I was curious as to what the score was with this. I think LuLu is a great resource for people to self-publish work that might not otherwise get printed; however, what I'm slightly in the dark about are small press publishers who use the service.
As a writer you submit your poetry/novel, etc to one of these presses. They format the writing, maybe offer some edits, and then upload it into one of LuLu's templates. They add some artwork and then Bob's your uncle there is a book for sale (well, a facility which will print your book). It seems from reading the submission guidelines for some of these presses that as an author you either get a handful of contributor copies, or in some cases nothing. In return you get a varying level of quality with the artwork and your book on a website for people to buy.
So, what worth is there in this? Is this just a thinly disguised vanity publishing, or do you think there is actually some worth in these presses? As someone who invests hundreds of pounds of my own money in each book I produce, I question how highly we can regard a press who don't appear to put any real time or money into a book they publish.
Am I way off base with this? Can someone explain to me why you would go through a middleman to do what you could do on your own, and through doing so get any proceeds directly. I've had personal experience of someone appearing to accrue profits off of mine and others writing, while at the same time stating they can't afford to either pay or provide free copies to authors.
I'm not sure where I'm going with this, but in a week in which I've received beautiful books from Bospress, Blackheath Books, and Tangerine Press, I found myself questioning these other so-called small press operators.
As a writer you submit your poetry/novel, etc to one of these presses. They format the writing, maybe offer some edits, and then upload it into one of LuLu's templates. They add some artwork and then Bob's your uncle there is a book for sale (well, a facility which will print your book). It seems from reading the submission guidelines for some of these presses that as an author you either get a handful of contributor copies, or in some cases nothing. In return you get a varying level of quality with the artwork and your book on a website for people to buy.
So, what worth is there in this? Is this just a thinly disguised vanity publishing, or do you think there is actually some worth in these presses? As someone who invests hundreds of pounds of my own money in each book I produce, I question how highly we can regard a press who don't appear to put any real time or money into a book they publish.
Am I way off base with this? Can someone explain to me why you would go through a middleman to do what you could do on your own, and through doing so get any proceeds directly. I've had personal experience of someone appearing to accrue profits off of mine and others writing, while at the same time stating they can't afford to either pay or provide free copies to authors.
I'm not sure where I'm going with this, but in a week in which I've received beautiful books from Bospress, Blackheath Books, and Tangerine Press, I found myself questioning these other so-called small press operators.