How Much Does it Cost to Publish a Book Through Lulu?
Posted on September 17, 2007
Filed Under Self-Publishing with Lulu |
Lulu markets itself as the publisher who publishes for free. That’s not quite true because they want you to order a proof of your book before you make it available to the public. A loyal reader wanted to know just exactly how much will it cost to publish through Lulu. The answer is: It varies.
To publish a book with no distribution service, editing the manuscript yourself, and designing the book will cost you between $10 and $40, depending upon the size (page count and book measurement) of your book and whether you want color illustrations in your interior. The proof of God’s Last Twilight cost me $9.49 (including shipping) for 120 pages, black and white with a color cover.
Published by You
Distribution fee –>$50.00
Editing ———–>$200 - $1,700 (figure ranges from Lulu service providers)
DIY Book Design–>Free
Book Designer —->$90 - $5,000 (figures taken from Lulu and professional book designers online)
Published by Lulu
Distribution fee –>$100.00
Add the rest from the table above.
Back in June, I wrote a post called Hiring a Book Designer, which contained a listing of book designers that I thought were good as far as design capability and price. I recommend that you visit the Preditors & Editors’ Editing Services page to find a listing of editors they recommend.
Get some quotes from editors and book designers. Add their quote to your cost sheet. Don’t forget to add the costs of marketing to your cost sheet as well.
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5 Responses to “How Much Does it Cost to Publish a Book Through Lulu?”
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Just one question, Deborah. Do those fees include the ISBN number too? For some reason I was under the impression that it cost about $149 to get that. Am I wrong?
The Distribution fee includes the ISBN number as well as getting your book distributed to major online bookstores worldwide. That makes the Published by You a steal.
Wow! That is good!
I guess by the time I’m ready, it would have gone up … a lot! *sigh*
Just when did the word ‘Free’ lose its meaning?
I have a good book ready to publish but my publisher died … so did his business … and I have no money to publish on my own so that I guess I’m a sucker in the market for a ‘free’ publisher … only apparently ‘free’ has a different meaning to Lulu.
I’m sorry to hear about your publisher. I agree that Lulu’s term of the word ‘free’ is misleading. Good luck.