Lulu and CC

Say what? Well, Lulu.com is a site for self-publishers, and, in its own estimation, is currently the world's biggest print-on-demand service for books. And CC is shorthand for Creative Commons, which is an outfit doing some of the most clear-headed and valuable thinking about copyright issues. (This blog, for instance, is published under a CC licence, and if you scroll down until you reach the bottom of the right-hand column, and then click on the link which says Creative Commons licence, you can read all about it.)

CC has a blog, and the blog currently offers an interview with Stephen Fraser of Lulu. It provides a handy overview of what Lulu offers, and I for one learnt a few things from it.

First, it seems that you can create something via Lulu, such as an ebook, and publish it free. Now that I find interesting.

Why? Well, because oddly enough I've come to the conclusion that for some of my stuff it's almost a waste of time going to all the trouble (and expense) of preparing a print version, when the profit is negligible. Far easier, much quicker, and more effective, I've decided, is to give it away in ebook form.

Last year I published On the Survival of Rats in the Slush Pile as a freebie, and have no regrets. The object really is to find readers, and I'm likely to find more readers with free stuff than with something that costs £10. So that's one new thing I've learnt about Lulu. I don't suppose that using Lulu as a distributor is going to create vast interest, even with free stuff, and probably there are other web sites which offer a similar facility, but it's something to bear in mind.

Another useful development is that, as from this month, anything ordered from Lulu from an address in Europe will actually be printed and shipped from Europe.

By the way, Lulu can also be used to publish music, video, images, and software.

I have noticed that there are people who are deeply suspicious of Lulu. Well, by all means read the small print. And remember that they are a profit-making organisation. But it looks like a useful service to me.