Comments on: Choosing a “free” POD publisher: Lulu vs Createspace

By: Clopper Almon

Clopper Almon — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 02:03:42 +0000

Bryce Beattie’s comparison is certainly the most helpful piece I have found on this subject. I thought, however, that I had best update the data on cost. At Lulu, the cost calculator is on the home page. At Create
Space is is well hidden and is called the Royalty Calculator, because you fill in your book’s parameters, set the price and the calculator tells you your royalties through various distribution channels. I have taken the price minus the eStore royalty as an indicator of the production cost. I guess that actually includes CreateSpace’s royalty, so it is biased upward a bit relative to the Lulu cost. At CreateSpace, the cost does not depend on the trim size so long as it is one of the industry standards. At Lulu, there is a slight dependence, so I computed two sizes. Here are the results:

Cost per Book
Pages CreateSpace Lulu
A5 8.5 x 11 inch
100 5.15 5.25 6.40
200 6.28 7.75 9.40
300 7.45 10.25 12.40
400 8.65 12.75 15.40

This looks quite favorable to CreateSpace. They should make their calculator easier to find!

By: Marcia Kemp Sterling

Marcia Kemp Sterling — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 14:56:12 +0000

I’m looking at CreateSpace and Lightning Source. Inclined to go with CreateSpace, except that Lightning Source now makes available matte covers, whereas I think all the covers are glossy at CreateSpace and at most POD vendors. The quality of the cover is very important to me. If anyone has input on cover quality (not design), I’d love to hear about it.

By: Jean O'Cain Foster

Jean O'Cain Foster — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 21:03:01 +0000

Temple Beautiful by Jean Ocain Foster pub by Amazon Kindle, Lulu ppbk What should I sell them for in my “store”//

By: Ana Luisa Cruz

Ana Luisa Cruz — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 06:29:54 +0000

Greetings,

Great article. I enjoyed and appreciate the comparison. I have several short stories I would like to self publish and your post on the subject helped me greatly.

Thank you kindly,

Ana Luisa Cruz

By: Nicolai

Nicolai — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 23:23:48 +0000

Perhaps you can offer some help here: I’ve completed a book of Haiku and Senryu: 272 pages, 10 in color , color covers, ready to print, in PDF, prepared to be cut 5.50″ square. Any suggestions will be appreciaated. Sincerely, Nicolai.

By: Bryce Beattie

Bryce Beattie — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 21:57:15 +0000

I personally like CreateSpace, but it’s impossible to say which is “Better”. What features are most important to you – printing price, ease of setup, distribution reach…?

By: George Demosthenous

George Demosthenous — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 21:25:41 +0000

I want to publish a book, 300 pages with a lot of color illustrations.
Which self publishing house is better?
Thank you

By: Jessica J.

Jessica J. — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 16:07:22 +0000

I’ve heard very good things about CreateSpace. I’m not yet at the point of publish, however, when the time comes, I would like to be ready.

By: Steve Clay

Steve Clay — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 22:11:39 +0000

You did a great job laying out everything but you should have added Lightning Source as well as they are huge and their prices are better than lulu.com.

All these printing and distribution services are so complected and extremely expensive which is why I chose to use this website called http://www.writersout.com They are brilliant as they allows writers to share and sell their work while converting your books to different file formats making it accessible to read on a Kindle, Nook, and other e-readers and let you keep most of the profit!!! I gave up on print a while ago as much as I like holding a real book in my hands, I much prefer the simple,cheaper, cleaner as well as hassle free route.

By: Kirk Mustard

Kirk Mustard — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 22:04:05 +0000

Lulu used to be fairly easy in terms of uploading a novel, but I’ve now spent about 6 hours trying to load one and I can’t get it to work, no matter how many different ways I try. So I am going to try CreateSpace.

By: Jason

Jason — Mon, 09 May 2011 03:57:01 +0000

I looked at both Lulu and CreateSpace. I cannot find the Cover Creator on CreateSpace. Could somebody tell me where the heck it is????

By: Tamara

Tamara — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 22:35:01 +0000

Great info – thanks for sharing! I used CreateSpace for my 1st book (ebook and print) and now trying Lulu for my 2nd book (ebook only right now.)

Would have to agree so far, I am impressed with Lulu. CreateSpace was very detailed and a lengthy process. Their cover creator is good but limited with formatting text size or having different sizes/colors for font.

Lulu has many options and especially with binding options. They also appear to give you more profit, so time will tell and then I’ll know who to publish my 3rd book with!

I appreciate you doing a comparison and outlining the differences, thank you!

By: Bibliography: Self-Format & Self-Publish Your Novel | Text Isle Patchwork Blog

Sat, 22 Jan 2011 00:21:18 +0000

[...] This whole blog is a terrific how-to manual. In Bryceâ€™s article â€œChoosing a â€˜Freeâ€ POD Publisher: Lulu Vs. CreateSpaceâ€ he concludes that Lulu and CreateSpace are both great (but he picked Lulu by a hair at the time [...]

By: Brenda Garacci

Brenda Garacci — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 20:26:45 +0000

Hi. I enjoyed your article, and most of the pros and cons you mentioned were right on the money. I’m thinking of going back to CREATESPACE, but I have had two problems with them. One, the covers always flip up. Two, the quality of the pages aren’t that great. I was wondering if either of these two drawbacks has been addressed and rectified since I last used them.

By: Decisions < How To Self Publish A Book

Decisions < How To Self Publish A Book — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 14:27:06 +0000

[...] I reviewed two of the larger POD companies a while ago on my blog. Choosing a â€œfreeâ€ POD publisher: Lulu vs Createspace [...]