I had the opportunity today to interview Keith Dixon author of the crime novel Altered Life. Keith has been using Lulu for a little over 3 years. In the process of putting his own work on Lulu he became familiar with the site and frequented the forums.

After I got familiar with Lulu I found myself on the forums a lot, answering questions from other newbies, and after a few months I became a 'Power Poster', so I have a fancy icon next to my name

While reading through Dixon's blog The Idle Writer I encountered the a term he used "beta-reader".

haha ... yes, I think - hope - I might have invented that term ...

Basically, I realised after my first book that I needed to have other people read the book before it was sent to professionals. I used to be a proof-reader professionally, so I'm pretty good at that ... but still the occasional typo can get through. But also, you need someone who doesn't know the story to tell you whether something is credible or not. So for my second book I asked 5 people if they would read it for me. Some were good on the typo and detail stuff. One lived in the city (Liverpool) where the book was set. Another couple read this kind of crime novel so knew the conventions of the genre ... so they all gave me useful feedback that I could incorporate in re-writes.

The idea of beta-readers, incidentally, is taken from the notion of beta-software, if you weren't aware ...

Seems like a logical step for a self-publisher.

Interestingly enough Keith isn't big on social networking tools for marketing. This is why:

Not really .. I have a Facebook and a Myspace page, and I looked at Twitter last week. They all seem to take more effort than they're worth, from my perspective

[...] I have a slideshow of my book on MySpace, but not much else. In fact, when I visit the pages of most writers who are pushing their books, it turns me off. I'd rather have a straightforward writer's web site. Look at Robert Crais' site, which is straight down the line.

Keith is one of the many self-publishers for which self-publishing is a step in the direction towards traditional publishing. We talked briefly about copy-right and publishing which led into the following dialogue as to why Keith isn't putting his second book on Lulu.

Well, publishers like to have 'First publication' rights, so I gather they can get sniffy about books already published. That's why I haven't put my second book on Lulu, just so it's not 'tainted' by self-publication. And there can be an issue for some if a book already has an ISBN, for instance. But many Lulu authors have reported that if a publisher sees a market for a book, its pre-publication on Lulu, or the existence of an ISBN, isn't going to be too difficult to get around.

One Lulu author was selling over 500 copies of his novel a month - he was snapped up and now has a three book deal and a movie deal for his book.

Keith made a valid point of what I've seen throughout my research and certainly in the last few weeks of it. That not everyone uses Lulu the same way.

Some almost see it as a 'right' to help them publish. They get very annoyed if something goes wrong, and start talking about it 'costing them money' ... but Lulu is largely a free service, to get your book published. You don't have to pay a bean if you don't want to, except to buy a draft copy of your finished book. If you put a royalty on your book, Lulu adds 25% of that royalty. But when you buy copies of your own book yourself, you don't pay your own royalty and Lulu doesn't add its 25%. Likewise if you don't actually put any royalty on to begin with. You just pay the manufacturing costs. I think there are many people who just don't see what a boon that is.

Then there are those who use Lulu as a printer, basically. They set themselves up as small publishers and either print their own books, or reprints, or put together anthologies ... and then print through Lulu.

Some, like me, have done it to see their books in printed form. Others have tried the commercial route but not managed to make it. Some are already successful in professional publishing but see Lulu as a way to 'top up' earnings by re-publishing their old work ... etc

And there are many who - usually non-fiction - have published something that a commercial publisher wouldn't publish because the market was allegedly too small, but there's enough to sell 2-300 books a month on Amazon, making a nice little profit.

Not every self-publisher is alike. There are certainly degrees of use existent on Lulu and other POD services. I apologize for quoting at length, but the clock is ticking.

Visit Keith's Storefront here.
Thanks again Keith.

Sometimes what you've been looking for has been hovering just under your nose. Or shows up just when you need it. While searching tirelessly for connections between my vague assumptions and real occurrences I returned to the Lulu Book Review to get a link I to another site. There I found their most recent post more helpful then the link (which I actually forgot about).

Marketing Tip Madness! features 50 marketing tips self-publishing authors. Some we've encountered, some more off the wall.

Example: #15 getting a book signing on location if your book is regional. #14 if its about animals, a pet store.

Some we've seen in the traditional publishing world... bookmarks (Anyone remember Harry Potter craze? They were all over the bookmarks).

Submitting your book to Tag My Book on Amazon (my March 22nd post).

Social Networks: Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, YahooGroups.

And my favourite. Printing your ISBN on a tshirt! (Suggested use of Cafepress...remember that being a possible site for research).

In short, it's good to see that though my search for academic support in terms of journals and the like are not as successful as I would like, there is evidence out there. (i.e. I'm not crazy. It's a good feeling.)

More to come.
The search continues.

Just when I was becoming anxious that I would not be able to get an interview or speak with someone from Lulu I searched Dan London after reading several of his posts and many of his comments on Twitter I thought it very necessary to get a hold of him. On his website I looked for his contact info. In contacts it reads: Please send a message via Twitter (if you do not have a Twitter account, you should) or simply leave a message on any post in the comments section.
For the sake of an interview I made feeble attempts to figure out how I get Twitter to work and finally tweet Dan saying, okay, I'm here, could you please email me, I'm lost in Twitter (but...more direct than that. 140 character limit and all).

Dan is the Lulu's Director of Online Marketing. A pretty title that doesn't really tell you much about what Dan does, and I can't truly tell you that either. In any case, he certainly helped me get to know a little bit more about Lulu.

Firstly, I wanted to know about the blogs since so many had asked during my presentation:

We found that not many Lulu users were using them. The functions were not as comprehensive as what was available outside of Lulu. We allow users to import their own blogs via an RSS feed and felt that was a better option for them. We also had a huge issue with spammers using the blog functionality.

In addition Lulu is currently revamping storefronts (currently there are only 3 designs I believe).

When asking Dan how he has seen the Lulu Community options used he responded

we have quite a bit of forum traffic. most of the lulu users "congregate" there, I don't think that there are many places on the web that all types of self-pub authors come together and talk about issues. our forums bring together all types of writers, photogs, etc. and allows them to discuss issues that impact them all.

Lorilei: Do you see/know of users taking these connections outside of Lulu?
[...]
we do. there are author meet-ups around the country. lots of lulu authors get together and discuss writing and also how they market their books and issues that effect them.
there have been a few in the UK as well

(For instance I know Dawson connected and did a book signing with another author at their local library together.)

Dan noted the Lulu Book Review (mentioned in previous posts and linked to the side) but they are not interested in speaking with me at this time.

Dan planned and launched the LuluBlog and explained its purpose and function to me.

I wanted a site that we could update easily and offered a bit more functionality that we currently had on Lulu.com at that point. Also, having it be its own URL, we could use it for SEO. until then, we really didn't have a blog team or anyone posting regularly. I wanted to mimic what dell was doing with their customer facing blog. The main goal was to inform our users and also use the blog to promote Lulu. I try to write posts on how to use social networking to promote books, but I seem to be in an author interview kick. which isn't bad, as it gets people excited
[...]
Lorilei: What do you mean/see that makes you say "it gets people excited"

people like to get attention. lulu once had author's pictures on the homepage. but we moved away from that. using the blog to focus on lulu authors kind of allows us to bring back that feature.

We got into a discussion about social networking which is best to crop straight from the transcript.

LoriLei: So, you mentioned social networking to promote books. What tools have you seen used?

Dan: twitter, friendfeed, plurk, stumbleupon, digg, delicious
twitter is really useful

Lorilei: what have you seen happening on/with twitter?

Dan: the use of it has been huge. authors generally share their content via their twitter friends and that link gets passed around. We see a ton of lulu users taking advantage of facebook as well to promote their work


Lorilei: Do you find this use directed by suggestions/posts on the Lulu Blog, or cropping up on its own?

Dan: I think a number of users have taken our advice, but lots of people have begun using social networking on their own. self-pub authors know they need to do everything and anything to promote their work and twitter, etc has given them a better way to do so. They can cast a wider net

Speaking to the marketing world, I wanted to know what Dan was seeing between offline/online marketing (as his LinkedIn tells me that he started out with marketing offline).

Dan: Offline marketing is dwindling. The cost vs return can't rival what online can. look at newspapers. the online ads on some newspaper's websites earn enough money to keep the print in business.
a person with a small budget can compete now.

online marketing, that can be highly targeted, is the future
look at facebook
you can target by age, location and interests.
you know exactly who will see your ad


Lorilei: So are we talking sort of niche marketing? Or is there another term for this shift?

Dan: online marketing can be targeted better and the return on investment can be determined easier. we tag all our online campaigns and can track down the exact revenue from each click

There is much more I'd like to put in this post, but the important information is here. As I was wrapping up our interview I asked Dan if there was anything he'd like to add that seemed important or interesting.

The most successful authors are the ones that market themselves. They know their audience. They know who will read the book and who is their target market. we try to give them all the tools they need so they can reach them effectively.

Social networking has become so important and the authors who use it effectively are successful.

Thanks again, Dan!

Dan London
Lulu Blog
Lulu.com

There is nothing like Exam Season to get you behind on blogging. Virtual crickets aside I've been hard at work pulling this together. At the moment I haven't the time to create the in depth posts I'd like to so a summary of activity and questions will have to suffice.

The past weekend before the presentation I took a leap (apparently only a baby step) and posted on the Lulu general forum, seeking insight. I was met with few, but helpful comments. The most interesting part is that though there are only 3 replies in the thread that are not mine there are 104 views. Like many other threads the replies are few and the views many.
I also wonder if this has anything to do with the how recent of the thread. I will be posting some more specific questions/topics and see what comes of it.

I had the opportunity to do two interviews in the past week: One with author of Double Life Dawson Vosburg the other with Lulu's Director of Online Marketing Dan London. Both were a pleasure to chat with and helped give me some much needed perspective. Coming posts will have detailed interviews on each.

Presentation Questions/Comments:

The user blog option was removed because a)general lack of use, b)because the system wasn't as comprehensive as other blogging sites (which likely contributed to a). Users have the option to import blogs from outside Lulu using RSS feed.

I'm a little concerned that I didn't properly explain or lay the ground about self-publishing/the process.
So if there are any unanswered questions or anything that was unclear give me a heads up.

I also got the feeling that there was interest in rights (copy-write, publishing-writes). I'll make sure to find out more and include a briefing about this in paper.

Exam season is a crazy time so this current post isn't all I'd like it to be. Bare with me as I barrage you with information.

I was finally able to chat with Dawson Vosburg, an author who got his start on Lulu with his first novel Double Life. He wrote this novel to apply for a contest (National Novel Writing Month) which was a challenge to write a novel in a month. While in forums he found a link to Lulu and this is when he knew he had to self-publishing. (He won the challenge. Certificate, but no prize, sigh.) I found Dawson while I was reading the LuluBlog and read an author interview on him. Struck by his age (14!) I was impressed and curious.

Dawson chose Lulu specifically because of its low-cost with no set up fee. (Just $49 for the ISBN). Most interesting to me was that he placed his book as a PDF in the "Ratings and Review" forum and "let them have at it" as part of the preliminary editing process. Dawson got 3 forum pages full of response.

When asked where Dawson found his help and community he said:

I first found it in Lulu's forums, but then I expanded more out into social networking. I was able to meet even more people through Twitter and Facebook and stay connected to the people in the forums to form a better relationship.

His uses of social networking were both promotional and marketing. Twitter helped Dawson direct people towards his blog, contact people to review his book, and get an author interview. "Without Twitter, I wouldn't have even made it into my school newsletter." (Obviously, I had to know more about this remark.

First of all, one of my friends who was on twitter was going to be interviewed by Lulu's blog. I asked Lulu (who is also on twitter) how I would get an interview, and they set me up for one. When the interview was up, I told my English teacher who emailed it to everyone in the school's faculty. The one who writes the newsletter read the interview, followed me on Twitter, and actually interviewed me during my study hall to be put into the newsletter.

I asked Dawson if he was an occasional Lulu forum user, or if he frequented the forums. "I frequent them. I like to return the favor others have given to me and give advice and feedback to the authors on the Lulu forums."
He also frequents the LuluBlog "finding it very useful to get to know about Lulu." Me, too.

I also wanted to know why he chose to self publish versus traditional publishing.

Self-publishing is better if you're an unknown author, but only if you want to have control over everything and you're a really do-it-yourself kind of person. But if you're really good and make a lot of sales, you can use POD as a doorway to traditional publishing. If you sell, say, 5 to 10 thousand copies, a publisher will notice.

You can check out his blog here.
Dawson's book has been up since December 13, 2008 and has sold 113 copies.

I found this while doing some research and although at times a tad corny it gives some perspective. Paper-time just around the corner I figured we could all use a little perspective.

A Presentation About Community, By The Community is a compilation of slides about community by a wealth of individuals from online communities.

Neil Perkin gives a blurb commentary at the link provided beneath the slide presentation itself.
He is the author of the blog Only Dead Fish. His About Me frames the tone for what you'll see in the commentary of the slides (textual commentary).

Hi, I'm Neil Perkin. I'm the Director of Marketing & Strategy for the commercial functions of IPC Media, the well known UK publisher of consumer magazines and associated websites.

Only Dead Fish is where I blog about stuff I find interesting. So this is an advertising blog. And a planning blog. And a digital marketing blog. And often a communications blog. And sometimes a media blog. Or a social media blog. And the odd bit of design. And culture. Oh, and then there's the chickens...

So check it out maybe you'll get a little more clarification, maybe you'll just giggle, or maybe you'll think "This is B.S.! Thanks for nothing Lorilei!" To each their own, right?

I've been toying around with the information posted on the Lulu Blog March 19th titled "Buy this Book!" Unless you're using Lulu to create a family photo album or perhaps a recipe book, or any other personal item, the assumption is you're trying to get your book sold.

The post lays out potential communications tools (Twitter, Facebook, WeRead) and marketing tools such as a website, press release, downloadable preview, book trailer and distribution.

The Lulu Blog, written and maintained by Lulu staff, includes tons of information about self-publishing and print on demand. I've found it very informative over the past few months giving me a window into a previously unknown world of Lulu and the self-publishing. Judging from comments in the blogs this information is not all known, as there are constantly new users surfacing on Lulu that aren't familiar with marketing or communications.

This post outlines how self-publishing writers can use communications tools such as Twitter, Facebook and WeRead to widen their potential audience and readership. E.g. Creating accounts and searching for those with common interests. Carol Housel, the blogger for this post, also points out Facebook and Twitter etiquette around frequency and number of posts to avoid alienating users.

This post also includes many links back to detailed posts on specific concepts/tools, such as Book Trailers (my previous post) and Twitter. There the detailed posts outline more information on how using these tools can help expand audiences.

All in all there is a lot of information to take in here if I look at the details, but most interesting is the notion of using what are commonly used as simple chat, general conversation type tools and forms (facebook, twitter) as commercial, marking and publicity tools.

The notion of consumers-to-consumer marketing.
I'm searching to for academic research in this area to help formulate a theoretical background.
Insights or aid anybody may have stumbled upon would be greatly appreciated.