Lulu (company) - Publications

Publications

Lulu focuses on conventional books, which it can print in various sizes, in paperback or hardback, in black-and-white or in glossy full-color. Lulu also publishes calendars and eBooks. Media type options are available to authors — for example, an author uploading a novel can select a type of binding, layout style, and even among predefined cover art if desired, and can set the amount of author margin desired. An author can upload a file in .pdf format (or can choose to have Lulu convert it), and can download and view the uploaded or converted file.

Lulu publishes a very wide range of subject matter, ranging from information technology to self-help to alternative topics that might not capture the attention of mainstream publishers. Titles range from the medieval recipe book How to Cook a Peacock to Depths and Details: A Reader’s Guide to Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. Other books deal with serious but niche topics; when interviewed by The Times, Young cited "the example of a Los Alamos scientist who has written a work that he regards as being of interest to only 160 people in the world and he knows 148 of them personally. 'That community needs this book.' "

Late in 2009, Lulu began selling electronic books that had already been published, with 200,000 selections from authors such as Dan Brown and Malcolm Gladwell and entering competition with Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.