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I didnt use the global distribution program, but was able to get an isbn for $55 from another site, www.isbn-us.com . Tried to chat with lulu help desk but had computer problems. This seemed like an easy work around.

Well, you seem to have had better luck than some with Lulu's Global Distribution. This may have changed since I tried a few months ago, but I hit a huge problem: from what I can tell, it's a silo based on proprietary software. LightningSource, on whom Lulu depends for printing, demands that the PDF files that it handles be generated only by Adobe software. If you are using any other PDF creator, especially the open source ones, they won't print your book.

This was especially bad for me, since I had worked on publishing my father's novel using a somewhat old version of Adobe Framemaker, which had bugs in the PDF creation process. Once I went through some Linux tools to tweak it, it was no longer publishable through the Global Distribution. Attempts to get the message boards at Lulu to help just elicited the blunt uninformative arrogance usually associated with Linux communities. And, unfortunately, while I was trying to get it to happen, my father passed away without seeing his book published.

I would be happy to learn that I might have simply misunderstood what was going on, and that it is possible to create Global Distribution books with open source tools. But I'm pretty sure that that is not the case. And I suspect that, if you learn that this is going on, you might be a tad less eager to cheerlead for them.

Joseph,

I did all of my editing and such in MS Word and then uploaded that file. The Lulu conversion wizard then took hold and did fine.

My only (minor) complaint was that they took my bulleted lists and turned the bullets into some kind of weird symbol, but it didn't detract from the overall book, so I left it alone.

I never tried to upload a PDF directly, so I don't know whether that's a big problem or not.

I don't know if they've gotten a lot better in the last half year or not, but my only problem with the process was that it's not really clear at what point you'll have to pay for a new revision. They don't make it obvious that the "approve" that you do in order to purchase the ISBN number is NOT the "final" approval, so changing your book again (for instance, to add the ISBN to the cover or copyright page) doesn't cost you a modification fee.

Oh, also, if you buy an ISBN from another source, what services do you lose from Lulu? I'm guessing they no longer do their funky "wholesale pricing" on your book, meaning some "discount" retailers may be less likely to want to sell your book, and you might have to submit it to "Books In Print" yourself.

Just thoughts.

Liam.

Lulu does a great job for those who simply want to publish their memoirs or Aunt Jane's cookery book, and so on.
But if you really want to get serious you *have* to get your own ISBN and then the most important thing is distribution. For more than one book - or even one, if you *really* think it stands a chance of selling more than a couple of dozen copies - the only decent way is to go with either Lightning Source or Booksurge. The cost for producing a book through Lightning is, per copy, roughly half what Lulu charges.
Disclaimer: I am a Lightning Source customer.

I have recently published with Lulu. Works smoothly for pdf files. Word files are converted. The only catch is that the document must be to right dimensions (I learnt this the hard way after my first book). For 6"x9" books choose 6.4"x9" (Kugoya 6). The converters work great with Word Documents of the margins at: Top, Bottom(0.5",0.5") and Left, Right (1.15" x 0.75")