The traditional publishing world has been playing catch up to an ever-expanding world self-publishers. These traditional publishers are quite dramatic in their reach, and have really mushroomed in terms of their popularity.
This is partially due to the expansion of the internet, with companies able to invite book submissions from around the world for a fee – with guaranteed publication, in an age when traditional publishers don’t readily accept submissions. This has meant that there are a significant amount of very high quality books that aren’t even being read or considered for publication by traditional publishers – and therefore, self-publishing has stepped in to fill the gap.
Self-publishing is also considered fairer by many struggling authors, as they often believe that there are inconsistencies within the way that traditional publishers choose and assess books that are to be published. Self-publishing, as it is controlled by the author, gives each piece of work a fair chance – its sink or swim and you don’t have to ‘get in’ with the publishers before being considered.
But that’s enough background information; let’s compare the services that are available. There are many self-publishing options open to authors. CafePress, iUniverse, and Blurb to name a few – but two very notable ones are FriesenPress and Lulu. So how do their services differ?
Lulu Publishing
Lulu’s fees are very competitive, but it does have two very distinct levels of service. The first option is simply publishing. It’s done in a very matter of fact process online, sort of like building your own website using a web publishing service or using a website to send a customized birthday card to somebody. This is good, but it really is little more than a tokenistic offering to people who don’t actually want to sell books or be professional writers.
It’s quite a good service, self-publishing with Lulu, but it all feels a bit formulaic. You choose your paper size, upload your file and design your cover in a very mechanical process. It all feels a bit like you’re choosing something on Amazon and just clicking ‘Go To Checkout’ – it doesn’t really feel like Lulu is really involved when your using this option.
Having said that, if you wanted to simply publish a few copies of a photo album then you could find this option quite useful. But it’s not really for ambitious authors, you would definitely need a little more of the kind of help that a traditional publishers would offer – things like editing, feedback and marketing – in order to really create a legitimate book. Things like cost might play a role in people choosing this method of publication, after all they’re not called struggling writers for nothing, and Lulu currently offer a free eBook publishing service – which is a real plus.
So it’s not a bad part of Lulu, but it’s only really useful if you want to publish your mom’s recipes as a gift for her birthday or make a yearbook for your high school – it’s not really geared to professional writers.
This is where the next part of Lulu comes into play – their services. You might think that the publishing side of Lulu is a little limited, and it is if you really want to have an attempt at making writing your career and getting some income.
The services side of Lulu is where it really comes into its own. This is where you’ll get expert help and guidance, for a price, before publishing your book. Things like cover design, editing, formatting and publicity services are covered with these services. It’s a full service provided by professionals, and it’s great if you can afford it.
The prices are quite steep, depending on the packages you go for. For example, their ‘Laureate’ package costs a staggering $4949. More than most struggling authors could spare. This package is their prime one though; it’s the luxury option with all the trimmings. It includes their premium cover design service, their ultimate formatting service, 25 hardcovers and 100 paperbacks – not to mention ISBN listings and ePublication.
There are other offers too, but the service levels drop off quite dramatically if you go for their ‘Masterpiece’ (priced at $1649) or their ‘Bestseller’ (priced at $729) packages. The cheapest package has the rather unappealingly titled ‘Basic’ cover design service which is actually template based – so your design isn’t going to be as distinct or unique as you might hope. The ‘Masterpiece’ package only includes ePub conversion and phone support as the extras that differentiate it from the ‘Bestseller’ package – and it seems a bit of a leap in price for only those two services, although it’s worth noting that you would get the ‘Premium’ cover design and ‘Ultimate’ formatting service with this.
Lulu has quite a handy feature in that you can actually purchase individual aspects of their service ‘A La Carte’ as opposed to getting a package. But it seems unlikely that you will have an outstanding book and amazing marketing services lined up and all you need is a cover design – so most people will need to go for a package.
Overall, it’s a very comprehensive service – and it does give your book a good chance, but you’d think that paying close to $5000 would achieve that anyway and the drop off in service levels once you work your way down the price range to their lower packages is a bit off-putting. They do also offer a consultation service if you have any questions, and you can register for book fairs too. If you’ve got the cash, it’s certainly a worthy option to go for.
FriesenPress
The self-publishers FriesenPress offer a solution to any budding writer wondering how to publish a book. It’s a similar sort of service to Lulu, obviously, but it’s actually quite different when you compare the two side by side. The first thing to notice when you visit their site is the striking difference in design. There is much less of a visual bombardment of options than there is with Lulu – it’s actually quite simple and streamlined by comparison.
As for the service, there aren’t the two sides of the service that Lulu has. FriesenPress don’t do the sort of publishing that involves you uploading your book and doing pretty much all the work yourself. FriesenPress feels a lot more in tune with the ambitions of professional authors. If you want to publish a cookbook, you can – but it’s more about selling the book as opposed to sending away for a bound copy of your mom’s recipes for her birthday.
The types of book they offer to publish are very similar to Lulu, but the options to publish them are a bit broader. Whereas Lulu has separate sections for cookbooks, photo books calendars or eBooks FriesenPress has simpler sections like fiction, non-fiction, poetry, eBooks, as well as color and children’s books. The whole thing feels professional, but there’s no sense in making a judgment unless we compare the packages.
So, let’s assume that like the majority of people looking to self-publish you are looking to publish a novel. You have a total of four different packages to choose from. They are ‘Niche Market – Starter’, ‘Mass Market – Essentials’, ‘Mass Market – Best Seller’ and ‘All Inclusive – Bestseller’. The ‘All Inclusive – Best Seller’ is the luxury option, if one could describe it in such a way. It’s priced at $2499. Not bad when compared to Lulu’s luxury package.
You get quite a lot for your money too. You get paperback and hardback publishing options, professional copyediting, book distribution features including Kindle and PDF eBook distribution, book promotion features on Amazon and Google Books as well as a lot of book promotion materials like posters or bookmarks.
The service levels for the cheaper packages don’t seem to have quite the same drop off as Lulu does either. Whereas the cheapest option on Lulu is essentially just basic publication, the FriesenPress package offers book promotion features such as an Amazon listing with a ‘Look Inside’ option and is priced at $599. It does seem that the ‘All Inclusive – Best Seller’ package would be the most effective chance for your book, but unlike Lulu you get the impression that it would be more worthwhile to go for the cheaper option with FriesenPress because of these additional features, and the lower price.
They also offer some appealing marketing bundles separately; they are called ‘Social Media’, ‘Book Seller’, ‘Premium Press’ and ‘Competitive Edge’. FriesenPress do offer an a la carte style of buying the individual services too, but it’s not as simple to get as Lulu is – you have to fill out a service order form as opposed to simply adding each service to your cart as is it is done in Lulu.
Overall, the various packages seem to each have a good value. Lulu definitely does have value too, but it’s hard to see their most basic package making a real impact for a struggling author. It’s a shame, but Lulu’s two levels of cover design really seem to dilute the package, whereas with Friesen it is the same level even with most expensive package. It’s also difficult to overlook the two levels of formatting with Lulu, formatting for books should be merely layout – but if you are publishing a book with lots of pictures then it’s easier to see the value in Lulu’s ‘Ultimate’ formatting service.
It’s fair to say that it really depends on what you want, if you want to publish something quickly then Lulu’s publishing services are a great choice. It could be considered good value too. For professional authors the publishing services leave a little bit to be desired, and not just in terms of price. It’s a bit puzzling as to why they are running these two sides of the business at all, but it’s probably wise by their logic as they cater to the casual author looking to provide a wedding photo book or yearbook as well as the aspiring professional authors.
FriesenPress doesn’t cater to the casual author; it’s very much geared towards professionals. Because of this, it does seem like a more viable choice for self-publication of a book that could well make an impact on your writing career. It’s cheaper, but you get many of the same services. You could argue that their influence is lesser than that of Lulu, and you might be right, but influence alone doesn’t sell books – it’s good quality services too.
So what do you do? Go for the company dedicated to only publishing for aspiring professional authors, or go for the one that caters for professionals and the casual audience. It’s a tough one, but it’s fair to say that Lulu’s lack of extensive marketing services lets it down. They don’t have that depth and you wonder just how much they are actually worth. It’s also fair to say that catering to the casual audience dilutes the service; you really want your self-publishers to have a defined level of service and a distinct audience that they cater to.
Overall, many of the a la carte services seem like a big waste of money – so you’ve got to compare the packages. Because of the smaller price and additional features of FriesenPress it seems a lot more suited to authors. But it does depend on what you want, not to mention how much money you have, so there’s no clear advantage in either service. I suppose aspiring authors should weigh up the options themselves – but either way, they are both great ways of getting your work out there and realizing your dream of becoming a published writer.
