Do you ever lose sonbooks?

[alanross]

I prepared my songbooks by using Hoster's Songbook program, then formatting them in WordPerfect (Microsoft's Word will work too) so that each artist's name appears at the top of each column. Once I had the WordPerfect document formatted exactly as I wanted it, I converted it into .pdf format with a nifty little program I found on-line called PrimoPDF. and then I uploaded the .pdf file to the Lulu web site.

The cover art for the front and back covers, I created in a graphics program (Print Artist) then I converted that art into .jpg format and uploaded it to the Lulu web site. If you follow the steps on the web site, all you really have to do is upload those files and set a price.

Although, Lulu's retail price generator recommended a price of $35.00 for my books, I knew they wouldn't sell at that, so I set the price to $17.99 and I think that's fair.

Lulu only produces books to order, so you can build a book and do nothing with it or make it available for sale and see what happens. It costs nothing to set it up and Lulu only makes a commission on each book sold, so what's the harm? I believe this could be the new wave in Karaoke. I like being a trailblazer.

- Alan

NOTE: One word of warning, however you format your book is exactly what it will look like finished. In other words, any errors you make, will be transferred to your finished project. Double check your .pdf file before uploading it or your errors will appear in your final books.

[ddouglass]

Alan, I love the front cover!

So, if you sell a book do you make anything off of it or does Lulu get the difference between cost and sale price?

[alanross]

I make about $6.50/book and Lulu makes about $1.74.

Did you check out the preview to see how the interior was formatted?

[swany]

I lost and presumed 3 books in a lot of years were stolen, one by one they found their way back. The big book, anything over a 1 inch binder is overkill. Cull your books down, increase the font size, and have people look less and sing more. I've done this at my last printing. I culled from over 9000 to 5400 and life is good. We do not need White Christmas or Jingle bells in our books 50 weeks of the year. If you live in an area like I do, it's rare to find someone in a bar that sings Tony Bennett, or Barry Manilow and a whole bunch more I can think of, the most popular I do keep. I'll give you a for instance I used to have 36 Bette Midler, 3 of them is sang once in a while they are still in my books. Sinatra, 125 then 3 now. I still have a master book I carry when job hunting and I do need a 3.5 inch binder. My gig binders are one inch, and I get compliments on not having to write down numbers and how easy it is to find stuff. Sometimes less is more.

Golf pencils, good part is I do a lot of bars with the Michigan Lotto, with drawings every five minutes, they use golf pencils so I have a lot of different colored lotto pencils they have a bunch of yellow plain ones.

Used to have business cards in my book, now I have my e-mail and phone number and business logo on the KJ slips, didn't like to see my cards being used for slips. Lot of folks when contracting me for a wedding or party got my number from a friend via KJ slip.