Sep

20

Create Space from Amazon Wants LuLu’s Business

Filed Under Business Ideas, Resources, Principles, etc.

Well, I always knew they would and they’ve finally done it. Amazon has really stepped up to duplicate our friends at Lulu – it’s called Create Space and they’re going head to head. I created an account and it felt like I was on LuLu.com with different colors. DVDs, CDs, books and near identical offerings as LuLu.

Unlike LuLu, they’re even offering the ISBN numbers and submission services for free.

SelfPublishing.com has a good article analyzing the move. The article is focused on Author House buying iUniverse, but that news isn’t nearly as interesting as his discussion on Amazon’s move. Author House is just the link between the old world and the new, and, as far as I can see, their subsidy publishing business model has a limited shelf-life and reach. The do-it-yourself model will overshadow subsidy publishing as tools become better and the authors more technically savvy. I’m interested in seeing how Lulu approaches this new challenge coming from Amazon.

The weakness I see in the Create Space site is the lack of community tools for content creators to help each other. This is one of LuLu’s strengths. I suspect that Amazon considers the showcase a traffic driver to the website and that the rest of the community will be built around their books in their Amazon.com store. Still, there is a need for the community to help in the creation process when it’s expected to be do-it-yourself. That or the company needs to charge for doing the service like Author House does.

Amazon, generally, does well with their products…it’ll be fun to see how this self publishing space plays out.


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2 Comments so far

  1. Bill Byrne on April 22, 2008 5:01 am

    I just joined Amazon Advantage program and I gather historically, the Advantage member would deliver books to Amazon for selling. In enters booksurge(now owned by Amazon) and rumor has it that one must now have their books printed by Booksurge for resale on
    Amazon Advantage program.

    I am confused as to where Amazon’s Creata Space.com fits into this picture

  2. Will on June 7, 2009 5:10 am

    Solid article. Solid writing.

    Thanks for helping me with my research into Lulu.