• Borders Signs Lulu to Power Self-Publishing Tools

  Mashable’s coverage.

  (tags: borders lulu printondemand selfpublish)

(Copied below is the press release about Lulu’s partnership with Borders.)

Raleigh, N.C. – February 15, 2008 – Bringing the dreams of the everyday writer to reality – Borders and Lulu.com are blazing trails in publishing with the launch of the Borders Personal Publishing program powered by Lulu. The easy-to-use and cost-effective online publishing tools of Lulu.com combine with the wide-reaching audience and customer service associated with Borders stores for this exclusive and unique service– a match made in publishing heaven!

After field-testing, Borders unveiled the program this week upon the opening of its first concept store in the nation, located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Borders Personal Publishing is available in the concept store’s Digital Center through interactive kiosks, and will also be accessible via these digital kiosks in 13 additional concept stores Borders plans to open across the nation in 2008. Existing Borders superstores across the country do not have these self-publishing kiosks but will soon offer a Borders Personal Publishing how-to book as well as informational literature on the program. Through this exclusive offering, millions of customers will be able to fulfill their dream of publishing their stories and sharing them with the world.

“Thousands of writers and readers each week spend time in Borders stores across the country surrounded by one of the world’s greatest collections of books and media. Many of these individuals have compelling stories of their own to tell,” said Bob Young, Lulu.com Chief Executive Officer. “Now, with the Borders Personal Publishing service, nothing stands in their way, or in the way of any subject expert or business. We’re excited that Borders has turned to Lulu to help unleash another group of storytellers and professionals to the world through our collective marketplaces.”

Borders Personal Publishing powered by Lulu is a part of Borders’ effort to embrace technology and differentiate its stores with a mission to be a headquarters for knowledge and entertainment.

“Our relationship with Lulu is just one example of how Borders is evolving into a digital destination where our customers do far more than shop for books, music and movies– they create and share, and they come to us for the tools to help them do it,” said George Jones, Borders Group Chief Executive Officer. “Lulu has been empowering creators for years and our new relationship takes self-publishing to the next level.”

The new publishing service is ideal for a wide range of consumers, including:

§ Aspiring authors wanting to sell their fiction or non-fiction works to others

§ Artists wanting a professionally-bound portfolio to showcase their works

§ Individuals wishing to write their memoirs

§ Travel and cooking experts wanting to share their knowledge with Borders customers

§ Youth groups and not-for-profits interested in creating a fundraising project or year book

Over time, Borders and Lulu plan to jointly develop other service offerings designed to empower content creators. As with Lulu.com, publishing through Borders Personal Publishing is free. There is no set-up fee and no requirement to buy copies. When someone buys content created with the Borders Personal Publishing services, Lulu.com handles the transaction as well as creator revenue payments.

To register for the Borders Personal Publishing service, customers can sign up at an in-store Borders digital kiosk within a Borders concept store or online (http://publish.bordersstores.com). There, customers will set up a personal user name and password at the kiosk, as well as take a guided tour of the process. Once registered, the Borders Personal Publishing account can be accessed on the Web from anywhere.

For customers looking to sell their books in retail channels, Borders offers several additional packages to meet those needs:

• Premium Package – Available for $499, this service is for customers serious about preparing their book for the retail market. The package comes with an editorial analysis and a cover and interior page design service, giving customers the treatment a traditional publishing house would provide its authors. In addition, customers receive an Internal Standard Book Number (ISBN) for their book, making it available to retailers worldwide and automatically eligible for future in-store programs and services. Borders also provides a free copy of the author’s book and the custom U-Publish guide, which provides an overview of how to self-publish.
• Standard Package – Available for $299, this service is ideal for customers new to self-publishing and who would like limited professional assistance with their book. Customers will receive an ISBN and interior page design service to enhance the look of their book, as well as the custom U-Publish guide and a free copy of the author’s book. Customers will still have the opportunity to order additional services for their book before it’s distributed for retail sale.
  

Customers who purchase one of the publishing packages can sell their books online once the upcoming Borders.com Web site launches. Soon customer authors will even have opportunities to showcase and sell their work in Borders stores, giving Borders Personal Publishing creators even greater distribution and all Borders’ customers an even larger selection of books to choose from, especially those covering niche topics.

Borders will host a “Digital Day” on Saturday, March 1 at its concept store at 3140 Lohr Road in Ann Arbor, where, among other topics, customers will be able to learn best practices for self-publishing from experts Dan Poynter and Danny O. Snow. Further details on the personal publishing services can be found at: http://publish.bordersstores.com.

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About Lulu.com:

Lulu.com is the premiere marketplace for new digital content on the Internet, with over 300,000 recently published titles, and more than 4,000 new titles added each week, created by people in over 80 different countries. With over one million registered members, Lulu is changing the world of publishing by enabling the creators of books, video, periodicals, multimedia and other content to publish their work themselves with complete editorial and copyright control. Lulu enables these individuals and corporations to create high-quality products to sell directly to their customers and the rest of the Lulu.com marketplace. With storefronts provided and other marketing support, Lulu creators are fully empowered to profit from their work. With offices in Canada, US, and Europe, Lulu customers can reach the globe.

• 15 Trends to Watch in 2008 – 1/7/2008 3:00:00 AM – Publishers Weekly

  via AL Direct – “Christmas 2008 will be the first one in which sales of customized books, enabled by the Internet and print-on-demand, will become substantial. Make-your-own books have been creeping into public consciousness for a couple of years: …auth

  (tags: future publishing trends lulu publishersweekly PW)

• Walt at Random » Blog Archive » Academic Library Blogs: 231 Examples

  Walt’s new book. Published through Lulu.

  (tags: librarians blogging academiclibraries blogs academiclibrary20 academiclibrary2.0)

• ALA | proposals

  Reminder to self: Send something in.

  (tags: todo)

• Vendor-prompted cataloging [OCLC - Partner programs for publishers and material vendors]

  “Publishers and material vendors: Partner with OCLC and offer your customers a unique value-added service that will get you noticed. Our four vendor-prompted cataloging programs (below) enable your customers to obtain corresponding WorldCat bibliographic

  (tags: worldcat openworldcat promptcat cataloging)

• About [OCLC - PromptCat]

  “PromptCat provides cataloging records for new materials that can be ready to shelve the moment you receive them. OCLC works with leading library partners to automate this process. Best of all, your holdings are added to WorldCat, the bibliographic databa

  (tags: world)

• Amazon is new OCLC PromptCat participant [OCLC]

  “DUBLIN, Ohio, USA, 14 September 2006—Amazon.com is now an OCLC PromptCat participant, making it possible for libraries to receive OCLC MARC records along with the materials they get from the online vendor including books, music, DVDs and more.”

  (tags: worldcat)

• PromptCat [OCLC - Cataloging and Metadata]

  “Participating partners send OCLC electronic lists that identify the books, videos and other materials you’ve ordered. PromptCat then matches the items to bibliographic records in WorldCat, adds local data to records, sets holdings in WorldCat and provide

  (tags: worldcat)

• Vendor record contribution [OCLC - Partner programs for publishers and material vendors]

  “Look good to librarians: Get bibliographic records for your materials into WorldCat as early as possible in the publishing cycle. When you put descriptive metadata directly into WorldCat—even months before titles are released—you’re making it much ea

  (tags: worldcat)

• Cataloging partners program [OCLC - Cataloging and Metadata]

  “Look good to librarians: Get bibliographic records for your materials into WorldCat as early as possible in the publishing cycle. When you put descriptive metadata directly into WorldCat—even months before titles are released—you’re making it much ea

  (tags: Worldcat)

• Technical information [OCLC - Vendor-prompted cataloging]

  (tags: Worldcat)

• Partners list [OCLC - Cataloging partners program]

  (tags: Worldcat)

• Technical information [OCLC - Vendor record contribution]

  (tags: worldcat)

• Other ways you can use WorldCat [WorldCat.org]

  (tags: worldcat googlebooks)

• Online: Do You Know Your Googlegänger? – Newsweek Technology – MSNBC.com

  Newsweek article on the need for disambiguation.

  (tags: claimid identity identity20)

• newsobserver.com | Lulu moving its headquarters to Raleigh

  (tags: lulu)

• Building Blocks for Portable Social Networks

  A great summary of the standards currently available (OpenID, various microformats, API’s) that could be used to create portable social networks.

  (tags: openid xfn microformats social_networks socialnetworks apis)

• National Archives Partners With CreateSpace and Amazon to Digitize Movies

  CreateSpace is entering the POD marketplace, so I would like to take this time to point out that Lulu’s api offers great opportunities for libraries and archives to sell already digitized content.

  (tags: apis lulu nara)

Related posts on portable social networks:

• BarCampRDU,Part 3, Social networking, Social browsing, and Microformats
• Faceted Friending: Using Tags to Increase Relevancy in Social Networks

Related posts on creative uses of the Lulu api:

• http://mchabib.com/2007/07/19/links-for-2007-07-19/
• http://mchabib.com/2007/07/28/links-for-2007-07-28/

• Mises Economics Blog: Mises Institute Print on Demand
  A libertarian institute offering dozens of out of print books for sale through Lulu. This is just how academia and libraries should be embracing print on demand technology.
  (tags: libertarian POD printondemand lulu publishing)
• Mises Institute Print on Demand’s Storefront – Lulu.com
  The list of books they are publishing. Worth noting, is that it kind of makes sense that libertarians are the ones who thought to embrace a free and open marketplace like Lulu. Librarians as supporters of free and open marketplaces of ideas should take note.
  (tags: libertarian POD printondemand lulu publishing intellectualfreedom democracy capitalism)
• Talis Platform news
  “Welcome to the first issue of Talis Platform News, a new way for you to find out how we are continuing to develop the Talis Platform, and to share your own stories on putting it to use in powering the Web applications that matter to you.”
  (tags: talis)
• Submitting Written Testimony: Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control (Library of Congress)
  “The Working Group on the Future of Bibliographic Control wants to know the viewpoints of all parties interested in this topic… written testimony will be accepted by the Working Group until July 31st, 2007.”
  (tags: loc cataloging metadata)
• Martha Yee’s Written Testimony to the LC Working Group
  Highly recommended. I think a lot of Web 2.0 types in the profession argue for much the same, only expanded to include contributions from our patrons.
  (tags: folksonomy Folksonomies cataloging facets LOC ucla)

• The Society for Preservation of Hebrew Books & HebrewBooks.org (about page)

  This non-profit has a mission to preserve all Torah Seforim ever printed. So far they have 11,000 classical Hebrew books available for download.

  (tags: lulu printondemand publishing preservation hebrew)

• PublishYourSefer.com – About Our Reprints Program

  This company partners with HebrewBooks.org and Lulu.com (disclosure: I am an employee of Lulu) to offer on-demand reprinting for over 12,000 books. Wow! How is this done?…

  (tags: publishing printondemand lulu hebrew apis preservation)

• Lulu Web Services (Lulu API)

  This is accomplished through the Lulu api, which “allows partners and outside developers to programmatically publish books.” Given that Lulu authors maintain full ownership of their books, why can’t libraries offer on-demand reprints of digitized books?

  (tags: books lulu publishing apis libraries preservation)

• JudaicaOnDemand.com – Judaica and seforim print on demand services for libraries, bookstores, publishers and others

  PublishYourSefer’s sister site, They offer consulting and services for digitizing collections, using print on demand to “monetize” collections, Also have periodicals and books for purchase.

  (tags: hebrew publishing digitization preservation printondemand lulu)

• [CODE4LIB] Using OpenID in libraries

  A discussion. (Thanks Jay)

  (tags: openid claimid lj code4lib identity identity20 toread)