Comments on: CreateSpace, Lightning Source, Lulu — Where Should YOU Self-Publish Your Book: The Ultimate Resource

By: Phil Dellio

Phil Dellio — Sat, 26 Mar 2016 04:56:00 +0000

Some actual numbers for anyone deciding between Createspace and Lulu.

I’ve sold 21 books through Createspace, totalling $246.86 in sales; I’ve received payment in full.
I’ve sold 12 books through Lulu, totalling $8.22 in sales; I’ve received nothing.

From my vantage point, Lulu are basically crooks.

By: Scott Jenner

Scott Jenner — Sat, 05 Mar 2016 17:07:00 +0000

Nice write up and I am working on a few books for self publishing. So it looks like for overall win, the vote goes to Clearspace and for print quality LSI?

By: Scott Jenner

Scott Jenner — Sat, 05 Mar 2016 17:07:00 +0000

Nice write up and I am working on a few books for self publishing. So it looks like for overall win, the vote goes to Clearspace and for print quality LSI?

By: PopMythology.com

PopMythology.com — Wed, 20 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Since you wrote this post have you checked out IngramSpark? Are their printing standards up to par with LSI?

By: PopMythology.com

PopMythology.com — Wed, 20 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Since you wrote this post have you checked out IngramSpark? Are their printing standards up to par with LSI?

By: Wildcard

Wildcard — Tue, 19 Jan 2016 22:34:00 +0000

Soooooo helpful – but I wish I knew when this was posted. Thanks for the great write-up.

By: Joseph Riden

Joseph Riden — Wed, 14 Oct 2015 17:00:00 +0000

Interesting post and quite helpful as far as it goes. I agree with Karen Myers that more business-useful info about final profitability would be better. I was surprised to hear the results on quality and that steers me toward IngramSpark/LSI. My main criticism of this post is that there is no date on it. On the web, a lot happens in a year and I have a sense that IS/LSI may be a lot easier to use now. I’d feel a lot more confident about evaluating this info if I could tell how old it is. That would be at least a year based on the hints among the comments. Please date your posts, Nick. You could own this whole subject space if you would evaluate based on more, and more important, criteria. Indie publishers need reliable TIMELY, and broad enough info and especially business intelligence, to make a rational choice among the contenders. Would you consider updating this or a new, related post and using a broader focus? Thanks for what you did provide. All the best to you,

By: Makeda Montague

Makeda Montague — Wed, 09 Sep 2015 18:48:00 +0000

Hi Nick, thank you soooo much for this! I have been contemplating which company to publish with for months now and this has definitely shed some light. However, I still need some help; I want to print large quantities of children’s books which I would be marketing and selling to bookstores and from my own online store, but I live in the Caribbean and the books are full color…. Do you have any knowledge of which is better in my case? I need the print quality to be very good and considering where I am I cannot afford to get cheap quality books that I have to return because shipping fees are costly. Any advice you have would be greatly appeciated! 🙂

By: Nick Thacker

Nick Thacker — Wed, 09 Sep 2015 14:14:00 +0000

Awesome, thanks crystal! And thanks for catching that!

By: Crystal Gomez

Crystal Gomez — Wed, 09 Sep 2015 06:29:00 +0000

Not to nitpick, but you misspelled wringer in your opening paragraph. Most people throw that expression around with ease. No fault on your part but you’ve probably never seen a wringer in action. I nearly had my arm ripped off by one… I’m all too familiar with that word.

As for my first children’s book that I am ready to launch I appreciate you sharing your comparisons.

You’ve done all the things I would have liked to do but don’t have the extra funds for.
Your comments have helped me to narrow things down.

By: Nick Thacker

Nick Thacker — Tue, 08 Sep 2015 20:52:00 +0000

Awesome — glad you enjoyed it, and good luck!

By: Letitia Doss

Letitia Doss — Fri, 04 Sep 2015 19:59:00 +0000

OMG!!! This has been the most helpful blog I have read!!! Thank you for all of your extensive review. Although, I have gone on a journey with reading this blog, then the comments, I have come to a final conclusion, CS. I would like to thank you for expressing how CS has improved over the years as I had been strongly considering them, yet a little concerned with the negative press they had been getting. However, it wasn’t until I read the comments where I realized, majority of what I had been reading was outdated. So, again thank you and I sure look forward to the updates you will post concerning the changes to the three.

By: Nick Thacker

Nick Thacker — Sat, 18 Jul 2015 00:40:00 +0000

Hi there! I might be able to help — what do you mean by “distribution?”

By: Nicole Dyer

Nicole Dyer — Fri, 17 Jul 2015 20:38:00 +0000

Nick,
I have currently just finished my first book and am looking for a quality self-publishing company that has a decent amount of distribution. If you could/are interested in giving me more information that would be great! I’ve been researching my little heart out on the best place to self-publish and I think my brain is going to explode at this point.
[email protected]

By: Nick Thacker

Nick Thacker — Thu, 04 Jun 2015 23:01:00 +0000

Hi Clement!

I am printing with them (CS), almost exclusively for paperback (the exception is I sometimes do extremely quick turnaround projects at a local bindery I’ve become friends with). I’ve heard of a few people still not satisfied, but my experience has been two thumbs WAY up lately.

I really will write an update post, I promise!

By: Clement Levallois

Clement Levallois — Thu, 04 Jun 2015 10:12:00 +0000

Hi,
reading your blog post today in June 2015, and wondering if your conclusions still hold? Did CS improve in quality? You say you have been printing with them for last year? Thanks for any advice!

By: Nick

Nick — Sat, 16 May 2015 15:05:00 +0000

Great Review Going to Give Lulu a go for My HardCover!

By: Nick Thacker

Nick Thacker — Sun, 10 May 2015 17:30:00 +0000

Hi Daniel — before you hire someone, check us out at http://www.turtleshellpress.com. We do great work for layout, using InDesin and making sure it looks awesome and print-ready for whatever service prints it. I would recommend at least getting a proof done with CS, as it’s cheap, fast, and painless. If you’re not happy with it (or you want a hardcover), go with IngramSpark — it’s a little easier than LightningSource.

Hope that helps, and let me know if you’d like to chat sometime about layout/PDF options we have! Just shoot me an email!

By: Daniel_Elder

Daniel_Elder — Sun, 10 May 2015 14:25:00 +0000

Thank you! One last question: my editor and I are thinking about hiring someone to do the layout for us, after which we’d have a PDF file primed and ready to go…in a situation like that, would you suggest going with LightningSource over CS or Lulu, since the end-product seems to be somewhat higher quality, and we wouldn’t need to navigate the layout interface?

By: Nick Thacker

Nick Thacker — Sat, 09 May 2015 19:50:00 +0000

Hey Daniel!

Absolutely — you have full rights/control of your book, unless you sign something that says otherwise (and CS doesn’t ask this of you). It’s no different than taking a term paper to Kinko’s to have it printed — they don’t own your work, they’re just a contractor for you!