What is Facebook Timeline?

Facebook Timeline is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. According to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg: “Timeline is the story of your life…in a new way to express who you are.”  Your posts (literally all of them) are divided in two and appear on a timeline in chronological order below your profile picture and basic information.  The super cool feature about your Timeline and the most obvious change is the new cover option, which lets you save an image as a banner at the very top of your page. This is your place to shine Lulu author.  I’ve already seen some really fun and innovative uses for this space.  Just check out these cool personal Timelines and these company Timelines for some inspiration.

From Mashable - Note the use of a QR code as the profile pic. You can do this to link to your book's product page on Lulu.

As you can see in the links and images above, the more creative you get with your new cover image, the more likely a potential reader might stop and consider reading your works.  Consider placing illustrations from your books in this space if you’re a children’s book author, or perhaps even a passage from your work if you’re a novelist.  Make it fun and don’t be afraid to think outside the box.  This is a great chance to brand yourself and your work in an interesting and unique way.  To start setting up your Timeline, check out this handy slideshow from our friends at Mashable for step-by-step instructions.

Lifespan of a Post:

Right now, Facebook posts have an average lifespan of about three hours according to research recently done by Bitly. This is likely to decrease with Timeline, but you can ensure the right people are seeing your posts by trying different times throughout the day to pinpoint your highest traffic hours. It’s a good idea to set up your own personal Facebook page for your works too so you can have access to all of Facebook’s great insight tools, which show you which of your posts trend most and to what demographics. The more virality (the amount it will be shared) your posts have increase the likeliness that your fans will like it or share it, which will extend your posts’ lifespan.

Post more and post often:

Given the ever-decreasing life-span above, what you have to say has more potential to be lost in the sea of other frequent posters in your fans’ news feeds.  I still wouldn’t post things back to back, but once every hour to two hours certainly couldn’t hurt. The vast majority of readers are constantly plugged in now, and are always interested in discovering fresh, easy to digest content. But make sure that content is of quality and value or fans will flag you for spam.

Life Events:

You’ll notice you now have a new option next to your status updates on Facebook Timeline called “Life Event.” This is a great new feature specifically for authors because you can include your books, publications, and blog-type posts here and instantly share it with your readers.  You can include cover-photos along with your posts to really help them stand out – like so:

So there you go, you should be well-equipped to brave the new Facebook Timeline and be a cut-above the rest for marketing your titles through this channel.  Sound off on what you think about the new Facebook in the comments below and feel free to offer your own tips for how you’ve used it too.

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.

Reel in more readers with just four quick steps:

STEP 1: Log onto “My Lulu”

STEP 2: Click the star icon next to your published book

STEP 3: Choose the buy now button you like

STEP 4: Copy and paste the code to your website or blog

When your buyers click on these buttons, they will be taken to a Lulu shopping cart, which will include your book. It really is just that simple – so try it out today!

Take me to My Lulu.

section is our new forum, knowledge base and idea exchange area, and replaces our previous system. We’re quite excited about the improvements this update is offering, including enhanced navigation, speed, and an improved content structure.

The New Connect page

Additionally, it is a launching point for our newly revised Support page. We are striving for ease and speed in getting you the type of help you need, and the Support page is focused on emailing or chatting live with the Lulu customer service team. The link for Support is presented in the upper right-hand corner of every page, which will help you access important tools and resources you may need to reference. Our customer service team is dedicated to responding to you with the best solutions for your needs — whether you’re here to make or find something remarkable.

The New Support Page

While launching Connect and our Support page, we want to clearly distinguish between the functions of the areas served. Connect is designed to be your home for interacting with other Lulu customers, browsing our knowledge base, and sharing new ideas. It’s a self-service option that also hosts our community and will help you find great solutions. In the past, the forums have served as a place to post to get assistance from Lulu team members, as well as fellow customers. Moving forward Connect and Support will be separated so you can more easily get the help you need. That said, this doesn’t mean you can’t ask for help there, or that I’m going anywhere.

Connect continues to be the home of our community, and Lulu team members will still be present there, but it’s not the place to resolve specific cases. The focus moving forward for Connect is one of collaboration, building resources for our customers and helping our product team understand your needs. Feel free to browse our comprehensive knowledge base for answers to your questions about Lulu, join the conversation, or start one of your own, to share ideas, ask questions, make friends, and learn something new.

When it comes to issues that need a team member response to a technical matter or quality concern, we encourage you to use the options available to you on Support. Our team of Lulu Specialists can instantly see your customer history and will work to get you the best solutions.

At Lulu, we’re committed to giving you a more enriched experience. Currently, our customer service team has an 81% customer satisfaction rate, and we are improving on that every week. You’re definitely in good hands! Now get out there and Connect with other Lulu customers!

Both Lulu authors old and new can set discounts for their works.

When you log into Lulu and visit your “My Lulu” page, you’ll notice the new “discount” column in your projects list. It is important to note that any discounts you make will deduct from the list price of your works. And you cannot set a discount at a price lower than it costs to manufacture your book.

Already Published?

If you already have a book published in the Lulu Marketplace, the easiest way to set a discount is to click the discount sticker next to your book’s title in your project list. In the window that pops up, enter the discount percentage you’d like to set. In this window, you can see the price for your work, the percentage of savings you’re passing on to your readers and your total revenue after the discount.  You can remove your discount at any time.

Discounting a New Work or Revision:

If you’re publishing a new work to sell on the Lulu Marketplace, or creating a revision of an old one, you can change the discount pricing during the publishing process. You’ll find discount information on your book’s “price” after the “description” page if you’re discounting a print book and after the “DRM” page if you’re discounting an eBook. Just click the “set discount” button and use the discount manager pop-up window to set your discount savings.

If you decide at the last minute to set a discount before you publish, don’t worry. You can also edit your discount pricing on the “review” page for your book by clicking the “edit” button under the “Lulu Pricing and Creator Revenues” heading. This handy table will show you your book’s discounted price on the Lulu Marketplace compared with the list price elsewhere.

At Lulu, we’re all about helping authors reach more readers. And the new Lulu Discount Manager will help you drive more awareness to your works and stand out from the competition. The Discount Manager is great for seasonal sales or for book events like an upcoming release. It all goes back to Lulu’s goal to provide authors with complete control over their works and helping them sell more books. Happy discounting.

Please let us know what other classes you would be interested in seeing in our course catalog.

April 5 @ 7PM EST- Red Hot Internet Basics: Touring Yourself Online
If you’re ready to market your book online but don’t know where to start, you’ll love this class. We’ll look at creating and launching your very own Virtual Author Tour. During this class we’ll look at:

• How to find sites to pitch yourself to

• How to set up a social networking page

• How to find bloggers and contact them

• Crafting your pitch

• Networking online, how to do it and why you *must* network with bloggers

• What is social book marketing and how to use it

Come with ALL of your Internet questions, this class will get them answered! Please note: emails are sent out the day of the event with instructions on how to log in to the webinar.

Recordings of previous Lulu University Webinars are below:

March 8, 2010 - Red Hot Internet Publicity 2.0
March 22, 2010 – Red Hot Internet Basics

Lulu now offers ePub conversion services to take your book into the future.  Get your book ready for the iPad, Sony Reader and other electronic devises with our ePub conversion service.  We offer three service packs depending on the number of pages  in your manuscript.

Our ePub service includes the following:

1. Tagging and linking of the Table of Content (TOC)
2. Proofing of the illustrations to make sure they’re resized properly
3. Removal of the original page numbers and page headers (to prevent them from appearing in the middle of the page)
4. Re-flowing of the text by chapter and re-pagination of the entire book

*Proofing and correction of your manuscript file beyond the beginning of the 1st chapter is NOT included in the service.

ePub conversion takes between 4-6 week.  In some cases, conversion may take longer at which point we will provide you with a time line for your file conversion.

Our service pricing is based on your book page count:

• 250 Pages or Less $175 Buy Now

• 251-500 Pages $350 Buy Now

• 501-750 Pages $495 Buy Now

The Small Print: Only books published through Lulu are eligible for the service. There are no refunds on the ePub conversion service. In the case where the complexity of the manuscript file requires work outside the scope of our service, we reserve the right to decline to do the conversion with a minimum charge of $100 an hour.  A quote at a rate of $100 minimum will be provided to the customer if additional work and fees apply.   Creating an ePub version of your book will not guarantee distribution on 3rd party external e-readers.

Please note that this information is focused on copyright in the United States. For more information on International copyrights, please check out the links at the bottom of the post.

What is Copyright?

To begin with, I’m going to get the easy stuff out of the way. With a quick Google search, you can find the basics of what copyright is as well as in-depth discussion and even some analysis. As such, I am going to keep this as simple as possible. Copyright protects the rights of creators of literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works. Specifically, it gives the owner of the copyright the exclusive right to, and to authorize others the right to, reproduce, distribute, perform, or display the work. It is illegal for anyone to violate any of the rights provided by the law to copyright holders.

For more information on what copyright entails, check out the US Copyright Office’s Copyright Basics.

How Do I Protect My Work?

The good news is that a work is considered copyrighted as soon as you create it. So, as I’m typing these words, they are simultaneously copyrighted under the law. As a result, you don’t have to do anything beyond creating your work (which, sadly, is the hard part). However, holding a registered copyright is extremely helpful if you find yourself in litigation if you have to deal with a copyright violation. With a registered certification you will be given a certificate of registration, will be eligible for statutory damages and attorney’s fees in successful litigation, and if the registration occurs within 5 years of publication, then it is considered prima facie evidence

The US Copyright Office now allows online registration of copyright, making the process even easier. Of course, you can still register using paper forms, but doing so is a little more expensive, and can take longer to process. Filing for registration online is $35, andyou can get started here. If you choose to file online, then you can upload your work to the copyright office or mail copies to them.

Some people claim you can create a “poor man’s copyright” by mailing a copy of your work to yourself via certified mail (or another trackable system). However, copyright law does not cover this type of protection, and as a result does not confer the same protections as registering your copyright.

What Other Options Are There?

If you are interested in protecting your work in some ways, but want to allow others to build upon and share your work, then you may be interested in using a Creative Commonslicense in place of a standard copyright. Creative Commons works alongside copyright, and allows you to apply a series of free attributes to your work, which you can choose whether or not to use. The license options are Attribution, Share Alike, Noncommercial, and No Derivative Works.

By assigning Attribution to your work, you give others the right to copy, distribute, display, and perform your copyrighted work as long as they give credit the way you request. Share Alike allows others to distribute derivative works, but only under the same license you have assigned to your work. Noncommercial allows others to copy, distribute, display, and perform your copyrighted work as long as it is for noncommercial purposes. Finally, No Derivative Works allows others to copy, distribute, display, and perform your copyrighted work, but not derivative works. These licenses can be combined into six licenses, which are covered on the Creative Commons site.

There you have it, the basics of copyright. I hope this was helpful. If you are looking for more information on the subject, these links are a good place to start.

Where to Copyright – Global Copyright resources
10 Myths About Copyright by Brad Templeton (Chairman of the Board of the EFF)
Copyright Essentials For Writers By Holly Jahangiri

Did you know that in addition to books and calendars, Lulu also publishes CDs & DVDs? If you’re interested in creating an audio book, video tutorials, your latest music album, or home videos, Lulu can help.

As the DVD specialist at Lulu, I’ve noticed that if an author has a DVD problem, it is usually due to a disc formatting error. We offer two distinct DVD formatting options – one for video and one for data. It helps to know how the file type you upload determines whether you create a data DVD or a video DVD.

A. DVD-Data: This type of DVD will work only on a computer, not in a household DVD player like the one connected to your TV. This DVD is similar to a store-bought software disc and can contain audio, pictures, software, and almost any other file type you desire. The most common DVD error happens when an author tries to make a DVD for video, but uploads a file that isn’t formatted casual playback. Improper formatting of a DVD-Video disc will create a DVD-Data disc by default.

B. DVD-Video: This kind of DVD is great for capturing and sharing your favorite moments through video. When you put a DVD in a household player, the player looks for one master file to pull information from and then displays it to you on your TV. Authors can use a number of file formats as the source for their videos ( .mpeg/.avi/.wma/.wmv), but then comes the tricky part. When you are making your video DVD, all of your video files have to be in a video_TS file and all of your audio must be in an audio_TS file. These two files then go in the master file, which can either be a ZIP Archive file or an ISO-9660 file. Sounds hard right? Well, fortunately, there are many third-party software programs, including Nero (PC) and Toast (Mac), that are made just for this purpose. These programs will convert your files into an ISO-9660 disc image or VIDEO_TS directory. I recommend an ISO0-9660 disc image.

1. VIDEO_TS directory – If you only have a VIDEO_TS directory, you must zip it into a .zip file or convert it into an .iso file to upload it to Lulu. If the VIDEO_TS directory is not at the root level of the ZIP or ISO file, the disc created will be a DVD-Data disc instead of the DVD-Video disc you intended. You can test this by unzipping your .zip file or mounting your .iso disc image and checking to make sure you only have a VIDEO_TS directory at the root. The VIDEO_TS directory contains all of the video files and menu files needed for a component DVD player to recognize. If the DVD player cannot find the VIDEO_TS directory at the root of the disc, it will not be able to read the content.
2. ISO 9660 disc image – This is ideal if your software can create it. This disc image is what gets burned onto your DVD disc. The great thing about uploading an ISO file is that it gives you complete control over the formatting of your DVD disc. The biggest advantage to this option is the ability to add certain extensions to the formatted ISO file. Specifically, ISO disc images can have the Joliet & RockRIdge extensions added to the file format.
3. RockRIdge/Joliet ISO Extensions – The Joliet extension allows a Microsoft Operating System to recognize longer file names and special characters within the ISO file. The RockRIdge extension allows a Linux/Apple Operating System to recognize longer file names and special characters within the ISO. The Lulu converter only creates an ISO disc images with the RockRidge extension and will not include the Joliet extension. File names that have been truncated when Windows reads the disc can cause your DVD to fail.
4. ZIP Archive – ZIP files are used to turn your VIDEO_TS directory and files within the directory into a single .zip archive that is suitable to upload. This is necessary because Lulu cannot accept directory folders and enclosed video files in a single upload. The ZIP file allows you to compress your directory folder and enclosed video files into a single uploadable archive. If you upload a .zip file that contains a VIDEO_TS directory, our server will unzip the file and create an ISO disc image from your VIDEO_TS directory, which is why it is so important that you only upload a single .zip file that only contains a VIDEO_TS directory. If you upload more than one file your project will automatically default to a DVD-Data disc that simply contains your uploaded files.

I hope this has helped give a little more insight into how our free DVD service works. I know the language of file types and such can get confusing, so we’re evaluating services that we could offer to make the process even simpler. If you have suggestions on DVD and CD creation services that you’d like to see, please let us know here.

And if you have any questions for me about the DVD creation process, please add them, too. I’m happy to help!

Analysts estimate Amazon’s Kindle selling about 1.5 million units by the end of 2009, while Barnes and Noble’s Nook is already sold out for the holidays.  More e-readers are popping onto the market, and publishers are beginning to rethink their approach to digital media, like Time Inc.’s recent demo of a digital version of Sports Illustrated. The immediacy and convenience of ebooks and digital content has definitely had an impact on how people today read.  Authors are beginning to realize that they can publish freely and digitally distribute their work for nothing other than their time with sites like Lulu.com.  But, how do you make a great ebook that stands out?

You CAN judge a book by its cover.

A good cover can be a great marketing tool for an ebook.  You want your cover to make someone scanning through a website, stop and click your ebook.  You don’t want to be tacky or overbearing, but the cover should draw attention.  In the open-publishing world, a cover gives readers their first impression of what to expect from an author’s book.  For now, the quality of a cover is a good indication of which authors have invested more time into their work than others.  Well-formatted and edited books typically have a cover that was put together by a professional designer and features professional art or photography that is eye-catching and relevant to the audience the content is trying to reach.

Do the work for your readers; be visible.

The easier you make the purchasing step for your customers, the better.  This can be done by making your ebook as visible as possible.  Every time you mention your book or yourself online, provide links to make it easy for people to find your content or more information about you.  Let’s say you just put up a book trailer on youtube.  That youtube page needs a link to your book’s storefront and the storefront needs a link to the video.  This is called cross-linking.

One of the great things about Lulu.com is that it offers non-exclusivity for an author’s book.  This means an author maintains the rights to their work, so they are free to upload it to Lulu and as many other sites as they want.  This is a way to have your work reach that many more people.  A little research into exclusivity rights could do a lot for your ebook.

Don’t make your customers read.

People want to read your ebook, not read about it.  Try to limit the text that appears around your ebook to a minimum.  A brief summation is a good thing, but make sure it builds up the content of the book.  Use language that makes readers want to dive in right away.  The less you say the better because you might talk potential readers out of a sale otherwise.  Leave the real talk to reviewers.

Proactively respond to your readers.

Most of the work that goes into selling an ebook arguably comes after it has been written.  All of the marketing for your book falls to you, and you need to be responsive to your growing audience.  Social networking makes this much easier.  Something like a Facebook fan page is a great way to maintain an open dialogue with several people at once while keeping people informed about your work.  Be aware of reviews and respond to them positively when appropriate.  weRead keeps authors connected with millions of users, and offers great opportunities to receive constructive criticism and expand their readership.

Keep up with the tech – know your formats.

.pdf, .epub, .bbeb, .lit.  There are dozens of different file formats able to be assigned to the end of your would-be ebook.  The most universal file format is International Digital or “EPUB.”  Some ebook tech only accept proprietary file formats though so keeping up on tech trends can go a long way in getting your content out.  Much like making your content as visible as possible, try making your content as accessible as possible by offering multiple file formats.  You’d hate to lose sales just because you didn’t offer your book in the Kindle’s .azw format.