The book is out

My First Book: Hal the Unwashed Dragon is now available for sale on Lulu.com. My last post I talked about the process of getting it ready and how everything seemed to come naturally until the phase of publication. Figuring out how to use Lulu proved to be rather complicated. It's not exactly the most user friendly of sites - though it obviously tries to be.

Putting the hardcover up was easy - that one can't be mass distributed, so it doesn't have an ISBN number and doesn't have to meet any particular requirements. So no problem. Once I figured out how to upload the stuff and make the cover it was OK.

The hard part was trying to get the soft cover to fit all the right detailed specifics so it could be eligible for distribution. But it's complicated with tables, and different sizes etc. And once it's ready you have to order a proof copy, review it and then approve the book before it can become widely available through Amazon, etc. Here's where I screwed up. First I get to the "you're finished" page which has a bunch of upsells including "buy a copy of your book to proofread". So I do, figuring that's the next step because that's what I read.
But nope - that's wrong. First I had done something wrong so it wasn't eligible for an ISBN for whatever reason, so this proof copy will be useless souvenir. Second is that you are supposed to have the ISBN assigned first - so I dd that and ordered it. Oops, another wasted order. You're supposed to put the number into your book before ordering. Sure wish they had a checklist for you to go through...

So I've got 2 souvenir "oops" copies coming to me. I only pay the wholesale price, but shipping costs suck!

Then I realize there are 2 distribution packages (well 3, but one is no longer available). I chose the wrong one. The one I chose only gets me on to Amazon.com - the US site. Not any of the international Amazon sites and not available to libraries or bookstores. What's the point in that? How am I supposed to promote it???

For some reason the book sizes and binding you need for one distribution are different than those needed for another. So I change my book again. Actually up to revision number 7 now! But even though I've followed all the FAQ instructions to the letter, it's not showing me the option to purchase the expanded distribution which I really need. So that's where I'm stuck, waiting to hear back from Lulu.

Another weird thing about Lulu is that if you submit a help request via email, you get an automatic reply with links to their help pages and a note saying we assume these links will solve your problem, so we're closing the ticket unless you reply. How weird is that?

So far I'm not terribly impressed with Lulu, but they are rated the #1 self-publishing web site, they're cheaper than the competition and they're the ones everyone I talked to has heard of, so...

I'm sure it will be easier next time.

I'm in promotion mode now. I've let all my family, friends and co-workers know about it etc. But though I've gotten lots of positive comments and I can see that at least 50 people have actually checked out the book's web site, not a single purchase has happened yet. I know it's not priced too high - I've checked around. I know the book is good. So, what gives? Nobody shops on-line? Nobody wants to pay shipping? They're waiting for Christmas?

It seems to e the same thing with any sales thing I do (except a garage sale). It's easy to get people to look. Easy to get people to admire and say "that's great". But converting that into actual sales is a secret I have ye to discover. Especially on-line.

I'll be very disappointed if sales don't work out. My confidence is already fading fast. But even if it doesn't pan out, it has still been fantastic experience and I've learned a lot.