Thing #19: Web 2.0 Tools

The Web 2.0 1st place Books’ award went to Lulu, which offers, “tools and services to make publishing simple and the most options to sell your books” (Lulu homepage). I remember looking into publishing about four or five years ago, and I was not aware of this tool back then. Lulu even offers tools to help one publish books, photo books, calendars, CDs, DVDs, eBooks, Cookbooks, and Poetry Books. In regards to Libraries and schools, I noticed there’s a program (bottom left corner of homepage) called, “Aspiring Authors – register your class and each child that completes a book will receive their first printed copy for free.” How’s that for writing motivation?!? I would have loved to have this as an option when I was in school. Actually, I would still take advantage of such an opportunity, were it offered, as an adult. Further investigation notes that Aspiring Authors is intended for students in grades K-8. An informational flyer can be downloaded and printed from Aspiring Authors link. An additional perk regarding the distribution process is that your school can set the amount of revenue collected from each book sold, turning this into a fundraising tool for your campus.