Lulu Blog

The presents have all been unwrapped, the ball has dropped, the holiday season has come and gone again. As quick as it was, you probably have a few hundred photos that captured all those precious little moments from the past few weeks. What is the point if no one sees them, though?! A picture is worth a thousand words, but not if it is doomed to sit in your camera until next year! So what do you do with all of them? Make an awesome Lulu photo book and you can be done with next year’s holiday gifts before anyone else has even thought of them. But how do you make a photo book so outstanding that your family and friends wish they’d thought of it?

Size Matters

The Lulu Studio(TM) makes it super easy to upload your photos from your computer and drag them into a photo book. Before you jump in, take a look at the kinds of photos you are planning to use. Are they mostly horizontal or vertical shots? Landscapes or close-ups? The Lulu Studio (TM) lets you choose from 8 different sizes of books from 3.75×2.5” to 8.5”x11”. If you are showing off wide shots of your family together or how your whole house looked decorated, you probably don’t want to try to cram those photos into a square 8.5”x8.5” book because your images will get cut off. Conversely, a square book is great for close ups of food, people or your tree. Picking the right size book for your photos can make all the difference.

 

September 17th through the 20th was a lively time to be in Raleigh, NC.  Over the course of four days, downtown Raleigh hosted the highly anticipated (by those “in the know”) SparkCon event.  Restaurants, shops, and even the streets were transformed into havens for the artistically inclined and visitors gained a real understanding of the breadth of cultural diversity Raleigh has to offer.

Now in its fourth year, SparkCon had the largest turnout to date this year.  Thousands of attendees spread out over Fayetteville and Hargett Street, which were closed to any traffic.  The streets were filled with people giving mass dance lessons, artists spraying graffiti on designated walls, and children drawing chalk art.  Tents blanketed most of Hargett Street, housing an eclectic bazaar which featured handmade items from stores throughout the city.  Each storefront and building put their normal business on hold in order to host artistic and insightful events such as “fashionSpark” at The Foundation, or “filmSpark” at Art Space.

Lulu sponsored “poetrySpark,” which was held in the upstairs lounge of The Morning Times coffee shop.  At any given moment there was a minimum of 60 people, and a maximum of what seemed like 200 people out to enjoy and enrich themselves with poetry from well-known authors such as Carolyn Beard Whitlow, Professor of English at Guilford College in Greensboro, as well as from open-mic poets that happened to stop by.  Saturday evening started with live music from local band Lizh Crew – a soulful rock/pop act that really set the mood for the readers and listeners.  At one point more chairs had to be brought in!

Lulu, which began as a grassroots company, is thrilled to be able to be a part of something that inspires creativity in the community.  It was such an honor to be able to participate and have a presence at the poetrySpark and we hope we get to do it again.  Lulu will be publishing a collection of poetry read throughout poetrySpark later this year.

 

At Lulu we are always thrilled to hear when anyone is interested in writing and publishing. Gearing up to start your own publishing venture is no minor feat though. For many, publishing is a huge decision that can seem overwhelming. We work hard to make the publishing process as smooth as possible so you can excel no matter what your publishing goals may be. We are always trying to grow and improve while continuously engaging the community we started in. That said, I think it would be beneficial to anyone seeking Lulu out to provide explanations to some of the questions and comments we have encountered during our daily customer service and community interactions. The goal is to address aspects of Lulu that may be unclear at first while answering why we do or don’t do certain things, and ultimately: “Why Lulu?”

First, I would like to address a question I get a lot: “could you send me a sample of a book?” I totally understand where people are coming from on this one. You are investing your time and money into something new and different and you want to make sure it is worth it. So much of the fun of having a book published is getting it out into the world and frankly…bragging about it to your friends! What you make has to look great and be a good interpretation of what you are trying to convey to your readers.

Lulu is responding to the trends and needs of the digital age. Authors on Lulu have the option to sell their books as print or electronic download. The idea here is that the items on our website can be shared instantaneously without ever becoming physical content, much like the current digital music craze. Beyond that, Lulu functions as a print on demand company that produces only what you sell. No printing occurs within our building but with various global print partners. Printing on demand is great for both the environment and the author’s pocket because it means that without a minimum print run, you only have to pay for one sample instead of mass-produced stockpiles of books that take up expensive warehouse (or garage) space.

For photo books, the virtual Lulu Studio ™ actually does a really great job of letting you see your work every step of the way. The Studio ™ is free and there is nothing to install. You simply upload content straight from your computer and customize the layout. There is even a built in cost calculator that updates the manufacturing cost along with the changes you make to your content. If you are like me, you like to have an actual thing in your hands though. For regular books, you can buy your finished book at manufacturing cost or order a copy of a fellow author’s book similar to what you are trying to achieve. You’ll have your sample, and you’ll be making another Lulu author’s day in the process!

I hope this post and the ones that follow help to shed a little light onto the Lulu process. Please know that we are growing and learning right along with you to do something exceptional!