The only advantage I can really see with “By You” through Lulu is that at that point the ISBN belongs to you (which seems like a pretty big advantage to me.)

Now… off to figure out what makes ISBNs so darned special… thanks to the last poster who may not have changed my mind about getting one (after all, POD is rocking the apple cart enough in the publishing field) but has definitely made me want to investigate.

~Helen

Since Smashwords only does e-books, I will have to go with someone else for p-books. After reading this article, my leaning is towards Createspace. Any other viable options?

I have a short novel, nearly completed. Depending on how my e-book goes, will determine how I market this book.

“Have we all gone mad? I don’t know about most of you, but I initially signed up with Lulu to have printed copies of MY literary creation in the form of a book. I don’t want my printer to be my business partner, my publisher, my content adviser nor accountant for what’s inside or on the cover of what I created.

Here is what CreateSpace said, in an email, in answer to my question about printing a cover without the ISBN.
” Thank you for contacting CreateSpace in regard to the barcode we place on all of our books. The manufacturing-related barcode and additional information found on the last page within books serves as identifiers and are added as part of our printing process. For these reasons, we do not remove this barcode from our books. I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this information may present. ”

Notice that the reply says “our books”. By placing that ISBN on the book, they now consider it theirs – not mine.

ISBN is nothing short of a “Big Brother” type of control. We don’t need an ISBN if we just want to hold what we’ve written in the form of a book. I also am amazed that hundreds, even thousands of independent writers have just rolled over and bought into the ISBN scam.

Why is it that only one place in the entire US is the only place to get an ISBN, should you want one? ( Remember back when Network Solutions was the ONLY place you could register an Internet Domain name? ) This is clearly a monopoly and a violation of anti-trust laws. The $275 that Bowker charges for 10 ISBN (plus that annual fee, don’t forget) is nothing short of extortion.
ISBN’s in Canada (and every other country) are FREE.

And why is it that Lulu can sell me a single ISBN for less than I can buy one myself? How is Lulu (and CreateSpace, for that matter) able to give me an ISBN for free, just for giving them the publishing rights? What benefit is that to me as a writer? Unless I WANT them to handle the marketing. And, how many of you, selling you books through Lulu and CreateSpace, are making the kind of money that you think an author should? Ready to retire, are you?

Those who have signed up on CreateSpace to have books sold on Amazon have also given rights to CS to sell those book to other sellers for less than what it costs you to print it. So, when you see your book for sale on Amazon, for $15, you will also see it listed for $11 by other sellers, effectively cutting you out of receiving any royalty. Is that what you signed up for, when you had your book printed? I doubt it.

I print copies of what I write mainly as inspiration, so I can hold what I’ve done in book form. I also give copies away to friends and family. I have little interest in trying to become a publisher-marketer-sales agent- etc., nor do I have delusions of selling thousands of copies of my book on Lulu, or Amazon.

All I want is a printed copy of my book – period; with my cover design, no barcode, and no ISBN. And, so far, Lulu still offers the option of printing a cover without the barcode – Hooray for Lulu.

However, for those of you who do want an ISBN, you should be up in arms, protesting, writing your senators and representatives, to change the ISBN acquisition process and the outrageous costs associated with it

Or, you can continue being sheep, or lemmings, and have your creation gently plucked from your grasp by a 13 digit number.

The original poster said they do not want a barcode.
Many of us don’t.

Bring the old cover app back or at least give us a choice.
Most people on this forum don’t realize that once an ISBN is attached to their book ( whether here on Lulu, or CreateSpace, or wherever ) you are stuck with that ISBN, unless you change the title and re-publish it.
Also, and maybe more importantly, many REAL book publishers, not Print On Demand houses posing as publishers, won’t touch a book that already has an ISBN because of the hassle in making the changes to the original needed for them to effectively market it.

I use Lulu for printing, not because I want a publishing agent, or someone else to have my distribution rights.

To the original poster -
“**The barcodes added to Publisher Grade and Standard books are for the manufacturing process.”
This is misleading crap. As soon as Lulu or any other printer puts that code on your book, they will forever be listed as the publisher. Read the terms and conditions. It has nothing to do with the manufacturing process. We’ve all had books printed by Lulu in years past with no barcode. It has everything to do with the publishing-distribution rights. Besides, if we as writers want to print a book for ourselves, to keep, give away or sell through our own channels, why does it need a n ISBN or even a barcode for that matter? I have sold some of the books I’ve created in area stores. None – let me repeat, NONE of those stores ever refused to sell my book because it didn’t have a barcode. These stores have other things in their stock, like gifts, jewelry, musical instruments, that do not have an ISBN or a barcode, that they have no trouble selling. Some items even have a handwritten price tag.
Both the ISBN and bar code are unnecessary, unless you specifically want your printer, be it Lulu or whoever, to also be your publisher. All of you “power posters” should know better. As writers, we should all look for a printer who will print our books the way we want them printed.”

Because Lulu.com does not offer wholesale pricing to the retail trade, they have essentially sabotaged the success of any and all books they publish since they are essentially the sole distributor, and one that is not highly regarding in the bookseller community.

In addition to charging authors to self-publish their books, they restrict the sales of these publications by failing to recognize the standard operating procedures long utilized by traditional publishing houses, i.e., offering their books at a wholesale price through all the major book distributors, and selling directly to specialty retailers at that same traditional wholesale pricing.

Additionally, from talking with authors who have gone the self-publishing route through Lulu.com, none to date have been happy with sales realized. Also, every author with whom I’ve spoken has been very dissatisfied with the so-called “marketing help” Lulu promises to deliver, as in actuality that translates to “we’ll give you some suggestions, and then you go do your own advertising.”

Another flaw in the Lulu scheme owing to their refusal to offer wholesale pricing to retailers, is that in most cases amazon.com, the world’s largest bookseller, will not list book published by Lulu.com, thereby depriving the author of having his/her book made known to the maximum number of potential book buyers – which translates directly into lack of sales – which, by the way, is the number one complaint I hear from Lulu.com published authors.

The shortcoming of Lulu’s self-distribution system thus virtually guarantees the near anonymity of the very book these aspiring authors paid good money to have printed.

The recommendation here is for aspiring would-be authors to either personally type their manuscripts in a program such as Adobe Illustrator or Adobe PageMaker, or pay a professional or semi-professional computer savvy typist/editor to do so, and then take the finished product on a CD to any reputable local printer. You will generally find a local printing company is equipped to assist you with such things as formatting, inserting graphics, etc., and in must cases provide you with a better price to produce the final printed books. As long as you have gone through the extremely simple process of obtaining an ISBN number through R. R. Bowker, or any number of other official ISBN issuers, you will be able to sell your books directly to wholesale distributors, directly to customers acquired through your own advertising, large retailers such as Barnes & Noble and Amazon, but most importantly you will be able to establish and control your own pricing at every level by eliminating the unnecessary middlemen such as Lulu.com and all the other huckster vanity presses who prey upon a first time author’s lack of knowledge of the industry.

A second point: Someone mentioned wanting help editing a book (and possibly formatting it) — I know a great editor they can contact if interested. Get in touch with me and I’ll give you her contact info.

My own paperback novel was a breeze in Lulu, but I ran into many technical problems that required online assistance from Lulu’s help to resolve. (I’m a computer science professor that teaches web site design, which I mention only to point out this was not user error: I was using their service correctly, but it was not responding in an expected way).

Now that they do not have online help, I don’t want to try to publish anything else with them. Which is why I was thinking of switching to CreateSpace just to test them out.