Process
Authors are guided by menus and instructions on the website as they upload files. Material is submitted in digital form for hard publication. Uploaded items that are not distributed beyond Lulu are immediately available for order and the author is not required to purchase a copy. However distributed items require the author to first order a draft and to approve it. In either case uploaded files will be published verbatim and unedited within the limits of the technology to do so. A live, online chat-service is available to help customers navigate the instructions posted on the website.
The author is not assigned a contact person such as an editor. This approach reduces support and editing costs and thus provides access to publishing to those who would otherwise not be willing or able to afford a self-publishing press or find an accommodating conventional publisher.
Potential customers must first create an account with a user name and password before ordering or paying for any item. Lulu keeps no inventory, instead orders are placed in a queue at a contracted print-on-demand printer, in a system referred to as "POD." Printing takes approximately 3 to 7 business days, after which the finished product is shipped. There can be small variations in published material when the job is moved from one contract printer to another.
When a book or project for distribution beyond Lulu's website is first entered, or when it is revised, the author is required to purchase a draft copy and then approve it. The draft copy goes through the regular order process with approximately one or two weeks delay for printing followed by shipping time. The author may approve the draft by checking a box on the 'project page' for the book, or the author may enter a revision. After entering a revision, a new draft copy must be ordered according to the regular order process. This is true whether the revision is one letter, the whole text, or even just the price. This procedure is repeated until a final draft is approved. According to the Lulu website, shipping of the final project (upon order) occurs approximately another six to eight weeks after the final draft is approved, online, by the author. Thus, a book with one revision and one week for shipping, without including any time for the review, may take up to 14 weeks time or more as per the website guidelines.
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