Articles tagged "how-to"

Being a Lulu

Lulu’s a place where individuality is “in.” People are celebrated for who they are – even us, the lowly interns. This how-to guide to being a Lulu documents our experiences working here. The philosophies we’ve picked up along the way are some of the same ones that go into Lulu’s approach to our authors:  celebrate people, appreciate them, help them be remarkable. Without further ado, here’s how to fit in with the Lulu crowd.

  1. Develop a shtick. Seriously, everyone at Lulu is a character. For instance: 
    • Bob always wears red socks
    • Manny has an extensive elephant collection
    • Jonathan always tucks his t-shirts into his jeans and somehow pulls it off
  2. Hoard Pirate’s Booty Cheese Puffs from the break room. None of the other chips will fulfill your craving for cheesy goodness. Trust us. We’ve been there.
  3. Don’t drink the coffee labeled “Jet Fuel”- yes, it’s delicious, but you’ll be bouncing in your chair and will not be able to concentrate.
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Market Your Book on Facebook

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Did you know Lulu has a free marketing tool that allows you to share books with your Facebook friends? Did you know that the entire process could be done in less than a minute? Here’s how…

Market Your Book on Facebook

That’s it! You’re now sharing your book with your entire Facebook network.

Promote your books on Facebook.

Lulu University: Book Signings

Book SigningJune 14, 2010 brings our next Lulu University class – Book Signing Gold!  If you have a book signing coming up or want to know how to strike book signing gold, drive crowds of people to your event, sell more books AND get invited back – then this class is for you! We’ll teach you how to plan an exceptional book signing from start to finish and leave a positive lasting impression.

Lulu empowers creators with the tools needed for success. Our FREE Lulu University webinars provide you with the knowledge and know-how to get the most out of your work. You can register for the Book Signing Gold class by adding the free service to your shopping cart and checking out.

You will be emailed with instructions on attending this free Lulu University webinar from lulu@amarketingexpert.com a few days prior to the event. Webinars are held at 7pm EST/4pm PST and require computer access.

See you in class!

From the Vault: What Makes a Good Press Release? How to get the word out in 5 steps

Press ReleaseMarketing your work can seem more challenging than actually finishing it, but that’s just because you might not know where to start. A while back, Lauren Parker wrote a great post about creating a press in 5 Steps. With all the recent requests for guidance about self-marketing your work, I thought it would be a great time to highlight Lauren Parkers‘s helpful post. I’m certain that her advice will help you get the word out and get your book the attention it deserves. Enjoy!

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In the world of blogs, tweets and social networking, creating buzz around your book is easier than ever. But how do you reach reporters from traditional media? The traditional press release is still a great way to let people know of your newest book project.

Wait! How do I achieve fame and fortune with a traditional press release you ask. We can’t guarantee fame and fortune but with these five steps and a little elbow grease, you will be well on your way.

Try these steps when putting together your next release:

April 19 Lulu U Class: Tricks to Sell More Books

Be sure to sign up for the next Lulu University class on April 19th @ 7PM: Red Hot Web 2.0 Tricks to Sell More Books! You’ve heard the term “Web 2.0” but can it really help you sell more books? You bet it can and this class will show you how. Packed with tons of information and super simple things anyone can to do get themselves into the Web 2.0 marketing world, you’ll walk away with fun ideas, simple tricks, and tons of helpful advice.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

  • Creating “feeder” sites that feed traffic into your web site!
  • Using book videos to sell more books
  • Using Wikipedia to market yourself
  • Why linking to other web sites is a bad idea
  • How to get more web site traffic right away!
  • Got blog? The one thing you should NEVER do with your blog!

Don’t miss this class! Sign up today!

Lulu University is FREE!

Picture 2We offer a variety of free online webinars to help educate our authors on a variety of publishing topics – from how to create a press release to social networking. We’ll be adding to our list of topics and even have guest speakers joining the classes. Take advantage of our knowledgeable experts and learn the tips and tricks of publishing and marketing your books.

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:

Free iPad with any All-Inclusive Pack Purchase

FreeiPadReady to publish your next book? Let us help. Lulu’s all-Inclusive Publishing Packages are fantastic for getting the professional pre-publishing services your book deserves. Our publishing experts will make your title bookstore-ready and, for a limited time, we’ll help you celebrate the momentous occasion with a free iPad!

That’s right, we will give you a Free iPad with the purchase of any All-Inclusive Package between now and April 10, 2010. Choose from three options —  3 Star, 5 Star or  7 Star — all carefully crafted to meet the varying needs of our authors.

You’ll work with the industry’s best — a publishing consultant to guide you through the process, professional designers to create your cover and format your manuscript, and our team of editors to fine-tune your work.  Throw in 125 books to get you through your first book signing, and you’ll be inspired to write your next bestseller.

The Importance of Editing

photo: Unhindered by Talent

photo: Unhindered by Talent

One of the most common questions I receive is, “Why isn’t my book selling?”  The answer is usually painful to hear.  Avoiding that question altogether lies in tackling another question early in the publishing process, “What will prevent my book from selling?”

Editing is one of the absolute factors that will influence your book sales. The degree to which you personally edit your thoughts and writing, combined with the degree to which you invest in professional editing will ultimately play a large role in developing reader comfort.  A great edit will not ensure your book sells, but it will definitely eliminate one of the largest potential detractors that might prevent book sales.

Ready to join the ePub boom?

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

How to Make an eBook Anyone Can Read with ePub

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).