Writer's Fallout Shelter

You didn't ask me, but when has that ever stopped me from answering a question?

1) My experience with Lulu started as an experiment. Given that anything posted here and open to the public is technically considered "previously published," and given that I had on hand a novel with no clearly definable market (but that had been well-received by all the readers who'd finished it and commented on it), I used that to see how the process flowed. It was an enjoyable experience from start to finish.

2) My next books with Lulu were collections of poetry and short stories (notoriously hard sells). Several were award-winners, and I kind of figured the prize monies earned already exceeded any reasonable expectation of financial gain, unless I self-published. Bottom line: Why not?

3) My last book was a collaborative effort - again, a collection of short stories by Vivian and me. Again, it's hard to sell an anthology of short stories to a publisher, so we chose to use Lulu. (Given that Lulu does not yet have a method for royalty-splitting in place, I'd suggest doing this only with someone you trust.)

I would not use self-publishing simply because I was desperate to see my work in print. I would also not use it expecting to make tons of money unless I was fully prepared to promote the heck out of it, all by myself. Marketing is not my strong suit, so unless I had a book that was almost a guaranteed seller in a tight niche market (most likely some sort of technical non-fiction), I wouldn't self-publish just because I could cut out the middleman and keep all the profits. (If I had such a book, I'd also consider self-publishing by working directly with the printer, to avoid even Lulu's cut.)

Like I said earlier, there's nothing in self-publishing to prevent one from making a complete ass of oneself in public. At least with a publisher, you get sort of an objective idea of the marketability of your work. You MAY get an indication of why it's not marketable, if it's rejected, and you can attempt to remedy that. (Caveat: Many bestselling novels received more than 10 rejections prior to being picked up and published, so don't let a handful of rejections discourage you!) You get distribution channels you're not set up to get on your own, and you get some help in promoting and selling your book.