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At Lulu, set the creator revenue for your own work in the Pricing & Creator Revenue step of the Publishing wizard.

Instead of charging you for publishing services, Lulu earns a 20% commission on each item sold. (For details, see How is the Lulu commission calculated?)

The price of your book is the Production Cost + Creator Revenue + Lulu Commission. (Shipping is extra.)

• Print products have production costs. The selling price reflects the production cost, your creator revenue and the Lulu commission.
• Downloads have no production costs. Your creator revenue is 80% of the selling price.

When you enter a creator revenue in the Publishing wizard, we calculate and display the Lulu commission and price fields. When the Pricing & Creator Revenue section first displays in Step 5, the amounts shown are the production costs for each distribution format (print or download).

• Enter a creator revenue amount and let Lulu calculate the selling prices.
• Enter a selling price for one format and Lulu calculates your creator revenue and the other selling price.
• Enter 0 (zero) in the Your Creator Revenue field to reset the amounts back to production costs.

NOTE: If you decide to purchase a distribution service after completing the publishing process, you will also set a retail price for your book. You will still be able to sell your book through Lulu, at the price you set here. For more information about retail prices, see How do I set the retail price of my book? and examine this retail pricing example.

If you decide to publish your title without a creator revenue, Lulu charges no commission and the production cost of your title is the selling price.

For downloads without creator revenue, the content is free.

Lulu charges only the production cost and shipping if you order your own work.

Last updated: 2008-09-30 07:15:13 | Back to top

Our commission is 25% of the creator revenue (or 19¢, whichever is greater) that you, the creator, set for the items you publish. This provides a commission for Lulu that is equal to 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.

Last updated: 2008-09-30 07:15:04 | Back to top

Use any of three currencies to price your content: euros (€), pounds sterling (£), or dollars ($).

Modify your currency preference in the My Account section of your My Lulu page. Select a currency from the dropdown menu.

If you opt to receive your Creator Revenue payments by Paypal, we pay you in your currency of choice. (We issue paper checks only in US dollars.)

Last updated: 2008-09-30 07:15:13 | Back to top

You may order one or more copies of your work when you have assigned an "Available only to me (Published)" availability status to it. Although you can view and purchase your own work that has this status, the work is not offered to the Lulu public for purchase or preview. For more details, see What does each status in the Project List mean?

Last updated: 2008-09-30 07:14:45 | Back to top

Books can be available in one or both formats (published book and downloadable file). Check the box in front of each format you would like to offer. You cannot complete the publishing process until at least one box is checked.

Last updated: 2008-09-30 07:14:45 | Back to top

You may set one of a variety of Intellectual Property licenses for your work. Before you can assign a license, your project availability status must be set to anything other than "Available only to me" (Private).

Set the license from the fifth step of the Publish wizard, Price & License. Click the >Set License< button. Click on the linked name of any of the default licenses to learn more about it.

Note: Because the license tells the buyer or user how he or she can use your work, your selection becomes fixed at publication. You can change the license after publication by creating a new revision. See How do I revise my published book... for more information.

Available licenses are as follows.

Standard Copyright License

All of your rights under copyright law apply to the work.

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0

People are may copy, alter, and distribute your work as long as you are given credit and the license remains attached to the copy.

GNU Free Documentation License

This license is similar in scope, but works under this license may be used for commercial purposes.

Creative Commons Public Domain

Reserves the work for use by the public.

Lulu offers these licenses as defaults because they are the most popular options for licensing non-software content on the Web. To use one of these licenses, click on its radio button.If none of the default options meets your needs, you can choose from a wider selection by clicking the >More Licenses< button located above the list of license options, or you can specify your own license by clicking the >Use My Own License< button.

When you are satisfied with your selection, click the >Review Project< button. (You may reset your project availability status to private at the review window, if you aren't ready to make your work available.)

Last updated: 2008-09-30 07:14:50 | Back to top

Licenses provide legal protection for the work produced by authors, artists, and other creators. Laws vary among countries and Lulu is not in a position to determine the specifics of the intellectual property regulations in your country. However, various international treaties and agreements regulate the treatment of intellectual property.

Here are links to a variety of sources that discuss intellectual property.

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

• Collection of National Copyright Laws
• Universal Copyright Convention
• Copyright (in general)

Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (World Intellectual Property Organization)

United States Copyright Office

• Copyright Office Basics
• International Copyright

Lulu creators may choose from a variety of licensing schemes, including the following.

• GNU General Public License
• Creative Commons alternative copyright (Legal Concepts discussion)

Lulu also allows its creators to design a personalized license. The University of Arizona Library provides the Alternative Publishing & Copyright Agreements page, containing links to a variety of agreements you may find helpful.

Last updated: 2008-09-30 07:15:04 | Back to top

Lulu offers a range of Creative Commons licenses and GNU licenses; access these options through the >More Licenses< button. For a full explanation of these licenses, see the following websites.

• Creative Commons Licenses
• GNU Licenses

Last updated: 2008-09-30 07:15:04 | Back to top

In the Price & License step of the publishing wizard, you have the opportunity to develop a customized license. Click the >Use My Own License< button to display a Web form where you specify the name, URL and attributes of the license you wish to use.

The options you choose on this form must match the terms of your license, and are considered part of your license. Be aware that the options selected in your form override the text of your license.

You may also use another Lulu's license. If you enter the URL of a license that another Lulu user has already chosen, the information that has already been entered (title and attributes) replaces the information you submit.

Last updated: 2008-09-30 07:15:11 | Back to top