A quick question

I don't know about the legalities of it, but agent Janet Reid had some great thoughts on this on her blog a couple of weeks ago. I recommend reading it--and reading her blog as a rule.

http://jetreidliterary.blogspot.com/2014/07/query-no-confetti-no-cake-and-no-bound.html

You would be publishing the book. While it's not the worse deal-breaker, it does create problems with the publisher--not the agency--and how salable your book is to them. I've heard some publishers wouldn't deal with books that were previously published.

JephC said:

I've just finished my second novel, and am in the process of submitting queries to agencies. I was thinking about creating a "published" copy of the story on my own, using www.lulu.com, just so I can have a copy, and possibly give one to a friend or two for fun.

My question is this: Because Lulu puts an ISBN number on books created through them, would that complicate matters as far as submitting to agencies? I was hoping to make 10 copies...a couple for my classroom, one for home, one or two for family, etc., and then taking it off. I believe there is also an option to not have an ISBN number assigned to it.

Thoughts?

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I know you're excited to be finished... and congratulations on that... but don't put the cart before the horse.

If you intend to publish this book, don't pre-publish it for any reason. Yes, you have to be patient and wait for a contract, but the payoff of having a complete and finished work edited and distributed by professionals is worth the wait.

What if you make massive changes at the request of an editor? How to you explain to family/students that the other book was the sort-of book and the new book is the "real" book? I can't see any reason to pass around a bound, unpublished manuscript other than hubris.

If you absolutely must have it in print RIGHT NOW, go to Kinko's and have them bind one copy that you keep under your pillow.

You wouldn't be "pre-publishing" it if you had copies printed and gave it out to your friends, you'd be publishing it. And that would mean that a subset of agents and publishers wouldn't be interested in it, because it had already been published.

Print off a few copies and share them with your friends, by all means. But don't put it up on Lulu or anywhere else if you're hoping to find trade publication.

I suggest CreateSpace rather than Lulu. Much easier to set up & approval copies totally free except for basic cost & postage, $8:54 for my latest book. Also, until you approve your book for publication, it is not published in any way that agents or editors can detect by doing a web search.

I did this for my latest book just to get a printed copy for a final edit. I catch errors in that format that I don't catch other ways. Seeing it as the readers will see it gives me a different perspective.

I did print out two extra copies for two friends, published authors both, to look at. One just skimmed & skipped but had two good plot-improvement suggestions, which I'm now applying. The other read only the first tenth but red-penciled something every few pages, which gave me good ideas on how to sharpen & enrich my style.

Get away from Lulu...

I had a book of my mother's poetry printed through Lulu about a year ago. No ISBN, just one copy to give to her as a gift. It's not published.

Putting a couple in your classroom, a couple to friends, etc. seems a lot more published to me. It's distributed, albeit on a tiny scale.

JephC said:

Hello again!

Just an update: I've noticed I can create the book on Lulu with no ISBN. Would this still be considered a self-published book?

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You asked this question elsewhere, JephC. Please don't duplicate your posts like this. Just once is enough.

Motley said:

I had a book of my mother's poetry printed through Lulu about a year ago. No ISBN, just one copy to give to her as a gift. It's not published.

Putting a couple in your classroom, a couple to friends, etc. seems a lot more published to me. It's distributed, albeit on a tiny scale.

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As I said to JephC in the other thread, a book can still be published if it has no ISBN.

On Lulu you get the option to make your book public or not, I think (or at least, you did the last time I used it). If you make it public it's published, whether or not you added an ISBN to it.

I was checking out Lulu just this week. Yes, they still give you the option of making your project private.