Lulu.com Proof

[Keith Senkowski]

Hi,

I just received my proof copy from Lulu.com and I am very pleased with how it turned out.  The book is 120 pages perfect bound and I was a little worried about the binding, but it came out well.  I did learn a few things though for my next book which I will print through Lulu.com as well.

1) Rendered art prints darker than I was expecting.
2) Solid black areas do not suffer as much as I thought they would.
3) Create a larger margin in the inside edge of the pages and a smaller margin on the outside edge.
4) 20% opacity is perfect for imagery you want text supperimposed with text.
5) The price is definately right (plus I got free shipping by placing my order in June) and their customer service is excellent.

Keith

[Andy Kitkowski]

Excellent to hear, Keith!

On this tip:

4) 20% opacity is perfect for imagery you want text supperimposed with text.

Can you perhaps scan a page with this and post it online somewhere?  I regularly use superimposing of pics in various writing and publishing projects I work on, but I regularly use different levels of opacity for different pics, styles, impacts, etc.

Thanks for the news!

[Keith Senkowski]

Sure.  I posted a hi-res jpeg of one of the pages.  You should download it to your desktop.

http://www.bobgoat.com/images/twentypercent.jpg">20%

Keith

[Kirk Mitchell]

Cool. A couple of questions.

How much did publishing with Lulu cost?

Are these editing tips ones that you do yourself when you send them the PDF? Or do you tell them what you want? I don't know all that much about publishing so please exuse my ignorance.

Kirk

[Ben O'Neal]

Regarding your #1, that would be due to the CMYK process. I'm assuming you sent them a CMYK pdf, and not an RGB one, so the only thing you need to do is use some sort of monitor colour adjustment program like the one that comes with adobe photoshop to tweak your monitor to output something similar to the final print CMYK. Unfortunately, you'll need to either do a lot of hand-tweaking while comparing the printed book to your screen, or find out the exact printer settings lulu use to do it that way.

But once your monitor's colour settings are fine, you just have to tweak your original art until the colours are exactly what you want. Then the printed version should look pretty much exactly like what you see on your screen.

Regarding your #2, yeah, black ink is usually done with a seperate process (same with white ink), so that's why true-type fonts turn out so crystal clear and solid compared to other colours. I'd actually be surprised if there was anything at all wrong with your solid black areas.

Regarding #3, are you talking compared to what you already had? Or in absolutes? Cos I think aesthetically, a larger outside margin works best. Also, I've noticed the AD&D 3e rulebooks have an inside margin of exactly 11mm (right to the part where the paper meets the binding), and an outside margin of 25mm (top and bottom are something like 17mm I think).

I too, would be very interested in knowing the price. And also, I'd be interested in knowing if they offer hard-cover, or just soft-cover books.

Thanks,
-Ben

[Clay]

Ravien,

The inside margin problem that was mentioned has to do with the fact that a considerable portion of your inside margin disappears into the binding.  It's supposed to be larger to compensate for this fact if you want the margins to appear equal.  Unfortunately I can't tell you what's a better margin to use.

The good news is that most DTP programs will adjust this margin automatically for you.

[Keith Senkowski]

Hi,

I'll start from the top and try to answer everything I can.

How much did publishing with Lulu cost?

Are these editing tips ones that you do yourself when you send them the PDF? Or do you tell them what you want? I don't know all that much about publishing so please exuse my ignorance.

It was rather cheap.  They way it works is $.02 per B&W page and $.15 per color page (this doesn't count the cover).  Depending upon the program you choose there is a variable cost from Lulu per book (non ISBN, or ISBN).  An important note about the printing, the difference in costs between the printing of the books is because of the different printers, not the actual plans.

Lulu Print Costs
$4.53 setup fee (cover, binding, etc) + page count cost

Expanded Channels (no color printing)
$1.56 setup fee (cover, binding, etc) + page count cost

You set your own royalties then and there is a nifty calculator to figure out what the MSRP is for the ISBN version of the book.

As far as the the editing tips, they are things to be made aware of when using a service like Lulu.

Ravien

Regarding #1, I think it is mostly due to the printing process.  The rendered art was interior black and white and was done on the same machine as the cover, which came out just right.

Regarding #2, I noticed when I purchased POD products from other venders that large solid black areas tend to wash out in spots.  It looks  similar to the effect you get when you use ink on watercolor paper and it dries thin.  I was pleased to see that there wasn't too much of that considering I did most of the art myself and I work in high http://www.bobgoat.com/products/cos/chapter_breaks.php">contrast black and white.

Regarding #3, This was my snafu.  I failed to compensate enough for the binding.  I would have liked a slightly larger margin on the inside.

Hope this helps
Keith

[philreed]

I looked over the site and have one question you may be able to answer.

They mention that they offer 6" x 9" and 8.5" x 11" books but there's only one set of prices. Is pricing the same no matter the size of the book?

[Keith Senkowski]

Hi,

Yeah, the pricing is the same.  I thought it a little odd, but that is what my sales rep told me.

Oh, one other thing I forgot to add, they discount the price of the purchase when you buuy in bulk.  I bought 100 copies for conventions, local sales and review comps and the discount was a dollar off per book.  I also got free shipping, but that was because I purchsed in the month of June while they were having a deal.

Keith