They say there’s a novel in each of us. As it turns out, there were at least a few poems and pictures in me and there may be more, now that I’ve discovered this incredibly easy and FREE way to self-publish. Watch out world.

It all started when I decided I wanted to give a book of my photos and poems to my mother for Christmas. So I set out looking for self-publishing options online and found lulu.

Registration is free and you don’t have to order or commit to anything. Basically, all you have to do is create a document, upload it to the lulu website, and specify some details like size and binding style (you choose from among several options). I was marginally bummed that you aren’t given options for paper weight or color… But you do have the option to provide your own cover art (I recommend that you do because their covers are uuugly), which I did (below).

I did a layout of the poems and pics in FrameMaker, saved it as a PDF, and uploaded it. The final book was 56 pages long. I ordered a single copy for Mom. $12.93 plus shipping. That’s it! Black and white books are cheaper. If you can’t make PDFs, you can upload a Word file and they’ll make a PDF for you for a small fee. Then you can preview your PDF online before choosing to have a copy printed.

You can add a few bucks to the printing cost and put your book up for sale if you want, but you’re not obligated to make it available to the public. The lulu store looks a lot like Amazon. If you do want to sell it, it’s easy to pick a few pages for your preview (like the book previews on Amazon). You get most of the difference and lulu takes a tiny cut. You can choose to allow people to download soft copies for a lower price than buying the hard copies.

For the cover, I started with a picture I took last year of a MagPo poem on my fridge…

…played with it in PhotoShop, and voilà! Cover and title! Mom’ll dig it.

I got the book today (wanted to check it out before sending it to Mom). The binding is beautiful. High-quality, glossy stock. It looks totally professional. The inside pages are also high quality, heavy semi-gloss and perfect for a book of poems. My only gripe is that the photos came out way too dark and so they are disappointing in print. So I don’t recommend it for pictures. (Vincent says this could have something to do with the color settings I used in PhotoShop. Lulu gave basic guidelines for resolution and color settings, but there are advanced settings that they didn’t mention. This is an area where I’m generally clueless. So I’ll probably contact lulu to see if they can tell me what went wrong and if it can be fixed. UPDATE: I did contact lulu about this problem. They said it was a printing error and had nothing to do with the color settings. They immediately offered to reprint and ship a new copy at no cost to me. Their customer service department was very responsive and pleasant. I recommend this company highly! UPDATE 2: The people at lulu appreciated my blogging about them (!) and decided to give me two reprints for free (I had ordered a copy for my brother at the time I requested the reprint of the first one)! Ahhh, customer service. I remember now…!

In any case, if you have verbal or artistic kids, one of these books would be a great gift for Grandma and Grandpa, or a great keepsake for you and them. This would also be perfect if you want to write your memoirs for posterity, but not necessarily for public consumption. I’m sure you’re imaginative enough to think of many other ways to benefit from this great service!

They say there's a novel in each of us. As it turns out, there were at least a few poems and pictures in me and there may be more, now that I've discovered this incredibly easy and FREE way to self-publish. Watch out world. It all started when I decided I wanted to give a book of my photos and poems to my mother for Christmas. So I set out looking for self-publishing options online and found lulu. Registration is free and you don't have to order or commit to anything. Basically, all you have to do is create a document, upload it to the lulu website, and specify some details like size and binding style (you choose from among several options). I was marginally bummed that you aren't given options for paper weight or color... But you do have the option to provide your own cover art (I recommend that you do because their covers are uuugly), which I did (below). I did a layout of the poems and pics in FrameMaker, saved it as a PDF, and uploaded it. The final book was 56 pages long. I ordered a single

Tuesday Morning Quarterback. Football for people who breathe through their nostrils.

Gregg Easterbrook, writes TMQ for ESPN.com. This week, amidst entertaining highlights and incisive analysis of the weekend’s NFL games, he shared his thoughts on American indifference to Iraqi casualties, a blurb on a gooey new theory in the field of astronomy, the obit of some dude you never heard of who led a fascinating life, comments on the absurdly high salary of the CEO of some medical insurance company… Just what you’d expect in a football column.

Gregg Easterbrook is also a contributing editor for The New Republic, The Atlantic Monthly and The Washington Monthly, and a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Click the link in the Gregg Easterbrook section to go to TMQ.

Tuesday Morning Quarterback. Football for people who breathe through their nostrils. Gregg Easterbrook, writes TMQ for ESPN.com. This week, amidst entertaining highlights and incisive analysis of the weekend's NFL games, he shared his thoughts on American indifference to Iraqi casualties, a blurb on a gooey new theory in the field of astronomy, the obit of some dude you never heard of who led a fascinating life, comments on the absurdly high salary of the CEO of some medical insurance company... Just what you'd expect in a football column. Gregg Easterbrook is also a contributing editor for The New Republic, The Atlantic Monthly and The Washington Monthly, and a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution. Click the link in the Gregg Easterbrook section to go to TMQ.