eBooks are the hot topic these days and with good reason.  Industry analysts are estimating 24.5 million lucky folks will be unwrapping shiny new e-readers this holiday season, which is expected to double overall eBook sales over last year’s whopping $263 million.

eBooks provide both a speed to market and potential for a higher revenue share that are just too beneficial to ignore. With Lulu’s direct-live status an author can create an eBook and have it available for sale almost immediately and keep up to 90% of the profit.  Each day, we see more and more traditionally published authors like Stephen Stark and Kevin Powell self-publish eBooks of their own.

“Suddenly all these people are publishing their content on their own because they don’t feel they’ll get the same money or value elsewhere and they are right,” says Stark.  “We’ve reached a point where authors can make a much higher royalty by self-publishing and are free to experiment in ways big publishers can’t.”

It’s true; eBooks provide opportunities to reach huge numbers of new readers, and we want to make sure all of our authors are set to take full advantage of those opportunities.  So this year, we’re proclaiming December 26th the first annual Download Day.

Much like Black Friday in November, the day after Christmas is the highest traffic shopping day for people buying eBooks.  Think about it, you just got this cool new gadget; you’re gonna want to play with it and start filling it up with apps, games, and…(say it with me) eBooks!  Will your work be one of them?  It should be.

To sweeten the deal, we’ll give the Lulu author who sells the most eBooks on December 26th, 2011 (even if you’re selling for free) a brand new Barnes and Noble NOOK, and a $100 off coupon – good for anything on Lulu.  Hit up your friends, your family, heck, even your mailman, and send them a link to your eBook.  The bonus here is with more sales, you’ll gain more visibility for you and your work by moving up in bestseller lists in places like the iBookstore℠ and NOOK Bookstore™ so even more readers will discover your titles.

Want to create an eBook but don’t know where to start?  Fret not, would-be digital author, with our Word to EPUB Converter, you can upload .doc, .docx, .txt, and .rtf files and have them made into an EPUB within about two – five minutes.  You can also visit our eBook landing page for more information – your source for all things in eBook publishing.

Once you’ve published, be sure to read our helpful eBook marketing blogs for tips on how to create an eBook and make sure all these new eBook reading customers will see yours.  You might learn something you didn’t think of – like how selling your eBook for free can actually make you more money.  Pretty soon, you’ll have readers all over the world flipping the digital pages of your remarkable work.

Happy Download Day!

The iBookstore is a service mark of Apple Inc.

The winner of Download Day will be notified in mid-January 2012.  Contest is open to all Lulu authors that have titles available in EPUB format.  Total sales will be calculated from lulu.com and our distribution partners.

The other day, I was encouraged via Twitter to view the following video of New York Times bestselling author Seth Godin. The video is a sneak peak for the documentary PressPausePlay in which Godin describes his reasoning for self-publishing an eBook that took him 10-12 days to write. Godin raises a lot of interesting questions about modern publishing in this short video. An interesting question he raises is one that all self-published authors have to address at one time or another, namely: “I finished the book … ‘now what am I going to do with it?’”

As Authors today, we have many choices for delivering our content. We can try our luck and go the traditional route; we can self-publish it as a paperback; we can upload it to a blog; we can publish it as an eBook and distribute it to places like the iBookstore℠ or NOOK Bookstore™, etc, etc, etc. With all these choices, it can be hard to decide where and how to distribute your work.

Having published in different formats, I recently asked the question: is there an eBook “eZone?” Inspired by the “Goldilocks Zone” in planetary astronomy, the eBook eZone represents the length of written content that is too long for a blog post but too short for a printed book. It is the length of content that seems “just right” to be published electronically and made available for download at a minimal fee (or even made available for free). Keep in mind that any length of content can be made into an eBook (with at times unwieldy long books being easier to read electronically, as described here). When I talk about the eZone, I mean college papers, short stories, poetry, magazine articles – content that you’re proud of that didn’t really take you that long to write (relatively speaking) and when you see it sitting idle on your hard-drive you ask: “what am I going to do with it?” From a reader standpoint, eZone eBooks are those titles on your eReader that you can finish on a short train ride, regional flight, or in the time it takes to fall asleep.

Besides content length, the eZone also represents a sort of “sweet spot” between timeliness of content (how current the topic may be) and the time you have invested in writing and researching the content. The above infographic is what I believe the eBook eZone may look like. This infographic is by no means scientific nor does it take into account variables like genre, type of content, etc. The infographic exists to help visualize a point, namely that there may be a confluence of content length, content timeliness, and the amount of time one can devote to writing a title that makes eBooks the ideal vehicle for distributing content.

I figured it would also be helpful to point out some of my reasoning behind this infographic. Problogger.com reports that a typical reader “spends 96 seconds reading the average blog” – giving writers a “96 window of opportunity” to capture a reader’s attention. If the average American Adult has a reading speed of 300 words per minute, then it is reasonable to assume that a typical reader will focus his/her attention, on average, to around 450 words on a typical blog (I have just pasted that threshold, so congratulations loyal reader for being above average). The page length I selected for printed books was less about attention span and had more to do with printing requirements. A U.S. Trade perfect bound paperback book can have a page length of between 32 and 740 pages – anything above that would require a different format. Timeliness of content and the time invested in writing a book are very subjective criteria and are hard to measure. Everyone writes and researches at different rates. Some people like Seth Godin who are content machines can hammer out five best-sellers in the time it would take me to write one sub-par manuscript. So the intersection where timeliness of content and time invested is subjective – but a reality worth addressing nonetheless.

In short, the eBook eZone is a theory. If may turn out to be completely wrong. I just hope that authors test it out, find their writing comfort zones, and publish their content in as many formats as possible. You have many choices, make sure to find the format that’s “just right” for you!

The EPUB Converter is a powerful tool, and with great power comes great responsibility– so we’ve written an eBook Creator Guide to help you format your Word DOC into the best shape for conversion. Why should you bother? Think of it as getting your book ready for a race. Sometimes a runner can win after barely training. But most times even the greatest athletes will collapse on the track unless they’ve prepared for the event. (Or, in your case, create an eBook that can’t be sent to distribution channels.) While our wizard isn’t as demanding as a race, a little preparation never hurt anyone, or any book.

One essential retail distribution requirement (which takes little prep work) is to have a working Table of Contents. This Table of Contents is not the same as a print book, but a file inside your EPUB called the NCX. (That’s the Navigation Control file for XML, for technical folks.) The NCX contains links to the sections or chapters of your eBook, which makes for easy navigation between one part to another. It appears on e-readers as a vertical list of links.

A very common problem is an NCX that has only one link named “untitled”. When this happens, your eBook needs to be styled with headings that point out its sections or chapters. Letting the wizard know you need an NCX link isn’t hard: just format the name of each section in your Word DOC as style “Heading 1″. (You can do this through the “Styles” options, listed in the Word tab “Home”.) Then, you can change this style’s settings (font, size, etc.) to reflect the styling of your book. If you want to create subsections, use “Heading 2″ and “Heading 3″.

NCX links that aren’t correct are another problem; for example, a phrase in your manuscript becomes a link in your eBook. This means that parts of your book other than chapter headings are styled as “Heading 1″, etc. Weeding these out is as easy as styling them back to “Normal”. And if you’d like more information on NCXs, our Connect page can help you out.

Of course, always check your EPUB in an e-reader like Adobe Digital Editions to make sure it appears the way you want it to, and it follows the retail distribution guidelines.

Keep playing with the tool, and don’t forget to consult our handy eBook Creator Guide for all things eBooks. Happy e-publishing.

Whether you’re a writer, a designer, an artist, or any other professional, a knock-out portfolio using Lulu’s publishing wizard can help you stand out from the crowd and land your dream job.

To create a portfolio, first gather all your most remarkable work.  Then, compile it into one PDF or Word document and publish it through our wizard.  That’s it!

What happens if you have something worth adding to your portfolio after you publish? Simply add your new work to the original file, and revise your project.

Things to remember:

• Include your resume in the front of your portfolio. This way, you don’t risk having two separate pieces accidentally get separated. Future employers can quickly refer to the first page to get your employment history and contact information.

• Personal branding is important! Creating a portfolio with a cohesive design that represents you makes you more memorable.

• Pay special attention to the requirements for full bleed if your portfolio has images that go all the way to the edges.

• If you don’t want your portfolio to be sold to anyone but you, set it on private access in your project page.

• Keep a copy with you and extra copies on hand. You never know when you’ll meet someone who’ll want to see your work.

There’s no doubt that walking into a bookstore and seeing your work on the shelves is a wonderful feeling and a worthwhile goal for any author. But that is a personal goal, not a marketing goal. If your marketing goal it is to have as many people as possible read your work, you may be better off first focusing your efforts elsewhere – not just on your local bookstore.

Self-published author and book designer Joel Friedlander echoes my sentiment about trying to get one’s book on retail shelves when he writes:

“My own opinion, after watching many self-publishers try to break through into this market, is that it’s rarely worth the effort unless the book has a really wide appeal and is produced from the beginning with retail sales as the ultimate goal.

Most self-publishers of nonfiction will be far better off building an online community, learning keyword research and how to market their book online, using print on demand for fulfillment.”

There are countless creative ways to use social media, blogs, forums and communication technology to promote your book from the comfort of your home. Many online options may help you reach your marketing goals more effectively than trying to get your book on retail shelves.

If your book does have “really wide appeal” and if you truly feel that you need to have your book in a bookstore, then I would recommend that you read the following post from Maria’s Bookshop — an independently owned and operated bookstore located in downtown Durango, Colorado. This shop does a nice job of outlining what they are looking for from authors wishing to be featured in their store. It does not matter if you live in Colorado, getting your title on retail shelves starts with contacting your local book seller. While all store policies may be different, Maria’s requirements can act as a helpful guide when you approach your local store. Doing so, can help you anticipate what book sellers are looking for and you can make sure that you at least satisfy some of the basics (ISBN, bar code, pricing, synopsis of book) before venturing off to pitch your book.

The point I wish to convey with this blog post is to be mindful of why you wish to have your book available on retail shelves as opposed to promoting it through other means. Sometimes, we can be distracted by our innate desires to have our work in brick and mortar locations that we forget that we have access to hundreds of millions of readers through an Internet connection and mostly free online tools.

Finally, it’s also good to remember the importance of a really clever marketing campaign. You may recall that in April of last year, Andrew Kessler, author of “Martian Summer: Robot Arms, Cowboy Spacemen, and My 90 Days With the Phoenix Mars Mission” rented space in New York City’s West Village to sell 3,000 copies of one book … his own. Kessler’s little stunt was picked up my major news agencies like CNN, The Guardian, Time Magazine and The New York Times. Yes, most of us don’t have the means to pull off an act of this caliber, but it helps illustrate a point. Sure, Kessler could have gone to his local book seller to have them carry a few copies of his title, but he decided to take a different approach. If Kessler’s goal was to get as much exposure of his book as possible, I think it’s fair to say that he succeeded.

My advice: be creative, set goals, and market your books accordingly.

A little known fact about eBook distribution is that each retail channel has their very own set of requirements for accepting content that your eBook must meet before it can be sold. These requirements may sound scary at first, but they are actually pretty great.  By following the requirements set by each retailer, you can be sure your customers get the most robust experience from reading your work.  To help, here are the top five reasons we’ve seen eBooks bounce back from distribution.

• No description or description too short – Describing your work might be the most important step of all.  Not only does a book description double as a great marketing tool to get readers interested, it’s also used to catalogue your work in retail channels all over the world. For this step, you’ll be asked to provide details including category and genre, keywords, description, language, licensing and edition number. It’s crucial you provide consistent information here that matches any details you have already provided or stated in your book and on your cover. Many retailers require this information to be accurate in order to list your content and make sure it gets in front of the right readers.
• “Metadata” mismatch - Simply put, metadata is the who, what, when, and where of your eBook.  Much like your eBook’s description, metadata includes items like your title, author name, volume number, price, etc. and are what most retailers use to appropriately list and categorize your content.  Metadata must perfectly match so that customers searching for your eBook in a catalogue can find it.
• Up-selling or listing a price on your cover – You can adjust the price of your eBook at anytime and we encourage you to experiment with different prices that are competitive with other books in the same genre.  With that in mind, avoid listing the price of your eBook anywhere on the cover, in the description, or in the eBook itself so you can be flexible to change the price later if you need to.
• Inappropriate or illegal content (erotic, malicious, or plagarized content) – This one is pretty self-explanatory.
• Non-English content – Unfortunately, we’re unable to distribute non-English eBooks at this time.
• Poor image quality (borders, pixels) – You’ve probably come across a picture on the Internet that was hard to see no matter how much you zoomed in or reloaded the page.  Pixelated or blurry images won’t show up on today’s high resolution computers, tablets, phones and eReading devices. This means they can’t go in your eBooks either.  If you decide to include images in your eBook, we can only accept high-resolution, three color, RGB (red, green, blue) formatted pictures.  Four color, CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, key black) images will not translate properly.

Author Lorraine Holloway-White

“In My Eyes, Lulu is the Best”
By Lorraine Holloway-White
Author of A Sceptical Medium

Just over a year ago I was a housewife who was pretty unfulfilled. Today, I am an author, public speaker and natural medium/healer who is well respected the world over.  A lot of this is thanks to Lulu as I am also now a published author.

When I started writing, I was seen on a writing site and signed within a month by an agent, who has sadly turned out to have done nothing much for me. My agents told me to get “well-known” so I set up a site called, Authors on Show (AOS) where I would promote authors and they would promote the site. In less than seven months, we have been voted one of the best sites for writers in the world and reached the final top twenty. Sadly we didn’t win, but what an achievement in such a short space of time. I was also voted for and came 19th in the innovation category in the Twitter Shorty Awards for AOS. I also have a private blog called, A Sceptical Medium, which is also the name of my two self published books. The first book was nominated in the books section of the Shorty Awards and came first.

During the year I have been with my agents, I had lots of people asking where they could buy my books. I had nowhere to send them though as they weren’t published and then I heard of Lulu. In order to give something to people asking, I produced two books from my blog, which also contain excerpts from three other books that my agents are meant to be trying to sell to publishing houses. What an amazing find Lulu was – I cannot praise them highly enough.

The quality of the books they produce is superb and the after care service is amazing. I’m using so many superlatives, but in my book, there aren’t enough in the English language to describe how much I think of Lulu and their staff. The delivery times are extraordinary. I order books and within about 5 days maximum I have them here ready to sell. I had a problem with distribution and they did all they could to help. They have now sorted it for me and I am very grateful, so thanks again team.

I hear people complain from time to time when things go wrong, but it saddens me as the staff go out of their way to do all they can to help us out wherever humanly possible. Take note, humanly possible. Some things are not able to be sorted so quickly and we have to show patience on these occasions.

All in all, I love Lulu, have so much to be grateful to them for and would highly recommend anyone wanting to self publish a book to use them – in fact, I already have to all my authors around the world.