release of a fiftieth anniversary special hardcover edition by the book’s publisher HarperCollins, marked the occasion this classic rightfully deserves.

Even if your book never wins a Pulitzer or is not adapted into an Oscar-winning film, its very existence as a published work, even if only to a small group of readers, marks an occasion worthy of note. As such, I wish to highlight the four following books – all of which are currently celebrating their first birthdays. Each author was also kind enough to offer their thoughts on the publishing process and indicated whether they choose to publish further titles.

The Mundane (2004-2009)

‘The Mundane (2004-2009)’ is the first book I have ever published but is actually the second book I have written.

I was extremely elated to receive the first copy of the book in the mail and was amazed at the overall print quality of the final product. It is a ‘dream come true’ to see one’s efforts finally manifest themselves into a physical reality.

I have plans to publish two more books in the very near future. The first is an edited version of the book I wrote prior to ‘The Mundane (2004-2009)’ and is a compilation of my genealogical research conducted over the course of the last ten years. The second book will be another portfolio compilation containing works from my current floral-based watercolor painting series. – Ken Powers

Receiving my first copy of my book filled me with a heady, laugh-out-loud joy. I didn’t want to put it down; I kept looking at it, and picking it up to feel that it was real. Perhaps this term is overused in the vernacular of Young People, but it was, in a word, awesome.

I am preparing my manuscript now for ‘Ask Dr. Eldritch Volume #2 Why Does My Monster Hate Me?’ – Evan Nichols

‘Pylon’ is my first published novel. The core of the story is based on events that happened in Cheshire in late 1965. As I was only a child of seven the characters depicted are based more on people I worked with rather than the actual participants in the events of that day. Still experience has pointed out to me that these same parallels exist throughout all working walks of life.

In truth I haven’t received a hard copy myself yet but the feeling when the first person to buy it calls you up and says ‘well done not bad for a first attempt’ is second to none.

I have another two projects that I have been working on over the years. They are larger and will take a while yet. – Ronnie Smart

This is my first attempt at publishing a book.

It is amazing to see a physical product, the ‘book’ after spending so much time researching and writing the material.

At this stage I’m not considering another book, but you never know! – Stephen Ewings