Wanna publish a book?

This is a great way for Pinoy book-author-wannabees to get started.

I was listening to episode 17 of TWiT yesterday evening, where RedHat co-founder Bob Young discussed his latest project, Lulu.

What I heard was very, very interesting. Lulu basically offers publishing-on-demand.

According to the corporate profile:

Lulu is the web’s premier independent publishing marketplace for digital do-it-yourselfers. It’s the only place on the web where you can publish, sell and buy any and all things digital “” books, music, comics, photographs, movies and well, you get the idea. We simply provide the tools that leave control of content in the hands of the people who created the content. You see, Lulu is a technology company, not a publisher. So you can use Lulu to publish and sell any kind of digital content, and no one here is going to ask you to change anything. Ever.

Wow.  So Lulu allows anyone with content to be able to put out hard-copies, and not have to worry about dealing with traditional publishers. Heard they also publish content on optical media and downloadable electronic format.

Now your only problem is marketing and generating demand for your book / CD / DVD / e-Book. But hey, you now have a medium.

This opens up the world of publishing to the authors who are being turned down by the big publishing outfits because they simply cannot be profitable with the traditional publication business model. With Lulu, you don’t have the large overhead costs and the bulk printing requirements. Books are printed (or CDs/DVDs mastered) only upon purchase. Talk about efficiency.

And they only get a 20% cut of the revenues. Big-time publishers get an 80% cut of the profits (revenues minus the costs–so that leaves you next to nothing).

And get this: you have full editorial control over your oeuvre.

I’d say this is Gutenberg reloaded.  Lulu is practically reinventing the publishing business.

I gotta start writing my memoirs!