Lulu.com teamed up with weRead sometime in Summer 2008. weRead was formerly known as iRead, with all of us talking about networking and community can likely see the trend in collectivity so the switch from i to we makes sense. weRead is a social networking tool for book readers. You create a log in then you start to set up your "shelf". You have books you want to read, have read, wont read, and are reading. You can rate, review, tag and my favourite of all the verbs "chuck". "Chuck"ing on weReads is sending a book recommendation. I love the verb. Very clever.
Other than being a very clever networking tool, what does weRead have to do with Lulu.



Well, what I've noticed while searching is at the bottom of every search you enter, for example in the search above for "bunny suicides" at the bottom of this page comes up
"Books from independent authors.See all books from independent authors here"
and then 3 books related to the search, this time suicide. Each book comes with the option to Buy from Lulu (new buttons Lulu has fairly recently come out with).

Also, on the weRead home page beneath the navigation bar is the following blurb:

Aspiring Authors

Publish your book for free

weRead has partnered with Lulu.com, the perfect solution for aspiring authors. Get a free ISBN and sell worldwide.
Sign up and self-publish your book for free.

Off to the side of this are four books that are currently popular at Lulu.

Another important feature is the "Authors" tab. Users can register (it's free like all memberships) as authors, rather than just readers. Here Authors can create their own authors page and reach their audiences.

In the Lulu Blog, a blog by Lulu staff for Lulu users, weRead is pointed out and promoted as an excellent tool for connecting with potential readers and audiences. The ability to search and recommend on weRead provides Lulu authors with a tangible audience for there books.

I'm still getting accustom to the lay of the land so more on this later.

Links:
iRead, You Read, We All Read on weRead on Lulu Blog
Being Social in 2k9 on Lulu Blog

4 comments

1. Owen on February 11, 2009 4:56 PM

   Being that this project touches on topics directly relevant to my own, I can't for a second think of anything to contribute!
   
   Some questions about self-publishing on such a site: Does anyone help edit the work?
   
   Can it be revised once published?
   
   Can others comment on it, and are these comments organized well?
   
   What copyright options do publishers have?
   
   Finally, do you think such a site would work for academic work? Could I reach academic audiences with it? Or does it serve a particular group more?

    
2. Lorilei on February 11, 2009 7:26 PM

   Those are some of the questions I am currently working on myself. (And ways of looking at the same issues I hadn't thought of yet.)
   
   I've been doing some digging in the copy-right laws/options as it is something that would concerns me as a writer.
   
   I believe as far as being "published" you are uploading a document, say a PDF. I'm pretty sure if I upload a PDF of my first edition, then later has errors pointed out to me, or wanted to alter anything I could simply upload another version with the corrections. As far as printing goes, whatever copy Lulu has for the title you'd be selling at the time of the "buy" request by a consumer will be the one printed. Perhaps this is part of the beauty of "one-off" copies.
   
   In fact, these questions, to fully answer them, require there own posts.
   
   Thanks for providing some insight.

    
3. gauthampai on February 12, 2009 1:13 AM

   Hi,
   
   I am a developer of the weRead application and would like to clarify some of the things:
   
   You can revise your work at any time after it is published. Any newly printed books will start using the new version.
   
   You can use weRead to setup an Author profile and reach out to your readers. As of now, there are 2 types in which you get to interact - discussion boards/wall posts. Look at the profiles on some authors who have setup their profile on weRead: http://weread.com/authors
   
   As far as academic work is concerned it is totally upto you. weRead is generic and should help to serve any audience (although I would say we don't have any specific tools to suit an academic audience). Since you can use the application through social networks like Facebook, if you have an academic audience in Facebook, your audience can access your profile and discuss with you via your profile in that network.
   
   Thanks,
   Gautham

    
4. Maximilian C. Forte on February 13, 2009 2:42 PM

   Excellent, that one of the developers should come in and post a note, this is one of the blessings of the Internet.
   
   This is not quite relevant here -- but does your work involve at any point any discussion or mention of these Kindle thingies I keep hearing about?