The mistake I made with "Summer Breaks"

When I published my novel, I took the easy, short-sighted approach.  That is, I published the book.  There is nothing wrong with that in and of itself.  If you are a writer looking to publish something just to have it published, then taking the path of least involvement is perfectly fine.  For Lulu.com, that route is the "Marketplace" one.  You get a serial number on your book, and you get to do all your own promotion and distribution.  There is nothing wrong with that.

In fact, that is the route I one I chose for my first collection of short stories (always assuming there will be more of those).  My main goal was "to be a published author."  When I wrote "Summer Breaks," my initial intention was to just put it out there.  That quickly grew into a desire for more. I created various ePub formats and found a variety of distribution channels for the electronic version.  That, in turn, led to Kindle-specific versions and going through the iBookstore steps via Lulu.com.

When I published "Summer Breaks" initially, I took the same route as I had with "All This Digging."  And now, I realize I am bit by the bug.  The distribution bug, that is.  So, now I have to fix this in two ways.  First, I have to create a new project and select "Lulu-created ISBN" (I'll explain in a minute) and then I have to change my novel's format from its current "Digest" format to "US Trade, 6x9" format to fulfill the requirements of that distribution package.

My suggestion?  If you are going to self-publish, START with that site's ISBN offering and work from there.  Even if you only expect your family and friends to be the primary buyers, it'll provide a wider audience for your work.

Now, let's talk about getting your own ISBN versus the on-demand publisher's ISBN. You can pay a chunk of change and get an ISBN for your book and have it registered in your own name (or the name of a publishing company you make up, for that matter).  Many POD's also let you create an ISBN in THEIR name (usually for free).  What's the difference?  Well, I found a site that explains it better than I can, so here is more info (below) that basically says, "Get the free one from your POD and save your money!"  That's what I'm talking about!

BookLocker Guide to POD and ISBN: http://publishing.booklocker.com/2007/07/20/whats-owning-your-own-isbn-good-for-absolutely-nothing/

Now... off to create a new version of my novel *with* an ISBN...