Ever want to publish a book?
This is a WOW idea. This article at the Financial Mirror, talks about Bob Young, the founder of Red Hat Linux, and his latest venture. The venture is called Lulu and if you’ll pardon me it’s a “Lulu” of an idea. Basically, if you have a book you would like to get published you can do so through this site and sell individual copies. Yes, traditionally you have to get a book deal and they do a printing of thousands of copies (if they think your book will sell.) This is book publishing for the “on demand” mindset.
Essentially, you write it, publish it (with no up front fee), price it, they will print and ship when it’s ordered. Customers can also download in PDF format (or order it in PDF I think.) The writer gets 80% and the web site 20% of the payment. Yes, you read that correctly, the writer gets 80%. Not bad.
They’re not just about books, but you can also publish music, video, calendars and photos through the site. All in all, this looks like an excellent idea. Maybe it’s time to start working on my short stories again? Or those landscape photos?