Hi all,
Not sure if this is the correct section to ask this question. If not, moderators feel free to move this post.

Has anyone tried to self publish on lulu.com? I'm not so concerned about costs necessarily, but how well the printing quality is. Love to hear about other's experiences.
Ara

hey ara

i have done it and i'm quite happy with the results. the folks who have bought also think it's great, but remember, they're not critics. it's not the same quality as the pro photo books you buy from your fave photogs, but it sits with pride on my coffeetable along side the three inch thick "Inferno" by James Nachtwey.

i have heard rumours that their process will be upgraded to a higher resolution in the near future (it's currently 300dpi). you may want to hold off until then if you're concerned. i had a blast designing mine and when i got the first copy i had to sit for a moment.

hope this helps!

c.

Hi Chris, I just went there and found your book right away by searching your name. Cool. Too bad they don't offer more than one image in the preview. Have you sold many?

Murray

murray

i've sold six, not including mine. i actually got my first royalty cheque last week. i don't make much from it, it's about $5 US per book. i decided have a smaller profit and overall lower price in the hopes of sellling a couple more. i think i might be able to change the preview, add pages to it etc. i have control over all of that once i'm signed in. my book isn't that complicated, it's mostly just photos, a few pages at the start and an index and copyright message at the end.

c.

That's six more books than I've ever sold!

Murray

I have a couple of items from Lulu. It isn't really up to producing fine art images at the moment, though colour seems to be better than monochrome. If they are upgrading the resolution it should help. But the start-up cost is low - prepping the file and getting a proof or two - which makes it a good choice for a starter. $30 for a book that wouldn't otherwise exist at all is not a bad deal.

There was some discussion on Lulu and other services on the LF Forum a few months back at http://www.largeformatphotography.info/lfforum/topic/502702.html This discussion was aimed at quality rather than pure publish on demand services.

Chris, what's the paper like? From their web site,
Covers are 100# stock printed in 4-color, and we don't offer any choice of paper.
Since they appear to use only one kind of paper, I'm wondering what the quality is like. Paper that's good for text is not neccesarily good for images....

ken, the paper they use for the inside is 80# stock glossy. it's not too bad for photos, but yeah, not yer fine art super-duper print quality. for me, it's great. for someone who wants to seriously publish their book with the aim of having it listed and sold through amazon and other fine retailers, maybe not.

i say if you're wondering, make one up and get the proof in your hands. it doesn't cost you anything other than the cost of the book anf that's where you'll be able to make up your mind. for me, having something on the coffeetable makes me smile whenever i see it. if you're trying to compete with the Elliott Erwitt's of the photo book world, you're going to be disappointed.

hope that helps!

c.

When I have finished travelling I want to buy one of your books, Chris.

I want to for 2 reasons. First to support a fellow apug member whom I've met personally and to see what the quality is like. Oh yes, and because I like your images, Chris!

Kate

I ordered a book by Mike Johnston from lulu, and was pretty happy with it. Sure, photos aren't like those in Lenswork, but it's a great idea for self publishing without having to endure big $$ startup costs. I blogged Mike's book here:
http://randomphoto.blogspot.com/2006/03/good-book-fun-cameras.html

I ordered a book by Mike Johnston from lulu, and was pretty happy with it. Sure, photos aren't like those in Lenswork, but it's a great idea for self publishing without having to endure big $$ startup costs. I blogged Mike's book here:
http://randomphoto.blogspot.com/2006/03/good-book-fun-cameras.html

Hey, I like your blog!

I haven't, but I may do one this summer. As sort of a trial, who know, I might even sell a few.

Thanks for the responses. It's pretty much what I figured quality-wise, which isn't so bad. I mean, I'm no Avedon by any means, so I don't expect anyone to pay upwards of $75 a book for fine art quality. The great thing is that you have nothing to lose and, if anything, you have an impressive portfolio of your work in print to show people.

The one big thing I'm concerned about is the proofing process for color correction, etc. I figure you can buy one copy of your book and if you don't like the way the images look, you could always correct the files and send the file back. Am I right in thinking this?

As a side note from an experienced graphic designer: if you were to use lulu.com for monochrome images I would seriously consider turning your greyscale images into duotones first in Photoshop. Your images should have much more depth than if you only used black to print. After you convert them to duotones you should convert to RGB for printing (lulu doesn't recommend CMYK images... weird). I would think just black is going to give you a relatively flat image. Can anyone else comment/confirm this?
Ara

ara

i definitely did not convert to duotone, just to RGB. i found it just fine, but i'm no graphic designer. as a web designer/developer i think more in RGB anyway ;-) most of my book was monochrome images and i was very happy with the results.

in the lulu control panel you can make your publication private or published. i kept mine private until i got my proof. i was satisfied with it so i switched it to published. at that point it shows up in the directories and on your lulu homepage.

c.

This link has a review of online publishing :
http://tinyurl.com/caz9y

I got it from this thread on the LF forum
http://www.largeformatphotography.info/lfforum/topic/502918.html

Shared Ink seems to be the favorite. I checked it out but haven't used them yet. You can layout your own design if you don't want to use their templates.

I have used Lulu for two projects.

#1 was a gift to someone who has been a photographer for near 50 years and has been teaching photography her whole career. This past fall she had a large one person show. I and another of her students gathered work form allof her students and compiled a book that was presented opening night.

#2 was a calendar to raise funds for the Arts Center where the person from #1 and I teach photography.

I was pleased with the book, without any investment we were able to publish something of personal value. A few comments on the quality results, for the book:
- note that the printing is ony 300 dpi
- all photograph must be printed in RGB and B&W images have a tedency to look purplish under certain light
- although my monitor/scannner are calibrated the printed images were slightly darker than the orginal and the color images tended more towards green than red (so i suggest you order a proof copy to see if you need to make any adjustments)
- i would call the paper stock "medium weight" i thought it was acceptable, the cover stock is a bit light for my taste

Overall. think the project was a success everyone that participated has a bound book with their images and words.

I belive the calendars are printed on slightly heaver stock and my comments about color shift and overall density still apply. (I published the Spiral Bound version)

http://www.lulu.com/content/191637

What size are the pages?