If you’ve self-published a book on Lulu.com or another print-on-demand publication web site, you’re familiar with how the process works. If you’re new to writing a book, and you’re thinking of submitting your manuscript to a traditional publisher, consider using a print-on-demand service. I just published my book on Lulu last week. I had nothing but a Microsoft Word document on Friday night. On Sunday night, the layout was complete and stored in Lulu’s system. On Thursday afternoon, a printed and bound copy of my book was sitting on my doorstep.

Another thing I’ve noticed: for some reason, there were a number of typographical errors I didn’t see when I was going through the electronic document. I would have sworn up and down that I’d caught every single one. There were sections that I’d read more than four times. I looked right at the same typo repeatedly without seeing it. But once I had the book in print, the mistakes jumped right off the page at me. I can’t explain why this happens the way it does. But the point is that printing a proof copy is a good thing. Now, I can just fix the errors in my Word document and re-submit the manuscript. A customer who orders my book from the same URL will now receive a corrected version, with no delays. However, if you publish your book at a retailer like Amazon.com, there’s a longer process involved with making changes. I’m just talking about selling my book directly from the Lulu store front.

Print-on-demand is a lot easier than I thought it would be. Give it a try!