LULU.COM
Larry L.:
It's interesting this topic has come up. I recently read this article which seems to suggest there are some potentially hoary terms to Lulu's basic license agreement.
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With PbL (free), you grant Lulu exclusive publication rights to your ms and must pay $49.95 extra for the Expanded Distribution Service if you want it. While Lulu's site isn't terribly clear on the ramifications of this, I would take it to mean that you cannot publish the same edition of the same book elsewhere (i.e., publish through Lulu for international orders and through CreateSpace for US orders), and it may also mean you must return to Lulu if/when you want to publish new editions of the same book.
Whoa, really? I wasn't previously aware of any such thing. This sounds kinda scary.
Is this a legit concern, or some kind of scaremongering?
greyorm:
Quote from: Larry L. on April 23, 2009, 02:14:51 PM
Is this a legit concern, or some kind of scaremongering?
That is ONLY if you choose to go with the PbY or PbL licensing and pay for such (which includes an ISBN, your book being sent to libraries, international distribution and listing, etc). It has absolutely no application outside purchasing a PbY or PbL option, and does not affect the way most indie publishers utilize the service.
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...purchasing the Published by You or Published by Lulu Distribution Service will get it in on-line bookstores like Amazon or Barnes & Noble.com.
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..the Published by Lulu Distribution Service...With this service you grant publishing rights to Lulu and receive a Lulu-owned ISBN for your book.
So the concerns you raise are only when you pay to use Lulu as a publisher and not just as a printer.
Larry L.:
Raven,
Thanks. I think that clears it up for me.
jerry:
Hard to tell what April is worried about since they don't quote from the license agreement. I followed their link through to the agreement and couldn't find anything like what's written above (their link leads to http://www.lulu.com/en/help/index.php?fSymbol=pbl_agreement). I've been following Lulu.com for quite a while now, and I'm pretty sure Lulu.com has never required exclusivity, whether for publishing in the Lulu Marketplace, Published By Lulu, or Published By You.
Most of the difference between the PbL/PbY agreements and the standard agreement has to do with ISBNs and how they work.
Jerry
April L. Hamilton:
Jerry -
Excerpted direct from the PbY Terms of Svc you linked to:
1. You are granting publishing rights to Lulu to act as a publisher on your behalf to retailers and wholesalers globally.
3. Lulu will assign an ISBN to the title and Lulu.com will be listed as the publisher in all bibliographic feeds.
7. Lulu will be the sole source of bibliographic data on your book. Lulu will feed data to the U.S. ISBN Agency as well as to Bowker's Books In Print ® and other industry databases. The data will identify Lulu.com as the publisher.
9. You accept that Lulu.com is the publisher of record and that any creator revenue you earn through this ISBN meets the true & legal definition of the term 'royalty'.
11. You may not make available to the public a duplicate project with a lower Lulu Marketplace price while the original is active in Distribution.
#1 - 9 state (repeatedly) that Lulu will be the sole publisher of record for your book, and #11 may preclude making an ebook edition available---"duplicate project" isn't defined. That's why I said the language isn't terribly clear, but you may be required to return to Lulu for future printings (a common practice among self-pub companies, and a bad business practice). The only way to be sure is to contact Lulu directly---and get their response in writing. Personally, I prefer to use CreateSpace anyway since their costs are so much lower.
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