| Lulu Press, Inc. | |
| Type: | Privately held company |
| Industry: | Publishing |
| Genre: | Self-publishing |
| Founder: | Bob Young |
| Location City: | Morrisville, North Carolina |
| Location Country: | United States |
| Key People: | Kathy Hensgen (CEO) |
| Products: | Books, e-books, photo-books, calendars |
| Services: | Print on demand and e-book publishing |
Lulu Press, Inc., doing business under trade name Lulu, is an online print-on-demand, self-publishing, and distribution platform. By 2014, it had issued approximately two million titles.[1]
The company's founder is Red Hat co-founder Bob Young; he also was CEO for many years.[2], the company’s 20th anniversary, Young had handed CEO duties to Kathy Hensgen.[3] The company's headquarters are in Morrisville, North Carolina.
In 2009, Lulu began publishing and distributing ebooks. Lulu also prints and publishes calendars and photo books. In 2017, Lulu introduced an Open Access print-on-demand service.[4]
The author of a title receives an 80% royalty for print books and a 90% royalty for eBooks when sold.[5]
In January 2014, Lulu announced that it had acquired Durham (NC)-based sports photography company Replay Photos.[6] Replay Photos sells licensed images of collegiate and professional sports teams as photographic prints, custom framed photos, photos on canvas, and original wall art.[7]
Lulu's final phase for their Digital Rights Management (DRM) Retirement project was released July 2, 2013. Prior to January 15, 2013, a Lulu author could choose to apply Digital Rights Management (DRM) protection to their PDF or EPUB.
In 2014, Lulu launched Lulu Jr., which enables children to become published authors.[8] Lulu Jr. products include My Comic Book and IlluStory.[9]
The Lulu Blooker Prize was a literary award for "blooks" (books based on blogs).[10] It was awarded in 2006 and 2007 and sponsored by Lulu. An overall prize was awarded, based on the winners of three subsidiary categories: non-fiction, fiction, and comics. The Lulu Blooker Prize was open to any "blook" that had been published "to date" (i.e., by the entry deadline) by any publisher.
The first competition saw 89 entries from over a dozen countries. A panel of three judges decided the winners: Cory Doctorow, Chair of Judges; Paul Jones; and Robin "Roblimo" Miller.[11]
The 2007 competition had 110 entries from 15 countries. The number of judges was increased to five: Paul Jones (chair), Arianna Huffington, Julie Powell (2006 overall winner), Rohit Gupta, and Nick Cohen.[12]