For those about to rawk, We publish you! - Part 1
At least that should be LuLu.com's slogan.
My good mate Khaled posted about discovering LuLu over on his site, saying he was going to order a sample from them to see if the quality was up-to-snuff.
Having had some experience with LuLu myself, I thought I would weigh in on this, and then thought "Hey! this would be a good opportunity to write a series on self-publishing." So here we go.
As I am sure you are aware by now, I am very much interested in self publishing. My main platform at the moment is the web, but I have been involved in real world publishing as well. Anything that gives the power back to the author/artist is of keen interest to me.
That being said, I have been a LuLu since 2003 or so, and have had 3 'books' printed by them. I can't say enough how high the quality is. If you are an illustrator or cartoonist and have ever thought of publishing, then listen up.
I have had 2 books that consist of just text, and one trade paperback comic printed through LuLu, all three pieces exceeded my expectations. But don't take my word for it, check these pics:
Applegeeks trade paperback, one of a kind.
I got tired of waiting for the guys at Applegeeks to release some 'dead-tree' versions of the comic, so I downloaded the issues from their site and printed my own. That is the important bit here, these are 72 dpi gifs from a website... just think of the quality if I had high res versions:"(Hey Hawk and Ananth, don't kill me, I just dig the dead-tree feel! I have been watching and waiting for you guys to produce something... so sue me.)": .
There are a couple more in my Flickr photostream, but I think you get the idea. Oh and don't go asking for one of these, I destroyed the digital version and there was only ever one dead-tree version printed. And now for something completely different.
Playing to the ego, print your blog as a book
So yeah I love to read books. I thought it would be fun to print some of my blog as a book, so I hit my database, imported into word, did some reformating and shot off to LuLu. One upload and conversion later this is what I got.
In each case, from the trade to the 'books' the quality was impeccable. If you print with color the paper weight and quality is very, very good. The covers are heavy stock comparable to the cover stock that you get with any paper back novel from your local book store. I have found the perfect binding to be well done and strong, even under pretty heave use.
All in all I have not found a more affordable, higher quality product from any other provider, including CafePress:"(I have ordered a book from them as well and it was no comparison)": . In contrast the paper and cover stock from CafePress felt flimsy and 'chincy', no where near the same league.
Well then if proof is in the pudding, that is some hot butterscotch yo. So far we have talked a little bit about the why of publishing through LuLu, if you are interested in the how check back later for part two of this little series. Next time we will talk about the different types of binding, color vs. black and white and the best way to create your PDF for uploading to LuLu.
In Part 3 we will take a look at the ISBN options open to you at LuLu and demystify them a little. We will then go over distribution and what that means to you as the artist/writer.
Pingbacks & Trackbacks
- davidhay » Blog Archive » Personal Printing Copyright Infringement? » [...] Chris J Davis (he of ‘Wordpress theming’ and ‘Wordpress as a CMS’ fame) has a great post about Lulu, the online publishing site. Basically, you create a free account, upload your document, and then it can be published in a printed form. His article got me thinking (and I’m not the only one - go check out other Chris’ ideas), and I thought I’d share. [...]
Leave a Reply
Speaking
-
ApacheCon US
November 3-7, 2008
New Orleans, Louisiana
Register for ApacheCon!
Buy my book!
Stroll on over and visit kartooner
March 1, 2007
Wow Chris! The quality looks emaculate!
Thanks for the heads up as I've already set up an account and plan on printing a few things at Lulu, namely a printed version of kartooner.com and possibly a book of compiled illustrations. Oh, the possibilities!
Stroll on over and visit David
March 1, 2007
It's probably even trickier if you want to print out something from, say, A List Apart - as they have their own ISSN etc, and a pretty stringent copyright with regards to reproduction of the articles. I guess the safest route to go is to contact each author involved in any printing. Personally, I would love a "Best of the Web" type book, with collated articles that I consistently find handy, especially as I'm the type of person who prefers reading printed matter to web screens.
It's probably an issue that needs more investigation and clarification.
Stroll on over and visit khaled
March 1, 2007
Hmm, would you look at that :). Looking pretty damn good there Chris. So it's a glossy type finish for the cover, is that standard for both black and white and colour books?
I'm really interested in knowing what the deal is with respect to distribution, and why colour books are not allowed to be globally distributed. What's the reason? Get the second post up already :).
Stroll on over and visit Chris J. Davis
March 1, 2007
Hey David,
That is a great question, and one that with the advent of blogging and the internet has become mirkier I think. As for printing a "Best of Sillyness" as long as no profit is being generated there isn't a problem, since by its very nature this blog is meant for your consumption.
This would be made even easier of course if I just covered this entire site in a blanket Creative Commons License.. which I have thought about from time to time.
Now I will admit that my trade paperback of Applegeeks is flirting with illegality. I am not sure what the law or ethics would say on that one. Hawk and Ananth have retained all rights to the material even in printed form, and no profit was generated so I honestly don't know how that would fall.
As for the Colophon update, that will have to wait until December when my Friends of Ed book comes out... stay tuned.
Stroll on over and visit David
March 1, 2007
What's the stance on printing other people's (possibly copyrighted) work solely for your own consumption? Say I wanted to do a "Best Of Sillyness..." - would I have to ask your permission, would LuLu allow me to print otherwise etc? I think it's pretty much a given that you can print stuff off on your own printer for your own consumption, but do things change when you get a third party to do it professionally (even if it's obviously not for sale etc)?
On a lighter note - "Chris J Davis, published author" has a nice ring to it, no? Time to update the colophon methinks!!
Stroll on over and visit If Else
March 1, 2007
The saying "pictures speak a thousand words" truly befits this post; it truly looks fantastic. Thanks for the heads up!
Stroll on over and visit Andy
March 1, 2007
Cool idea. Could you give more detail on how you formatted your blog for printing? I wouldn't mind a paper copy of my own blog but with 2000+ "pages" aka entries, I'm not sure what would be the best way of printing this. 1 entry per page would be a waste of paper,expensive and end up in a book 4.5" thick.
Stroll on over and visit Chris J. Davis
March 1, 2007
kartooner,
As always I am ever looking forward to what you will put out, get on with it!
Jon,
Hey, hey long time no see man. I empathize with you completely. My background came out of newspaper publishing. If you are ever ready to get that printed I know some outlets for having your work hardbound as well. LuLu does some hardbinding as well but it is pretty pricey.
The Other (chris that is),
Don't worry I plan on covering the how of publishing with LuLu in the next part. I will probably write some php-goodness to help all the wood-be blog-book publishers out there and release it with part 2. I will see what I can do about getting some more images of the books up as well.
Stroll on over and visit Other Chris
March 1, 2007
Chris, really appreciate this rundown. Rather jealous of your one of a kind Applegeeks. :) Not to put a burden on you but if you could toss up some more pics of your blog books (how you converted from web to paper, handled links, colors, etc...), just a page or two that would be great.
I recently plowed through the Thinking with Type book and since then the intense interest in designing for a book versus the web, but with a web design background has been mighty strong. I've always been wary of self-publishing as vanity presses have a history of being a loss for the author. Lulu, though, seems to use the technology to best advantage for both parties.
Looking forward to part 2.
Stroll on over and visit Sara
March 1, 2007
Hmm... Seeing those books has me thinking about writing a novel again, which is an idea I've been toying with for the past few years. Just out of interest, does it cost a lot of money to get started with their publishing if you plan on selling copies of the book?
Stroll on over and visit Jon Hicks
March 1, 2007
I'm so into the idea of self-publishing, and have book in mind, but no outlet - until now! I used to work for a publishers, and design/typeset them, and always wanted to do my own!
Now I just need the time to write it! :o(
Stroll on over and visit David
March 1, 2007
I think it's pretty awesome!
Per-post-copyright - is that using WP Custom fields? Well, ich liebe dem tutorials, so it's all good.
Stroll on over and visit Chris J. Davis
March 1, 2007
David,
Hey pal I have my own ISSN whaddya think of that huh? And yes I would agree if there is any doubt contacting the author is the best course of action. One caveat of course is that if the site you are on is using my per-post copyright (as Sillyness Does) then specific posts could be released under a less stringent license.. as all of my tutorials are (including this one).
Since my tutorials are all licensed under the GPL you are able to do as you wish without written consent. It would be nice if other authors began doing this, but somehow I don't think it will catch on.
khaled,
Yeah the glossy cover is standard for all the books produced by LuLu. I am planning on answering your question about distribution in Part 2 which I hope to have up mid-week. To tease you a bit I will say that it has nothing to do with LuLu per se.
Andy,
I plan on covering how to prepare posts from your WordPress powered site (sorry MT et al users) for printing in Part 2 as well, fear not. And yeah 1 entry per page is not the way to go.
Sara,
There is no up-front cost unless you want to have an ISBN assigned to your work. If you are just wanting to be able to offer copies for sale through LuLu's site there is not set up cost or anything. They are a POD (Print on Demand) publisher so you don't have to worry about stock sitting around. I am planning on going over this in some depth in Part 2 and a bit in Part 3.
Stroll on over and visit Henry
March 1, 2007
Thanks guys, for the positive feedback. We've still got our share of site glitches that occur now and then, and we're working to improve our international shipping cycle time. Any comments that you have regarding how we can improve the site send it my way--henry@lulu.com.
You guys "rawk", and I wish you the best of success.
Henry
Stroll on over and visit Yzabel
March 1, 2007
A big thanks for posting about your experience with LuLu here. I'm now eager to see the two other entries about it, as I've kept my eyes on the service for some time now, for the day I'm ready to publish part of my works. Knowing someone else's experience with them will be a very good thing (and the print quality indeed seems pretty good).
Stroll on over and visit Jeremy Curry
March 1, 2007
Very interesting, I've always had an eye on self-publishing, perhaps when I'm good enough, I'll look into printing off some photos and webdesigns for a material portfolio. Nice article. Looking foward to your next installments
BTW: Love the linknotes by the way ;), was looking to see where you put them.
Stroll on over and visit Andy
March 1, 2007
For the MT users (like me), just link to the page on how to export from MT and import to Wordpress :-)
That would certainly be one way around the problem and as wordpress is fairly easy to setup and install on a standalone/local pc installation such as uniformserver.com then it wouldn't take long to do this extra step.
Eagerly awaiting your next post.
Stroll on over and visit Chris J. Davis
March 1, 2007
David,
Yeah I am using custom fields for that. I am starting to really like that idea, I only wish it was a little easier to interact with.
Yzabel,
No problem, I thought there would be a number of people who would be interested in this. I hope by the end of this series you have all the information you need to make an informed decision.
Stroll on over and visit AG Girl
March 1, 2007
Well now that's pretty awesome an Applegeeks book was made but was Hawk and Ananth even informed? Or even asked for permission? It is their work and out of common decency they should have been asked. And to say they least they or at least Ananth isn't pleased. And if you've been in their forum you'll know that they have some very protective fans... better hope Hawk and/or Ananth tell them to keep it cool or all hell will be unleashed...have fun! ^_^
Stroll on over and visit Eckman
March 1, 2007
You know that is copywritten material and cannot be reproduced without written consent. Some how I dont think they gave you written consent. You prove the fact that jackasses dont have patience. What they release is awesome and is worth the wait, I hope they sue your ass.
Eckman
Stroll on over and visit Matt
March 1, 2007
I hope you realize that Ananth from Applegeeks is none too pleased with you at the moment. And Henry from Lulu.com, someone who prints material without permission for any reason does not "rawk." True Applegeeks fans can wait for the greatness to come...
-Matt
Stroll on over and visit w!ng-w!ng
March 1, 2007
im pretty sure im unsure how to start this so i guess i'll begin with WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!?!? u do realize what u've done is frickin wrong rite? Hawk and Annath pour their souls into Applegeeks and as an artist myself, I feel strongly for them! u say u hope they dont kill u but they have every right to! you're nothing but a slimy sellout, u hav no soul and on top of that, u need to READ!
"Please note that Lulu is not a publisher, but instead provides users with tools to publish their own content. Because Lulu is not a publisher, we do not review work published through our site. We do expect all content to be consistent with our Member Agreement and reserve the right to remove content we deem to be illegal or inappropriate."
Note that the disclaimer said they provide users with tools to publish their OWN content! i'm no genius but i kno wat ur doin here is wrong an u shud b taken to court for every cent ur worth then locked up for sheer retardedness (i am aware that retardedness is not a word)!
Stroll on over and visit Myles
March 1, 2007
Since you've admitted that you printed it for personal purposes, you are commiting an infringement of Anath & Hawks copyright.
Stroll on over and visit BlackMage
March 1, 2007
While you are not required to ask for permission, do you not think it unreasonable to do so as a common courtesy to Hawk and Ananth?
Stroll on over and visit Chris J. Davis
March 1, 2007
BlackMage,
No I don't think so, and I said as much in the applegeeks forum thread. That was bad form on my part and I own up to that.
Orion,
First off I appreciate your willingness to at least keep things civil. I have responded to your comments over in the forum as well, although I am sure they will not satisfy you they are my honest response.
Stroll on over and visit Venditotz
March 1, 2007
I don't believe that the money issue is the major factor here. I DO believe that perhaps Ananth and Hawk are angry that they have received a proverbial "slap in the face" by a fan. I do believe that Mr. Davis is a fan, and that he will support AG, but the fact is, everyone needs to respect them and allow them to make their own decisions concerning their properties. When the comic is ready for an official hard copy, then H&A will release one. Maybe no harm will come of this, but respect is still the underlying issue here.
Stroll on over and visit Krovan
March 1, 2007
So, I can vaguely see some human logic in printing out a favorite comic, even more vaguely see printing the whole series and keeping them in a binder -- akin to taking clippings of newspaper comics and pasting them in a scrapbook or something --. But the fact that you are someone who has worked in "real world publishing" you should realize how irresponsible it is to publish someone else's work.
To be fair, your little book does have a nice look to it, so here's a suggestion: instead of getting hounded for copyright infringement, you could just offer to front the costs of publishing. You could publish the first official AppleGeeks book, giving every cent of profit to the creators, and covering every cent of expenditures.
Then someone who is professional and has some idea of ethics could do a high quality version with the better resolution comics.
Stroll on over and visit Myles
March 1, 2007
Again- no personal flames here. That being said, here we go:
Again- from the same website that you pointed us all to earlier (very informative by the way, you have my thanks)- you seem to be misusing the part about the Fair Use clause :Color me confused, but what sort of research about Applegeeks could you have been completing? And while you may use the terms 'educational' and 'personal' interchangably in your postings, in the eye of the law they are far from the same.
Stroll on over and visit Skillgannon
March 1, 2007
You refer to this publication as a "trade paperback" now I ask you, does this violate any copyright laws if you print this with the expressed, written purpose of using this as a "trade" novel - I dont care if you do, or do not wish to actually trade this novel for free, but to me this is an implied violation of the fair use policy of the copyright act. The front cover, truly, speaks for itself.
Seriously dude?
"As I am sure you are aware by now, I am very much interested in self publishing. My main platform at the moment is the web, but I have been involved in real world publishing as well. Anything that gives the power back to the author/artist is of keen interest to me." - Now, has your act given the power back to the author/artist, or is there no integrity to your claim - because clearly this hasnt been done with the interests of the author/artist at heart, far from it in in fact.
Just stick to self-publishing in a very literal sense, publishing your own works, not ravaging their rights and defecating on their intellectual property.
I have no qualms with publishing - and I intend to publish my own work some time soon, but I will not wantonly publish someone elses work and then place evidence of it on a publically accessable forum, or recycle someone elses work in attempt to satifsy my distaste and disquiet because "I got tired of waiting for the guys at Applegeeks to release some 'dead-tree' versions of the comic".
However, I do notice that you have acknowledged the owners of the intelectual (and essentially the physical) properties of the book on the front cover - but to me this does not constitute fair practice.
I repeat that my major qualms is with, at its core, the terming of your statements, with it being referred to a "trade" paperback - any other issues are the domain of the owners of the intellectual property (ie. not you, me, or anyone else interested in a flame war or whatever else...), to take up as they see fit.
Thanks
Stroll on over and visit Haji11
March 1, 2007
Personally I don't see what the big deal is. He printed a book up, for himself, not for sale to anyone else, using content freely available on the web & gave credit to the creators.
How is it any different than if he had used his office printer to do so?
The only reason I can see the creators being upset is the possibility of someone breaking into lulu's servers and grabbing the finished product, then making their own copies for sale. That's not an entirely unvalid fear actually.
But as far as them having put their heart & soul into it and feeling that nobody should have the right to print this stuff for themselves (NOT for sale!) that's BS. You don't want people to be able to freely view your works, don't put it on the web for free. Once it's out there anyone can do whatever the heck they want with it so long as they don't try to profit from it and don't try to claim it as their own works.
I think the only reason the creators of this comic are truly upset is that they're afraid someone will try to profit from it, and that they just want to be able to say "WE decide what you will see in print!". Rather pompous if that's the case.
I don't know anything about Applegeeks, so I guess this book has done one good thing for them, it's made me decide to go to their site and check it out. If anything they should be thanking this guy for the free publicity. :)
Stroll on over and visit Sport Monkey
March 1, 2007
With regards to "fair use" you are allowed to copy in libraries up to 10% of a book for educational use. Part of this agreement it it is not a long term copy.
Stroll on over and visit RK Bentley
March 1, 2007
Nice post.
But, bad form, bad form.
First, Applegeeks isn't yours.
Secondly, what you just did is copywrite infringement. Sure, you may think it's cool to actually have Applegeeks in paperback form, but, it's not yours, you didn't pay them for it. You spent a lot of time downloading the files and doing all the work yourself which in hindsight could have been useful doing something else.
And, thirdly, I'd suggest writing a letter to Applegeeks apologizing to them and making sure any and all files have been taken off Lulu.com before a Cease and Desist Letter comes your way. 'cause that little subscript 1 may look like a nice boiler plate "please don't sue me because I'm a fan" statement, it won't hold water against a Lawyer.
If you did this to my work, you'd have gotten call from my Lawyer by now.
Stroll on over and visit Joe Szymanski
March 1, 2007
I will have to o the path of many others saying that this was wrong to do. I've done a good deal of research into copyright law, and I can't see a single piece of the law which would allow you to do this.
As stated before, the educational purposes for this were non-existant because you were not doing education about the copyrighted work. The personal rights afforded to you under copyright law are also pretty much non-existant. Copyright law works via the owner of a copyright allowing others the rights to do specific thins. Anything that is not expressly stated as allowed is held as the exclusive right for only the copyright owner.
What's most important to note is that even the example of someone using a personal printer to print every comic out and binding it themselves is still illegal. You don't have the rights to make personal copies at all. It doesn't matter what method you use to make those copies.
Stroll on over and visit KoreanChild
March 1, 2007
Chris J. Davis said eariler that he did did not break copyright laws by just making one copy. I am asking now does that mean that lulu publishing will ot allow anyone else to make another copy or just him? By making it so well known that it can be done to take someones' work and print it to your liking, that sounds like more than one copy will/could be made.
Stroll on over and visit Al
March 1, 2007
Personally, I think it's crap Applegeeks is making a big deal of this. Should permission have been asked? Sure - but, he apologized and he specifically states the digital version was destroyed and he had no other paper versions made, it's obvious this guy wasn't in it to make money. I'm disappointed Applegeeks couldn't have resolved this amicably instead of sicing legions of their readers on this guy. I love Applegeeks, and I'm not going to stop reading or anything, but I do wish it could have been handled a bit better
Also, I tend to agree this falls into fair use. It's kind of hard to hold this up against the four tenets of the copyright act:
1) The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit, educational purposes.
Sure it's not for education, but it sure isn't for commercial use.
2) The nature of the copyrighted work.
Freely available on the Internet (I'm not saying it's not worth anything, or that people should be able to take all their hard work, only that they're not charging a fee right now)
3) The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyright protected work as a whole.
This is one that's definately arguable. It was a large (all?) portion of the comic, but again, he did state he destroyed the digital copy and will never actually sell a book
4) The effect of the use on the potential market for or value of the copyright-protected work.
This is the big one. What effect did this have on Applegeeks? Since they don't have a paperback, it didn't lead to the loss of a sale. One could argue it showed other people they could make their own copies resulting in losses in the future when they do have a paperback, I suppose. This seems unlikely, again, because of the low quality of images and the amount of work that went into the preparation.
Again, I love Applegeeks, and I'm not trying to be an ass, but I think it could have been handled better. I'm just pointing out that their is somewhat of a grey area here, it's not like the guy absolutely knew he was doing something wrong. It was an honest mistake and he apologized. Hell, maybe you could send Anath twenty bucks for the cost of a future book, and everyone can call it even. Applegeeks can put a "do not copy large sections of the archive" on its site and avoid this sort of thing in the future.
Stroll on over and visit Al
March 1, 2007
One more thing - copyright law isn't just one of the four statements above. It's a weight of all four together. So people can't just say "he copied the entire thing" etc. You have to weigh all of them against each other. Again, I'm not saying he'd win in a case, only that their was enough grey area that he probably didn't know he was doing something wrong.
Stroll on over and visit Gawd
March 1, 2007
Every day I read a dozen and a half WebComics. All of them fabulous works of art. Never in my mind have I thought about printing my own book of their work, mostly because it is their work. I have digitally shared a few of their comics with friends around the office, and even had a few printed out and hanging around my desk, but this is ridiculous. It is beyond any decency that this was done. There are 2 faults here. 1. Yours for asking for it to be printed without permission 2. LuLu's for printing it without making sure you had permission.
Whether it was for personal use or some far fetched educational use I think the best thing you could do at this point is pop that little book in the mail to H&A with an apology letter. At that point I suggest H&A sue LuLu's and not you, since they probably won't get much out of you any way.
Stroll on over and visit Chris J. Davis
March 1, 2007
Hey everyone again!
To respond to some of the more lucid commenters, I have already tried to get some sort of response from Hawk and Ananth as to what they would like to me to do with the one-off I have. I have offered to mail it to them, destroy it or send them a donation/payment for it.
I have yet to hear anything from them. I think this has been blown out of proportion, given a number of factors, and just would like to deal with it and get on with our lives.
I am waiting a response from them. I will let you know what happens.