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Print on demand (POD) is a method of producing books or other media (such as CDs and DVDs) one at a time using a digital file.

At Lulu, you upload your digital file and we convert it into what we call a "print-ready PDF." Authors who are more technologically inclined may skip the conversion by uploading a PDF that they made and that meets our requirements. After someone buys the book, our printer produces the hard copy or copies using our print-ready PDF and ships it within days.

POD is different from mass market publishing. Traditional publishers usually print thousands of copies all at once. Although this costs less per copy, it requires a large publishing company that can pay for and store all that merchandise.

Publishers typically take most of the money from book sales, leaving a small percent for the author. Lulu turns this around, giving you financial control by making it possible and profitable to print a single copy.

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Lulu is a technology company, not a vanity press.

Vanity presses typically offer many services, all of which must be paid for in advance. It is not unusual for vanity presses to require an initial order of hundreds of copies of any book they print.

Lulu not only offers POD (print on demand) services, but also provides a marketplace to make it easier for you to sell your books yourself. We charge no fee for any of our basic services. Your first expense is the production cost of the first copy of your book that you order.

You can purchase optional services from Lulu, such as Published By You and Published By Lulu distribution services. In addition, Lulu provides a Services Marketplace where members of the Lulu community sell their expertise.

Lulu earns its money from a small commission on the sale of each book.

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The publisher of record depends on the service you purchase.

• The default free service does not provide an ISBN for your work but you can use Lulu.com as the sole retail site.
• Published by You is a a distribution option from Lulu in which you are the publisher of your work and sell it both on Lulu.com and other retail sites
• Published by Lulu is a different distribution option in which Lulu handles publishing and distribution outside of the Lulu.com marketplace on places such as Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble.com, and other online retail sites.

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If you are the registered publisher for the ISBN, you may use it at Lulu. You may not purchase any distribution services for that ISBN at this time. If you received the ISBN from a publisher and it is registered to that publisher, you may not use it at Lulu. It is the publisher’s property and only they have the right to use it.

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Publishing through Lulu is free. There is no set-up fee and no requirement that you buy copies of your work.

When someone wants to buy your content, Lulu handles the transaction and pays you the creator revenue you specified.

Lulu takes a small commission when someone else buys your content. Lulu's commission is a small markup of the amount you set as your creative revenue. The purchase price of books, calendars, CDs and DVDs also includes a base cost for raw materials and printing service.

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Books purchased through Lulu Marketplace
Binding Types	Perfect Bound	Saddle Stitch	PlastiCoil	Casewrap Hardcover	Dust Jacket Hardcover
6" x 9" (15.24cm x 22.86cm)
Binding Fee	$4.53	$4.53	$4.53	$14.00	$15.00
B&W Per Page	$0.02	$0.02	$0.02	$0.02	$0.02
Color Per Page	$0.15	$0.15	$0.15	N/A	N/A
8.5" x 11" (21.59cm x 27.94cm)				8.25" x 10.75" (20.96cm x 27.31cm)
Binding Fee	$4.53	$4.53	$4.53	$17.00	N/A
B&W Per Page	$0.02	$0.02	$0.02	$0.02
Color Per Page	$0.15	$0.15	$0.15	$0.15
Comic, 6.625" x 10.25" (16.827cm x 26.03cm)
Binding Fee	$4.53	$3.00	N/A	N/A	N/A
B&W Per Page	$0.02	$0.11
Color Per Page	$0.15	$0.15
Landscape, 9" x 7" (22.86cm x 17.78cm)
Binding Fee	$4.53	$4.53	$4.53	N/A	N/A
B&W Per Page	$0.02	$0.02	$0.02
Color Per Page	$0.15	$0.15	$0.15
Square, 7.5" x 7.5" (19.05cm x 19.05cm)
Binding Fee	$4.53	$4.53	$4.53	N/A	N/A
B&W Per Page	$0.02	$0.02	$0.02
Color Per Page	$0.15	$0.15	$0.15
Square, 8.5" x 8.5" (21.59m x 21.59cm)
Binding Fee	$4.53	$4.53	N/A	N/A	N/A
B&W Per Page	N/A	N/A
Color Per Page	$0.15	$0.15
Pocket Size, 4.25" x 6.875" (10.8cm x 17.46cm)
Binding Fee	$4.53	N/A
B&W Per Page	$0.02
Color Per Page	N/A
Royal, 15.6cm x 23.4cm (6.14" x 9.21")
Binding Fee	$4.53	$4.53	N/A	N/A	N/A
B&W Per Page	$0.02	$0.02
Color Per Page	$0.15	$0.15
Crown Quarto, 18.9cm x 24.6cm (7.44" x 9.68")
Binding Fee	$4.53	$4.53	N/A	N/A	N/A
B&W Per Page	$0.02	$0.02
Color Per Page	$0.15	$0.15
A4, 21.0cm x 29.7cm (8.27" x 11.69")
Binding Fee	$4.53	$4.53	N/A	N/A	N/A
B&W Per Page	$0.02	$0.02
Color Per Page	$0.15	$0.15

Important: The cost of color books is significantly more than black and white books. When you select color printing (the "Full color pages" option in the publishing wizard), costs $0.15 for every page in the book, not just the pages with color. The printing costs for a 100-page, perfect bound, 6" x 9" color book would be $19.53 ($15.00 printing + $4.53 setup).

Books purchased through our distribution channels:

Books distributed through our distribution channels have different setup costs from those of Lulu-printed books. For more information, see How do I set the retail price of my book? To calculate the retail price of your distribution book, go to our Retail Price Calculator.

Binding Types	Perfect Bound	Saddle Stitch	Casewrap Hardcover	Dust Jacket Hardcover
6" x 9"
Binding Fee	$1.50	N/A	$9.00	$10.00
B&W Per Page	$0.02		$0.02	$0.02
8.5" x 11"
Binding Fee	$2.00	$2.00	N/A	N/A
B&W Per Page	$0.025	N/A
Color Per Page	$0.15	$0.15
Square, 8.5" x 8.5"
Binding Fee	$2.00	$2.00	N/A	N/A
B&W Per Page	N/A	N/A
Color Per Page	$0.15	$0.15
Royal, 6.14" x 9.21"
Binding Fee	$2.00	N/A	N/A	N/A
B&W Per Page	$0.025
Crown Quarto, 7.44" x 9.68"
Binding Fee	$2.00	N/A	N/A	N/A
B&W Per Page	$0.025
A4, 8.27" x 11.69"
Binding Fee	$2.00	N/A	N/A	N/A
B&W Per Page	$0.035

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Disc pricing starts at $5.50 for CDs and $7.50 for DVDs. You receive a discount on larger orders of discs, as shown in the following table.

Disc Pricing
Quantity	Price per CD	Price per DVD
Discs 1 - 5	$5.50	$7.50
Discs 6 - 10	$5.00	$7.00
Discs 11 - ∞	$4.50	$6.50
Disc cost calculator

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There are no production costs when you offer your work in download format. We host your published work for free.

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You have total control over your work at Lulu, including the language in which you choose to publish. For more information see our Shipping FAQ>s .

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Lulu provides tools to publish and sell products online, but you are responsible for the formatting and layout of your work before you publish it on Lulu.

If you need help with the pre-publishing tasks, see the Lulu Services or visit the Lulu Services Marketplace. Our expert users provide many tips and tricks for preparing your manuscript in the forums. Make sure to search the help on the site for the answers to your questions before posting to the forums.

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The Lulu Services Marketplace provides a place for authors and creators to connect with third-party service providers. These service providers, although hand-picked by Lulu, are not members of the Lulu staff. The Services Marketplace simply brings together those seeking publishing services with those who provide them and handles financial transactions. The Services Marketplace gives creators access to five broad categories of publishing services:

• Pre-publishing services, including manuscript reviews, proofreading, formatting and editing.
• Graphics services, including book cover design, illustrations and more.
• Publishing services, including manuscript layout, PDF creation and consultation services.
• Translation services.
• Marketing services, including press releases, reviews, websites and other marketing packages.

Purchase services through the Lulu Services Marketplace> (in the Community tab). The Service Provider should contact you within 3 business days of your purchase. Read the complete description of a service carefully before purchasing it.

Contact that Service Provider directly for answers to questions about a specific service. Use the "E-mail this provider" link on the detail page.

For more information about Lulu Service Providers, see Terms and Conditions of the Lulu Services Marketplace>.

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Lulu is designed to give control directly to the creators and owners of content. When publishing on Lulu, you hold copyright over all of your content, and we never ask you to give up any rights to us. We will do everything we can to discourage the violation of intellectual property rights. The Content section of the Membership Agreement> outlines rights maintained by both Lulu and the account holder.

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Lulu holds no rights or copyright in your work and makes no claims or restrictions on the ownership of your work. Rights and copyrights remain with you as the author and creator. You continue to own the rights in your name or, if you have arrangements, on behalf of others. Your purchase and use of any Lulu services does not undermine your rights or copyright.

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Lulu only makes money if you do. Our revenue comes from a small commission on the profits of each item sold.

As a creator, you set the amount of Creator Revenue on the items you publish. The Lulu commission is 25% of the Creator Revenue you set (or 19¢, whichever is greater). So, the Lulu commission equals 20% of the total profit of each item sold.

For example, if your Creator Revenue is $4.00, we add a $1.00 Lulu commission. The total profit from the item is $5.00. $1.00 is 25% of $4.00 (your Creator Revenue) and 20% of $5.00 (the total profit). This leaves 80% of the total profit to you, the creator. (In traditional publishing, it's rare for an author to see even 20% of the total markup.)

We support the free and open exchange of information, so we also waive our commission if you decide not to get a Creator Revenue. The selling price of your printed book, calendar, CD or DVD will be its production cost only; download versions are free.

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Project status level offered during the publishing process provide control over who can see and buy the work. See more about Status levels in What does each status in the Project List mean?

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Lulu offers two fee-based distribution options that will send your book through our unique network in the global marketplace. This network reaches online retailers including Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Once you have published your book on Lulu, you will be given the option to purchase one of these mutually-exclusive services for your book. For more information, see the Distribution FAQ.

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Lulu offers Published By Lulu Distribution Service for $99.95 and Published By You Distribution Service for $99.95. For all the details see the Distribution FAQ.

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There is no requirement to purchase a book, CD or DVD, and no minimum order. Customers make their own purchases, or you can purchase the copies you need and distribute them yourself. We strongly urge those who publish through us to purchase a copy of their work to proof it before purchasing multiple copies.

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Many small publishers use Lulu. Advantages of using Lulu include the competitive cost of professional printing in small quantities, order fulfillment and royalty tracking, a free storefront of your own, access to online bookstores, and great search engine visibility for your products. Lulu's Services Marketplace even gives you a venue for offering publishing, editing, or illustrating services to other Lulu members.

We require everyone who publishes through us to have the legal right to the material. This might require model releases in addition to copyrights and permissions.

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Lulu does not allow fan fiction.

Fan fiction, also known as "FanFic," is any work based on another creator's story, idea, or character. Lulu is a strong supporter of copyrights and does not allow fan fiction because FanFic authors generally do not have permission from the original author. The Stanford Center for Internet & Society maintains a FanFic FAQ that explains many of the copyright and trademark issues surrounding Fan Fiction.

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Lulu doesn't restrict the marketing of your work, but other companies may do so. Make sure you understand the terms and conditions of all the businesses you deal with. We urge authors to take advantage of all the sales venues available to them and to share their successes with us and with other authors.

If you have purchased Published by Lulu distribution, you may not use your ISBN with another publisher.

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Our support forums are the best place to get help. In the forums you can interact with Lulu support staff as well as with other members of the Lulu community.

• When you post to the support forums, give your posts a subject describing your problem, such as "How do I use Buy Now buttons?" or "My document won't convert." This makes it easier for others to provide and use the information you receive in response to your inquiry.
• Keep your language and your subject matter suitable for all age groups and people of all comfort levels.
• Please stay on the topic and be civil.
• Inappropriate messages will be moved or deleted.
• For details, see our Posting Policies>.
• You may also contact support.

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If you submit an e-mail request to Lulu and you don't receive an auto-response acknowledging receipt of your request, your system is probably blocking emails from Lulu.

There are several reasons your system may block Lulu e-mails. Your ISP may be blocking them, your system or networking firewall may have Lulu.com blacklisted, or the Lulu emails may be identified as spam. Please check your email application and ISP representative to find out why you are not receiving our emails.

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Lulu does not offer customer support by phone.

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