How I did it: I wrote short stories and nonsense poetry in a blog when I was younger. People told me that I should publish it, but I didn't know how. One day a friend of mine directed me to lulu.com.

This book I made recently, my first book, is really just something I made in the mean time while working on something else. I don't know how long it took me to write the stories, but it took about a week to figure out my publishing program, stick everything together, and then figure out how to get it all done on lulu.com.

Lessons & tips: If you are planning to use a publishing program such as MS Publisher, it may not let you embed common fonts, such as Times. Everyone has Times, and normally you would not need to embed a font like this! However, lulu will insist that you embed your fonts. You may have to pick a similar font that is not as common, so that the program will allow you to embed it, and then lulu will let you upload your document.

If you are publishing something with a lot of blocks of text, like a novel, you probably already know to use a serif font. Something like a cookbook, entertainment, or photography book may look better in a sans-serif.

Resources: lulu.com, MS publisher, and of course 43T.com. :)

Jan 30, 2009, 10:56AM PST | 3 comments | 8 cheers