Textual Thoughts

Thanks to the internet, virtual self publishing or personal publishing via open source CMS and blogging software such as “Textpattern”:http://www.textpattern.com is now affordable to the masses. To get started with self publishing on the internet simply register for a free hosted account at “Blogger”:http://www.blogger.com or “WordPress.com”:http://www.wordpress.com.

While we can safely say that the internet has brought personal publishing within the reach of the general public, the same cannot be said for traditional publishing on paper based media. For most people who wish to publish content in book form, the dream remains very much out of their reach.

However “Lulu”:http://www.lulu.com intends to change all these by bringing really affordable self publishing to the masses. Through the help of software technology and the internet, Lulu is able to lower the costs of self publishing by providing the user with powerful software tools to publish and “sell books online”:http://www.lulu.com/browse/top100.php . The books are “printed on demand”:http://www.lulu.com/about/whatislulu.php , ie each book is physically printed and shipped only when a sales order is transacted.

Lulu, via its “Services Marketplace”:http://www.lulu.com/services , also becomes the focal point for providers and consumers of publishing services to meet and transact.

It is very easy to get started. Just “sign up”:http://www.lulu.com/register.php for a free account and you are pretty much on your way to having your thoughts published on paper.

Just a note of interest here. One of the founders of Lulu is Robert Young, who is also the co-founder of “Redhat Linux”:http://www.redhat.com together with Mark Ewing.